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New Vistas on the Distant Past

Early transport: floating along

Those early peoples with a diet heavy in fish, including open water species, must have mastered the art of boat-building.^{1S. O'Connor, R. Ono and C. Clarkson, Pelagic fishing at 42,000 years before the present and the maritime skills of modern humans, Science, vol. 334, no. 6059 (25 November 2011), pp. 1117-1121.} A floating tree-truck probably suggested to many an early traveller a way to cross water. Sitting astride a log was precarious though. They tend to roll the rider off. But several roped together make a raft. Bamboo rafts may have been used by the first people to reach Australia, about 50,000 years ago. The sea level was much lower during global ice ages, narrowing the gap between South-East Asia and the ancient continent of Sahul, encompasssing New Guinea, Australia and Tasmania. Even so early adventurers would need to island-hop across the sea to reach the distant shore of Sahul.^{2G. Hudjashov et al., Revealing the prehistoric settlement of Australia by Y chromosome and mtDNA analysis, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, vol. 104, no. 21 (May 22, 2007), pp. 8726-8730; M. Rasmussen et al., An Aboriginal Australian genome reveals separate human dispersals into Asia, Science, published online September 22 2011 .}

A simple boat could be made from a hollowed-out log. Controlled burning could be used to reduce the labour of hollowing out. Wood decays unless preserved by anaerobic conditions such as bogs or deep water, yet hundreds of these dugout canoes have been found. Most are comparatively recent, since such boats continued to be built well into the historic period. A notable exception is the logboat found at Pesse in the Netherlands, radio-carbon-dated to about 8,000 BC - the oldest boat so far found in the world.^{3S. McGrail, Boats of the World: From the Stone Age to Medieval Times (2004), pp. 172-3, 279-81; for the most recent dating of the Pesse boat see http://www.bootvanpesse.nl and http://www.drentsmuseum.nl.} Great lakes encouraged boat-building. The earliest images of boats are among Mesolithic petroglyphs at Gobustan on the coast of the Caspian, classed either as a sea or the world's largest lake.^{4Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape WorldHeritage Site Nomination Document (2006); E. Anati, GobustanAzerbaijan (2001).} The oldest dugout canoe in Africa was found at Dufuna, in North-East Nigeria, far from the sea, but close to the once much larger Lake Chad. It has been dated to c. 6000 BC. It is more elegant in form than the Pesse boat. The sides are thin and the bow and stern worked to points, which would make the boat lighter to carry and speedier across water. This suggests a tradition of boat-building, increasing in sophistication, before the Dafuna boat was made. ^{5P. Breunig, The 8000-year-old dugout canoe from Dufuna (NE Nigeria), in: G. Pwiti and R. Soper (eds.), Aspects of African Archaeology: Papers from the 10th Congress of the PanAfrican Association for Prehistory and Related Studies (University of Zimbabwe Publications 1996), pp. 461-468. A boat nearly as old at c.5700 BC has been found at a Neolithic site in Korea: G. Park et al., Dating the Bibong-ri Neolithic site in Korea: Excavating the oldest ancient boat, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B, vol. 268 (2010), pp. 1003–1007.}

Reeds will float if a stem is broken off. Ingenious thinkers would see the potential for bundling these together to make a raft, from which more complex reed boats evolved. In Ancient Egypt, where papyrus grew thickly in the Nile Delta and up to 2–3 meters (5–9 ft) tall, river boats were made from it. They are depicted in paintings and models found in the tombs of the wealthy. But the earliest depiction yet found of a Nile boat is painted on a pebble dating to the early seventh millennium BC. This is about 3000 years earlier than Nile navigation was previously thought to begin.^{6D. Usai and S. Salvatori, The oldest representation of a Nile boat, Antiquity, vol. 81, no. 314 (December 2007).}

Plank-built boats

The fine woodwork required for plank construction was probably made possible by copper tools. Egypt had little timber. The pulpy centre of palm trees made them unsuitable for boat building. Acacia is too low-growing to be ideal for cutting into planks. However the Egyptians managed to make river boats out of it by pinning short planks together, as Herodotus describes.^{7Herodotus, The Histories, 2.96.} The earliest remains of plank-built boats were found buried at Abydos. Dating to the early first dynasty (2950-2775 BC), they survived thanks to the Egyptian preoccupation with providing their deceased rulers with all they might need in the afterlife. They were not models, but full-sized vessels between 60 and 80 feet long, built from planks of the local tamarisk, sewn together. Other full-size boats have been found associated with pyramids. The best known is the remarkably preserved solar barge of Khufu, dating from c. 2,600 BC. It was found dismantled in a stone-lined, air-tight pit beside the Great Pyramid of Giza. Made of stitched cedar planks, it was complete with oars and cabin. Cedar was imported from Byblos in present-day Lebanon. Painstakingly reassembled, it is on display (right) in The Solar Boat Museum at Giza.^{8Seán McGrail, Boats of the World from the Stone Age to Medieval Times (2004), pp. 23-6, 36; F. M. Hocker and C. A. Ward, The Philosophy of Shipbuilding: conceptual approaches to the study of wooden ships (2004), p. 15.}

