The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World (114 page)

1.
   “And then with my eyes closed”: In Jenkins,
Boat Beneath the Pyramid
, 53.

2.
   “looked as hard”: In Lipke,
Royal Ship of Cheops
, 2.

3.
   The most important Egyptian towns: Wilkinson,
Early Dynastic Egypt
, 346–60.

4.
   “to sail southwards”: Montet,
Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt,
173, note.

5.
   “Balance of the Two Lands”: Wilkinson,
Early Dynastic Egypt
, 58.

6.
   The score of wooden hulls: Ward,
Sacred and Secular,
12. Egyptian ship remains from antiquity include fourteen hulls from Abydos, two from
Giza (one unexcavated), five or six from Dahshur (four on exhibit, in
Cairo, Pittsburgh, and Chicago), part of a fifth-century
BCE
hull from Mataria, near Cairo, and a collection of ship timbers from Lisht.

7.
   Larger reed rafts: Landström,
Ships of the Pharaohs,
41, 94–97.

8.
   A bipod mast: Hornell,
Water Transport,
46, 49; Johnstone,
Sea-craft of Prehistory,
10, 70.

9.
   The oldest rendering: Carter, “Boat-Related Finds,” 91. This ceramic disc shows a bipod mast but not a sail.

10.
   royal mortuary in Abydos: O’Connor, “Boat Graves and Pyramid Origins”; Pierce, “After 5,000-Year Voyage”; Ward, “World’s Oldest Planked Boats.”

11.
   The inherent flexibility: In the fourteenth century, Ibn Battuta wrote, “The Indian and Yemenite ships are sewn together with [cords], for that sea [the Red Sea] is full of reefs, and if a ship is nailed with iron nails it breaks up on striking the rocks, whereas if it is sewn together with cords, it is given a certain resilience and does not fall to pieces.”
Travels,
4:827.

12.
   The Khufu ship used: Ward,
Sacred and Secular,
140.

13.
   no caulking: Ibid., 124.

14.
   sewn hull of the
Sohar
: Severin,
Sinbad Voyage,
40: “Kunhikoya announced that I would need about fifteen hundred bundles of coconut string to build the ship I needed. I calculated the total length, and it came to four hundred miles! This seemed a colossal amount, but events proved Kunhikoya right.”

15.
   “I conducted the work”: In Breasted,
Ancient Records of Egypt,
vol. 1, §746 (p. 326).

16.
   The Nubians may have originated: Ward,
Sacred and Secular,
6.

17.
   One theory: Jenkins,
Boat Beneath the Pyramid;
Landström,
Ships of the Pharaohs
; and Lipke,
Royal Ship of Cheops
.

18.
   “the most beautiful in form”: In Simpson,
Literature of Ancient Egypt,
17.

19.
   “Bringing from the workshops”: In Landström,
Ships of the Pharaohs,
62.

20.
   two granite obelisks: Habachi, “Two Graffiti at Sehel,” 99. One inscription refers to “two great obelisks, their height 108 cubits” (57 meters), which would have weighed
2,400 tons each and required a barge 95 meters long by 32 meters wide, with a loaded displacement of 7,300 tons and a draft of 3 meters. For measurements of Hatshepsut’s barge, see Landström,
Ships of the Pharaohs,
129–30.

21.
   “the ships were able”: Pliny,
Natural History,
36.14 (vol. 10:29).

22.
   Colossi of Memnon:
Wehausen et al., “Colossi of Memnon and
Egyptian Barges.” The statues depict Amenhotpe III (1410–1372
BCE
) but later Greek visitors took them to represent Memnon, an Ethiopian king whom Achilles killed at
Troy. See Casson,
Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt,
141.

23.
   “the raft is carried”: Herodotus,
Histories,
2.96 (p. 119).

24.
   “the method of construction”: Ibid.

25.
   “a cargo-boat of acacia”:
In Landström,
Ships of the Pharaohs,
62. The Egyptians used two cubit measurements, one equal to 0.45 centimeters and the royal cubit of 0.525 meters; Wachsmann,
Seagoing Ships,
345n16.

26.
   “ships go out”: In Pritchard,
Ancient Near East,
1:259.

27.
   “forward-starboard”: Ward,
Sacred and Secular,
8–9.

