New Data on Egyptian Construction Methods in the Khufu I Vessel (c.2566 BC) from the Paul Lipke Collection

A review of the Lipke collection raises new questions concerning Egyptian boatbuilding methods for the Khufu I vessel, including the shaping of planking, the purpose, fitting, and spacing of cross‐grain mortise‐and‐tenon joints and the crafting and securing of hook‐scarfs in girders. New data supports the author's contention that the construction of this vessel was abruptly terminated, but contradicts his suggestion that the central girder had no hook‐scarf—it does, but it is unique. Furthermore, detailed plans show how the hood‐ends, sleeves, and papyriform decorations were crafted and joined. A planking‐plan with scale does not always agree with published data. © 2010 The Author     

The Dor 2001/1 Byzantine Shipwreck,Israel: final report

Dor 2001/1 was a Byzantine coaster, about 16.9 m long, with an estimated displacement of 50 tonnes, dated to the first third of the 6th century CE, and loaded with building stones. It was excavated over five seasons, recorded under water, and a section of the shipwreck was retrieved and studied on land. The hull construction was based on frames without any type of planking edge‐fasteners. It is thus among the earliest frame‐based shipwrecks found so far in the Mediterranean. The origin of its construction tradition, with flat frames amidships, hard chine and straight sides, might have been related to a riverine tradition.     

Sailing Rock Art Boats

Amongst the thousands of Bronze Age rock art images that are found along the paleogeographic coast lines of southern Scandinavia the most ubiquitous is the boat. A few are furnished with what look like a mast or sail. These attributes have largely been ignored or explained away as features or objects other than rig because it is widely accepted that the sail was not used in Scandinavia until the 8th century AD. But what if after all they really are depictions of rig? Might this suggest that the sail was not only known but perhaps used here over a 1,000 years earlier than previously accepted? Starting from the bases of the images and the environment in which they are found, this paper asks whether vessels of the types we believe belonged to the Scandinavian Bronze Age could have been sailed? These evaluations led to a series of sail trials in a canoe undertaken in the archipelago of the Swedish west coast in the late summer and autumn of 2005. The successful results of these trials were later transferred to the Tilia, a full-scale reconstruction of the Hjortspring boat, a vessel dated to 350 BC but believed to belong to a long-established boatbuilding tradition stretching back into the Bronze Age. This is the report of the hypothesis behind these trials as well as their planning, execution and immediate results.     

The Dor 2001/1 Shipwreck, Israel—a Summary of the Excavation

Dor 2001/1 was probably a Byzantine coaster carrying building stones, dated to the end of the 5th or beginning of the 6th century AD. No shell-first construction features were identified, specifically no kind of planking edge-joints; but instead all the essential components showed that it was a frame-based hull. Thus it is apparently among the earliest frame-based shipwrecks found so far in the Mediterranean.
© 2006 The Authors     

Hornell,Hasslöf and Boatbuilding Sequences

Hornell's publications on ‘native watercraft’ form a unique ‘library’ dealing with boatbuilding and boat use. His quest for the origins of water transport, on the other hand, was unsuccessful. In a clarification of the issues involved, Hasslöf criticized Hornell's use of the term ‘carvel’ and proposed ‘shell‐first’ and ‘skeleton‐first’ as best able to characterize boatbuilding traditions. Those terms subsequently gave way to ‘plank‐first’ and ‘frame‐first’. Certain north‐west European vessels, each built in both those sequences, were identified by Hasslöf as a link between ‘plank‐first’ and ‘frame‐first’. Such a transition would have been facilitated by the use of ‘framing‐first’, a building sequence used in north‐west Europe and in the eastern Mediterranean from the early 1st millennia AD.     

The Akko 1 Shipwreck, Israel: the First Two Seasons

The Akko 1 shipwreck was found in 4 m of water inside the ancient harbour of Akko (Acre), 250 m from the ancient wall, with its stern touching a submerged rampart. The dense framing-pattern and relatively thin planking, the extensive use of oak and the origin of the timber, suggest that this is the remains of a small armed ship or auxiliary vessel built in the Eastern Mediterranean. The ship has been provisionally dated to the late-18th or early-19th century, the late Ottoman period. The finds testify to its involvement in one of the naval campaigns at Akko.
© 2008 The Authors     

The Construction of the Khufu I Vessel (c.2566 BC): a Re-Evaluation

A re-evaluation of the published reports on the Khufu I vessel suggests: first, Egyptian boatwrights used as much of a plank's original width and length as possible to minimize waste, resulting in unpredictable stealer and scarf placement; second, crafting tenons to be narrower than corresponding mortises may have been one of many standardized techniques of Egyptian boatbuilding; third, temporary and permanent edge-to-edge transverse lashing was an important structural feature. Finally, woven straps instead of ropes were probably used to lash this vessel, and seams were probably sealed with wadding and battens, while the frames appear to have been recycled.
© 2009 The Author     