Coracles

Nomads who had devised skin tents could adapt that principle to create the coracle or currach, made of skins stretched across a framework. Round or oval in shape, it is more unwieldy in the water than a dugout canoe, but lighter to carry. They have a long history in the British Isles. Julius Caesar saw such craft there and made use of the idea in his Spanish campaign of 49 BC. Faced with opposing Lusitanian infantry who carried inflatable bladders for river-crossing, while his own troops were hampered by the lack of bridges, he ordered the construction of lightweight craft similar to those he had seen in Britain. The keels and ribs were made of light timber, then the rest of the hulk of the ships was wrought with wicker work, and covered over with hides. It is unclear whether the keel was his own addition to the basic design, or whether a British type had a keel, similar to a kayak.^{9Cæsar’s Commentaries on the Gallic and Civil Wars, trans. W. A. McDevitt (1841), book I, chapters 48, 54.}

The mountain-dwellers of northern Iberia also used hide boats prior to their conquest by the Romans in 136 BC.^{10Strabo, Geography trans. H. L. Jones, 8 vols. (1917-1932), book 3, chapter 3, section 3.} We can trace such boats even further back, thanks to the Greek historian Herodotus, who describes their versatile use around 440 BC to transfer cargo down the Euphrates:

Their boats, those I mean which go down the river to Babylon, are round and all of leather: for they make ribs for them of willow which they cut in the land of the Armenians who dwell above the Assyrians, and round these they stretch hides which serve as a covering outside by way of hull, not making broad the stern nor gathering in the prow to a point, but making the boats round like a shield: and after that they stow the whole boat with straw and suffer it to be carried down the stream full of cargo; and for the most part these boats bring down casks of palm-wood filled with wine. The boat is kept straight by two steering- oars and two men standing upright, and the man inside pulls his oar while the man outside pushes. These vessels are made both of very large size and also smaller, the largest of them having a burden of as much as five thousand talents' weight; and in each one there is a live ass, and in those of larger size several. So when they have arrived at Babylon in their voyage and have disposed of their cargo, they sell by auction the ribs of the boat and all the straw, but they pack the hides upon their asses and drive them off to Armenia: for up the stream of the river it is not possible by any means to sail, owing to the swiftness of the current; and for this reason they make their boats not of timber but of hides. Then when they have come back to the land of the Armenians, driving their asses with them, they make other boats in the same manner.^{11The History of Herodotus, tr. G. C. Macaulay (1890), book 1, section 194.}

Out to sea

Coastal trips might be managed in a light craft. Venturing out into the open seas is a bolder enterprise. It requires not only seaworthy craft, but some means of navigation beyond sight of land. Until recently it was thought that our seafaring ancestors hugged the coastline until the Neolithic period. The colonisation of Cyprus c. 9000 BC shows that early farmers could move themselves and their stock across the sea. But earlier people were not thought capable of long-distance seafaring. Great was the surprise therefore when two earlier campsites were discovered on the coast of Cyprus. Flints thought to be a millennium older than the first permanent settlements in the island were found there. This suggests that people in small boats from the Levant and Anatolia paid seasonal visits to the island before settlers arrived. These were daring voyages of at least 50 miles.^{12B. Knapp, Cyprus’s Earliest Prehistory: Seafarers, Foragers and Settlers, Journal of World Prehistory, vol. 23, no. 2 (2010), pp. 79-120.}

It was also a puzzle to find in Mesolithic contexts tools made of obsidian from the Island of Melos. The possibility that these were actually Neolithic artefacts which had intruded into lower layers has now been ruled out by direct dating. The sea route through Attica to obtain this volcanic glass would have included crossings of about 15-20 km between islands.^{13N. Laskaris et al., Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene seafaring in the Aegean: new obsidian hydration dates with the SIMS-SS method, Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 38, no. 9 (September 2011), pp. 2475-2479.}

Early farmers ventured further than Cyprus by sea. They colonised Crete. It is now thought that most of their colonies along the Mediterranean coast were planted by seafarers. On Andros Island in the Cyclades depictions of seagoing craft (c. 3520 BC) were scratched into rock. These graffiti seem to show high-prowed rowing boats, like those in the Minoan fresco on Santorini. The ones on Andros have been dated by luminescence.^{14Ioannis Liritzis, Strofilas (Andros Island, Greece): new evidence for the cycladic final neolithic period through novel dating methodsusing luminescence and obsidian hydration, Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 37 (2010), pp. 1367–1377.}