28.
   “down to Egypt”: In Breasted,
Ancient Records of Egypt,
vol. 1, §322 (p. 148).

29.
   “If you descend”: “Tale of the Eloquent Peasant,” in Simpson,
Literature of Ancient Egypt,
25–44, esp. 33, 36. Ma’at was both the concept and goddess of universal order and justice.

30.
   “The bow-rope of the South”: In Breasted,
Ancient Records of Egypt,
vol. 2, §341 (p. 143).

31.
   ship of state:
See for instance, Sophocles,
Oedipus the King,
ll.27–30 (420
BCE
); Plato,
Republic,
6.488 (340
BCE
); Horace,
Odes,
1.14 (23
BCE
); Sebastian Brant,
Das Narranschiff
(Ship of Fools, 1494); and Whitman,
Leaves of Grass,
262–63: “O Captain! My Captain!” on the death of Abraham Lincoln (1865). Explaining his purpose in gathering traditional sailing ships for Operation Sail 1976 as a means of building international goodwill, maritime historian Frank O. Braynard wrote, “We are all seamen on the ship Earth.”

32.
   “only one warship”: In Breasted,
Ancient Records of Egypt,
vol. 1, §322 (p. 148).

33.
   “ivory, throw sticks”: In ibid., vol. 1, §353 (p. 161).

34.
   sea route between Buto and Byblos: Redford,
Egypt, Canaan, and Israel,
22.

35.
   “forty ships”: In Wachsmann,
Seagoing Ships,
9. The
Palermo Stone is a list of pharaohs and their activities from the predynastic period through the middle of the Fifth Dynasty.

36.
   Fifth Dynasty reliefs: Wachsmann,
Seagoing Ships,
12–18.

37.
   Crete and Egypt: Casson,
Ancient Mariners,
17–18; Wachsmann,
Seagoing Ships,
298.

38.
   “went forth from Coptos”: In Wachsmann,
Seagoing Ships,
238.

39.
   “laden with all the products”: “The Shipwrecked Sailor,” in Simpson,
Literature of Ancient Egypt,
52–53.

40.
   this voyage to Punt: Wachsmann,
Seagoing Ships,
18–29.

41.
   carvings of fish: El-Sayed, “Queen Hatshepsut’s Expedition.”

42.
   “the tent of the king’s-messenger”: In Breasted,
Ancient Records of Egypt,
vol. 2, §§260–65 (pp. 108–10).

43.
   how the Egyptians navigated: Hydrographer of the Navy,
Ocean Passages of the World,
89.

44.
   Murals at Avaris: Wachsmann,
Seagoing Ships,
298; Kuhrt,
Ancient Near East,
169.

45.
   “I have not left a plank”: In Pritchard,
Ancient Near East,
2:90–91.

46.
   the Barkal Stela: Hornung,
History of Ancient Egypt,
77, 90.

47.
   “The People of the Isles”: Casson,
Ancient Mariners,
17, 20.

1.
   Enki: Kramer and Maier,
Myths of Enki,
3.

2.
   Ennugi: Dalley,
Myths from Mesopotamia: Epic of Gilgamesh,
tablet XI, p. 110.

3.
   The oldest evidence for ships with masts: Carter, “Boat-Related Finds,” 89–91.

4.
   
quffa
: Agius,
Classic Ships of Islam,
129–32; Hornell,
Water Transport,
101–8.

5.
   fragments of bitumen: Carter, “Boat-Related Finds,” 91–99.

6.
   Epic of Gilgamesh: West,
East Face of Helicon,
402–17.

7.
   “Then Gilgamesh stripped”: Ferry,
Gilgamesh,
62.

8.
   “How long does a building stand”: Ibid., 64.

9.
   “had ships of Dilmun”: In Potts,
Arabian Gulf in Antiquity,
1:88.

10.
   “Ships from Meluhha”: In ibid., 1:183.

11.
   “My mother, the
entum
”: In Kuhrt,
Ancient Near East,
48.

12.
   “from the Lower Sea”: In Gadd, “Dynasty of Agade,” 421.

13.
   a village of Meluhhans: Potts,
Arabian Gulf in Antiquity,
1:165–67.

