Archaeologists have discovered a well-preserved fragment of a wooden water supply system on the site of the former Swedish city of Nyena in the Cape Okhtinsky area in St. Petersburg. Petersburg. This was reported by the press service of the city water supply company.
“This season, archaeologists have been working at Cape Okhta on the territory of the ancient Swedish city of Nyen. And they have made a discovery that takes us back to the beginning of the 17th century: 80 meters of perfectly preserved wooden water pipes were discovered, made with surprisingly advanced technology for the time. Archaeologists determined that these communication pipes were part of Nyen's unique drainage system,” reports know.
This week, part of the discovery was delivered to the “Water Universe” exhibition center of the St. Petersburg. Now museum experts are drying and processing ancient communications.
“Wood must be preserved so that after four centuries it can begin to live again, this time as an exhibit in the museum and take its rightful place in the exhibition,” the press service noted.
The ancient technology of making water pipes involved craftsmen taking solid tree trunks, splitting them, hollowing out the core, and then connecting the parts together. To prevent water from seeping through, the pipes are covered with birch bark, a naturally waterproof material. Thanks to the dense layer of soil, the wooden pipes lay underground for more than 400 years.
History of settlement on the territory of St. Modern Petersburg on the banks of the Okhta and Neva rivers has been around for more than 7,000 years. Around 1300, the Swedish fortress of Landskrona appeared here, which was later captured by the army of the Novgorod Republic. Later, the Russians built the Nevskoe Ustye settlement here, but during the Russian-Swedish war, these lands and their inhabitants belonged to the Swedish crown. In the 17th century, the Swedish city of Nyen and the fortress of Nyenschanz were formed in this place. Nyen and Nyenschanz themselves were captured by Emperor Peter I in 1703, and instead St. Petersburg was founded on the banks of the Neva River.