Farming arrived late - about 4000 BC - in the British Isles and Scandinavia. Even so we have no solid evidence of the type of boat first used to transport people and stock across the northern waters. Possibly it was similar to the earliest surviving seagoing boat. The Dover Bronze Age Boat was built around 1550 BC. It was made from two flat bottom-planks, four side-planks and two end-planks, all carved from three very large oak trees. The pieces were stitched together with withies of yew, and the joints waterproofed with moss. A boat of this size would have been capable of carrying supplies, livestock and passengers. It is thought that it was propelled by paddles, rather than oars or a sail. Its construction is similar to that of the Ferriby Bronze Age river boats found on the banks of the River Humber, East Yorkshire, England.

Navigation

Out of sight of land, mariners could roughly gauge their direction by the position of the sun. Under the perennially cloudy skies of northern latitudes, that could present problems, to which it seems the Vikings found an answer. Transparent Iceland spar could be used as a navigational aid. The crystal can depolarize light, allowing the navigator to deduce the direction of the sun even under cloudy skies. The sun-stone (solstenen) is mentioned in Viking sagas.^{15G. Ropars et al., A depolarizer as a possible precise sunstone for Viking navigation by polarized skylight, Proceedings of the Royal Society A, Published online before print November 2, 2011; Leif K. Karlsen, Secrets of the Viking Navigators (2003).}

Steering by the stars is more complex, but offers greater possibilities. We know that seafarers had developed such techniques by the time of the Ancient Greeks, for celestial navigation is mentioned by several authors of the time. Hipparchus of Rhodes (190 BC-120 BC) catalogued the stars' positions in a scientific way. An astronomical computer was found on a Greek ship which sank off Antikythera around 76 BC. This extraordinary discovery is now being reconsidered by the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project.^{16T. Freeth et al, Calendars with Olympiad display and eclipse prediction on the Antikythera Mechanism, Nature vol. 454 (July 2008), pp. 614-617. The existence of the Nebra sky disk suggests some astronomical knowledge in Europe as far back as the Bronze Age.}

Under sail

The Nile was the principal artery of the riverine civilization of Ancient Egypt. The current aided travel downriver, while the prevailing wind was from the north, which no doubt encouraged the development of sails to ease the journey upriver. Early hieroglyphics showed a boat with sail to mean going south, and a boat without sail to indicate northward travel. With a fixed sail and little or no tacking ability, seagoing sailing ships would have to make use of prevailing winds. There are depictions of sailing ships on seals from Minoan Crete and the Persian Gulf around 2000 BC, but the triangular lateen sails which give greater manoeuverability do not appear in images until the 2nd century AD.^{17S. McGrail, Boats of the World: From the Stone Age to Medieval Times (2004), pp. 16, 61, 75, 112.} The fixed sail sufficed for the Egyptians to reach Punt via the Red Sea, returning with gold and ivory. A shipyard from the reign of Amenemhet III (1847-1799 BC) has been discovered at Wadi Gawasis, near the modern city of Port Safaga on the Red Sea. Within it were the remains of ships and equipment. The earliest complete sailing shipwreck though is the Uluburun, found off Turkey. This ship was built about 1400 BC and seems to have been carrying copper out of Cyprus.

Roman war galleys relied on both sail and banks of oarsmen. The Museum of Ancient Shipping in Mainz displays two full-size replicas of such ships, based on discoveries from the former Roman harbor there. Merchant ships were less sleek; their broader beam accommodated more cargo.

As we have seen, the Bronze-Age Celts had developed boats built of planks stitched edge to edge. From this basic concept it seems that the carvel type of ship design evolved, with flat bottoms held together by substantial floors. Caesar described the sturdy ships used by the Celtic tribe called the Veneti of what is now Brittany. Their many ships controlled trade with Britain. Caesar mentioned that their keels were somewhat flatter than those of Roman ships and so more easily negotiated shallow waters. They were strongly built of oak and had tough sails of dressed hide, rather than canvas.^{18Cæsar’s Commentaries on the Gallic and Civil Wars, trans. W. A. McDevitt (1841), Gallic Wars book 3, sections 8 and 13.} By contrast clinker-built boats, constructed of overlapping planks, were developed by the Norse. The feared Viking longboats were built in this way, such as the ship from Gokstad displayed in the Viking Ship Museum. Descendants of such boats were used by Finns to reach church for Sunday service well into the 20th century.

Portage

Rivers remained transport arteries well into modern times. Today river barges can often move between rivers via man-made canals. Indeed key canals provide water access between seas. Before canals, light boats and/or cargo were carried between rivers or hauled across an isthmus to avoid a long sea route around a land mass. Andrew Sherratt provides online examples of portage.

Notes

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