14.
   ancient port of Lothal:
Deloche, “Geographical Considerations,” 320; Ghosh,
Encyclopedia of Indian Archaeology,
1:297, 2:257–60. The prevailing alternative view is that the basin served as a reservoir for potable water or irrigation, a theory more in keeping with historic and current practice, although this identification is also problematic. See Leshnik, “Harappan ‘Port’ at Lothal,” which goes too far in writing that “Lothal’s identification as an international emporium” depends on the identification of the basin as a dock.

15.
   “dock of Akkad”:
Potts, “Watercraft,” 135. The Akkadian word for a quay or wharf,
karum,
eventually referred to the commercial quarter of a town or to any association of merchants seeking collective security in alien lands. See Kuhrt,
Ancient Near East,
92.

16.
   the Ras al-Jinz finds: Cleuziou and Tosi, “Black Boats of Magan,” 750–52; Vosmer, “Ships in the Ancient Arabian Sea,” 236, and personal communication, Sept. 23, 2005.

17.
   “asphalt for the coating”: In Cleuziou and Tosi, “Black Boats of Magan,” 747.

18.
   “Magan Boat”:
The dimensions are 13 meters length overall, 11.1 meters length at the waterline, 3.9 meters maximum beam, and 10.5 tons displacement. The sail was 45 square meters. Ancient and ethnographic evidence indicate that the ancient shipwrights would have mixed various materials into their bitumen depending on its use. See Vosmer, “Magan Boat Project,” 51, 53.

19.
   capacity of about thirty
gur
: Vosmer, “Building the Reed-Boat Prototype,” 235.

20.
   Lu-Enlilla: Potts,
Arabian Gulf in Antiquity,
1:145; Oppenheim, “Seafaring Merchants of Ur,” 13.

21.
   interest rates: Van de Mieroop,
Ancient Mesopotamian City
, 197–98.

22.
   a vessel proceeding downstream: Potts,
Mesopotamian Civilization,
133.

23.
   “12 minas of refined copper”: In Potts,
Arabian Gulf in Antiquity,
1:226.

24.
   “Minos, according to tradition”: Thucydides,
Peloponnesian War,
1.4 (p. 37).

25.
   Neolithic migrants: Liritzis, “Seafaring, Craft and Cultural Contact in the Aegean,” 237–43; but see Wiener, “Isles of Crete? The Minoan Thalassocracy Revisited.”

26.
   archives at Mari: Wachsmann,
Seagoing Ships,
83.

27.
   wall paintings: Doumas,
Wall-paintings of Thera;
Sherratt,
Wall Paintings of Thera
. Wachsmann,
Seagoing Ships,
86–122, interprets all the scenes as ritualistic. On the term “quarter rudder,” see Mott,
Development of the Rudder,
6–7.

28.
   Uluburun site:
Bass, “Bronze Age Shipwreck.”

29.
   “fraught with disaster”: Pliny,
Natural History,
5.35.131 (vol. 2:319).

30.
   Cape Gelidonya ship: Bass, “Cape Gelidonya”; Bass, “Return to Cape Gelidonya”; and Throckmorton,
The Sea Remembers,
24–33.

31.
   “northerners coming from all lands”: In Breasted,
Ancient Records of Egypt,
vol. 3, §574 (p. 241).

32.
   “twenty enemy ships”: In Wachsmann,
Seagoing Ships,
343–44.

33.
   “My father”: In ibid.

34.
   “Shardana, rebellious of heart”: Sandars,
Sea Peoples,
50.

35.
   “Against me the ships”: In Redford,
Egypt, Canaan, and Israel,
254.

36.
   Ramesses III’s victory: Kuhrt,
Ancient Near East,
387; other sources give 1191 or 1186
BCE
.

37.
   “Those who came”: In Redford,
Egypt, Canaan, and Israel,
256.

38.
   “The Report of Wenamun”: In Simpson,
Literature of Ancient Egypt,
142–55.

1.
   territory of the Canaanites: Aubet,
Phoenicians,
12–16.

2.
   Hiram I: Ibid., 35–37.

3.
   “at the entrance to the sea”: Ezekiel 27:3.

4.
   “daughter cities”: Patai,
Children of Noah,
136.

5.
   “Because of the wide prevalence”: Thucydides,
Peloponnesian War,
1.7 (p. 39).

6.
   temple of Solomon: 1 Kings 5.

7.
   Ophir and Sheba: 1 Kings 9:27, 22:48–49; 2 Chronicles 8:18, 20:34–37.

8.
   “exultant city”: Isaiah 23:7.

9.
   established Carthage: Aubet,
Phoenicians,
187–89.

10.
   Gadir: Ibid., 187–89, 247–49.

11.
   “only high economic returns”: Ibid., 240.

12.
   “wheat, millet”: Ezekiel 27:12–25. See Tandy,
Warriors into Traders,
66.

13.
   Al-Mina: Polanyi, “Ports of Trade in Early Societies,” 30, 33.

14.
   “famed for its ships”: Evelyn-White, “Homeric Hymns to Pythian Apollo,” l.219 (p. 341).

15.
   “Nestor had a fine drinking cup”: I am indebted to Jim Terry for this translation. See Murray,
Early Greece,
96; Powell,
Homer,
31–32; and Tandy,
Warriors into Traders,
203. The Homeric parallel is in the
Iliad,
11.745–58 (p. 317).

16.
   “whose merchants were princes”: Isaiah 23:8.

17.
   “amassing a fortune”: Homer,
Odyssey,
14.321–34 (pp. 310–11).

18.
   “purchased for himself”: Ibid., 14.512–14 (p. 316). Taphos is thought to have been an island off the west coast of Greece.

19.
   “so far from being”: Thucydides,
Peloponnesian War,
1.5 (p. 37).

20.
   images on vases: Casson,
Ancient Mariners,
41–42, and figs. 11–12.

21.
   “catalogue of ships”: Homer,
Iliad,
2.584–862 (pp. 115–24).

22.
   “they furled and stowed”: Ibid., 1.514–22 (p. 92).

23.
   “knocking them home”: Homer,
Odyssey,
5.273 (p. 160). See Casson,
Ships and Seamanship,
217–19, and Wachsmann,
Seagoing Ships,
227, citing Homer,
Odyssey,
9.382–88.

24.
   mortise-and-tenon joinery, sewn: McGrail,
Boats of the World,
126, 134–38.

25.
   “Hers were the stars”: Homer,
Odyssey,
5.303–4 (p. 161). Pleiades is otherwise known
as the Seven Sisters, Boötes as the Herdsman or Plowman, and Ursa Major as the Great Bear.

26.
   “sung by the world”: Ibid., 12.77 (p. 273). The best known version of the Jason story is the third-century
BCE
Argonautica,
composed by Apollonius while living at Rhodes, which was then at its height as a commercial maritime power. Apollonius was subsequently librarian of the library at Alexandria.

27.
   Ithaca is off the west coast:
A persuasive case has been made recently that the ancient island of Ithaca is now, thanks to seismic activity, the Paliki peninsula on the island of Cephalonia, and that the modern Ithaca (Ithaki), to the east, is the ancient Doulichion. See Bittlestone, Diggle, and Underhill,
Odysseus Unbound
.

28.
   Pithecoussae: Tandy,
Warriors into Traders,
72.

29.
   ship track, or
diolkos
: Werner, “Largest Ship Trackway in Ancient Times.”

30.
   Pontos Axeinos: King,
Black Sea,
xi–xii.

31.
   settlement on the Black Sea: Tsetskhladze, “Did the Greeks Go to Cholcis for Metals?” “Greek Penetration of the Black Sea,” and “Trade on the Black Sea.”

32.
   Theodosia: Strabo,
Geography,
7.4.4 (vol. 3:237).

33.
   canal between the Nile and the Red Sea: For an overview of the confusion surrounding the existence and date of this canal, see Redmount, “Wadi Tumilat.”

34.
   “an oracle”: Herodotus,
Histories,
2.159 (p. 145).

35.
   “The Phoenicians sailed”: Ibid., 4.42 (p. 229). See Lloyd, “Necho and the Red Sea.”

36.
   “his ship was brought”: Herodotus,
Histories,
4.43 (p. 229).

37.
   Hanno: Ibid., 4.196 (although he does not mention Hanno by name); Pliny,
Natural History,
2.67.169 (vol. 1:305); and Arrian,
Indica
, 8.43 (vol. 2:433).

38.
   Himilco: Pliny,
Natural History,
2.67.169 (vol. 1:305); Avienus,
Ora Maritima,
114–29, 380–89, 404–15.

39.
   “like frogs round a pond”: Plato,
Phaedo,
109b.

40.
   The Trireme: The most thorough study is Morrison and Coates,
Athenian Trireme.
For an alternative view on the trireme’s development, see Wallinga, “Trireme and History.”

41.
   
trieres
: Casson,
Ships and Seamanship,
77.

42.
   impressive speeds: Morrison and Coates,
Athenian Trireme,
94–106; Casson,
Ships and Seamanship,
281–96.

43.
   tactics of trieme warfare: Whitehead, “
Periplous
”; Lazenby, “
Diekplous.
”

44.
   “Seamanship, just like anything else”: Thucydides,
Peloponnesian War,
1.142 (p. 121).

45.
   “the beginning of evils”: Herodotus,
Histories,
5.97 (p. 317).

46.
   “commanded one of his servants”: Ibid., 5.105 (p. 319).

47.
   “naval contingent”: Ibid., 6.95 (pp. 355–56).

48.
   “So far as I know”: Ibid., 7.49 (p. 391).

49.
   bridges of ships: The number of ships given by Herodotus tallies with what we know about the dimensions of the ships used. The Athenian navy’s ship sheds at
Zea, near
Piraeus, accommodated triremes with a beam of about 5.4 meters. Penteconters are narrower, and a mix of the two types lying side by side would comfortably span the Hellespont at its narrowest. See Morrison and Coates,
Athenian Trireme,
4–5.

50.
   “broad enough for two triremes”: Herodotus,
Histories,
7.24 (p. 384). See Isserlin et al., “Canal of Xerxes.”

51.
   “The outbreak of this war”: Herodotus,
Histories,
7.44 (p. 390).

52.
   “wooden walls”: Ibid., 7.141 (p. 416).

53.
   “If … you rush”: Ibid., 8.68 (p. 471).

54.
   “The Grecian warships”: Aeschylus,
Persians,
316–430 (pp. 62–63).

55.
   The battle had probably cost: Strauss,
Battle of Salamis,
78–80, 104, 204.

56.
   “if the Athenians”:
Thucydides,
Peloponnesian War,
1.93 (p. 90).

57.
   “Hellenic treasurers”: Ibid., 1.96 (p. 92).

58.
   “These died in war”: In McGregor,
Athenians and Their Empire,
92.

59.
   “The whole world”: Thucydides,
Peloponnesian War,
2.62–63 (p. 160).

60.
   “to the victors”: Ibid., 7.87 (p. 537).

61.
   “all men of military age”: Xenophon,
History of My Times,
1.6.24, 31 (pp. 82–83).

62.
   “put a stop”: Ibid., 1.6.15 (p. 81).

63.
   “the only form”: Austin and Vidal-Naquet,
Economic and Social History,
148–50, 360.

64.
   Olbia refused: Ibid., 331.

65.
   “shouting crows”: Aristophanes,
Acharnians,
547–55 (p. 34).

66.
   Aeschylus wanted: Pausanias,
Description of Greece,
1.14.5 (vol. 1:75).

67.
   “naval mob”: Thucydides,
Peloponnesian War,
8.72 (p. 579), where Warner translates
nautichos ochlos
as “the men serving in the navy.” See also Aristotle,
Politics
(4.1291), and Plutarch, “Themistocles” (19.4).

68.
   “their plausible and ready excuses”: Plato,
Laws
, 706c (p. 1298).

69.
   “There can be no doubt”: Aristotle,
Politics
, 7.6.1327b (vol. 2:2106).

70.
   “the largest shipowner in Hellas”: Demosthenes, “Against Aristocrates,” 23.211 (vol. 3:361). See Millett, “Maritime Loans,” 47. For a discussion of legal and popular attitudes toward maritime traders in Athens, see Reed,
Maritime Traders in the Ancient Greek World,
esp. 43–61.

71.
   “I have observed”: Herodotus,
Histories,
2.167 (p. 148).