A Preliminary report of recording the Stella 1 Roman River Barge,Italy

The remains of a Roman barge were found in 1981 in the River Stella, Udine, Italy. Its cargo consisted mainly of roof tiles. It was excavated in 1998 and 1999, and detailed recording of the hull, and a second wooden structure, was achieved in 2011. A spread of material upstream of the wreck has been investigated 2012–2015. The barge was originally dated to the first quarter of the 1st century AD by the in situ cargo. This article describes the bottom‐based sewn‐plank hull construction and examines it in the light of local boatbuilding traditions. The second wooden structure is also described, along with recent finds and new dating evidence from the dispersed material. The Stella 1 excavation was part of the Anaxum Project, a wider study of the Stella River's cultural landscape through time.     

The Thaikkal-Kadakkarappally Boat: an Archaeological Example of Medieval Shipbuilding in the Western Indian Ocean

Recent excavations at Kadakkarappally in Kerala, south-west India, have unearthed the remains of an iron-fastened boat, believed to predate the earliest known records for the use of iron in South Asian boatbuilding. The design departs significantly from the traditional view of Indian watercraft, although the use of locally available timber and the suitability of the design for use in the backwaters that characterise the region suggest that it was built and used in India. This is the first excavation of its type to take place in Kerala and contradicts the belief, widely held in Kerala, that the survival of organic remains has been negated by the tropical climate of the region.
© 2004 The Nautical Archaeology Society     

The Mazarrón 1 Shipwreck: an iron‐age boat with unique features from the Iberian Peninsula

Two iron‐age shipwrecks, associated with Phoenician ceramics, were discovered at the Playa de la Isla in Mazarrón, Spain. This preliminary report describes hitherto unknown boatbuilding features of the Mazarrón 1 hull remains. The vessel presents hybrid boatbuilding techniques using both pegged mortise‐and‐tenon plank‐edge fasteners and sewn seams employing longitudinal continuous stitching, and a unique keel scarf. It is an important source of information for the development of shipbuilding in the western Mediterranean during the Iron Age.     

Practical Knowledge in the Viking Age: the use of mental templates in clinker shipbuilding

It has long been recognized that ships built according to the Nordic clinker tradition during the Viking Age were conceived and constructed simultaneously by eye, in a shell‐first manner, and using rules‐of‐thumb to control both the longitudinal and transversal shape of the hull. While a lot of attention has been paid to the conceptual definition of the keel and stems, far less research has explored how such rules would have worked while planking the hull. Two cargo‐ships, Skuldelev 3 and Skuldelev 1, are used to argue for pre‐design and the use of mental templates. This highlights a cognitive dimension of practical knowledge, in particular how it was accumulated, stored and transmitted.     

Dowels as a Means of Edge-to-Edge Joinery in the 9th-century AD Vessel from Bozburun, Turkey

After the excavation of the 9th-century AD merchantman from Bozburun, Turkey, from 1995 to 1998, examination of the preserved hull material revealed a method of using dowels embedded in the plank edge to join hull planking together. This method has not previously been recorded in the early medieval Mediterranean. The article discusses the characteristics of the joints in the hull planking of the Bozburun vessel, and considers its role in the transition from the shell-first to frame-first methods of assembly.
© 2005 The Nautical Archaeology Society     

Gyptis and the Archaic Greek Sewn‐boat Technique

The archaic Greco‐Massaliote wreck Jules‐Verne 9 is a fully sewn boat with all the elements (planking and frames) assembled by ligatures. The remains of some stitches found in place allowed the system of ligatures, which is particularly sophisticated, to be precisely reproduced. This assembly system made of sewing and lashings was used during the construction of Gyptis, the sailing replica of the Jules‐Verne 9 wreck. The experience permitted many questions to be answered about the assembly process, function, and maintenance of the boat.     

The Archaeology and Technology of Early-Modern Lime Burning in the Yorkshire Dales: Developing a Clamp Kiln Model

Abstract

Compared with commercial or field lime kilns of the industrial period, very little detailed work has been undertaken to investigate post-medieval and early modern clamp kilns apart from a few notable site-specific studies. Clamp kiln terminology thus far has been unable to distinguish between clamp, sod and sow kilns. Recent field surveying and archaeological excavation across a wide area within the Yorkshire Dales, with associated documentary and archival research, has shed new light on clamp kiln technology and morphology. The results of this work have informed the development of a provisional clamp kiln model which, it is argued, is appropriate to the Central Pennines.     

Lightening the Load: Five 19th-Century River Lighters at Erith on the River Thames, UK

Five early-19th-century Thames lighters, up to 22 m long, in an excellent state of preservation, were recorded during pre-construction archaeological works. The lighters had been used as the main structural elements in a mid-19th-century river-wall. The lighters and river-wall are described, and aspects of the construction discussed. The craft exemplify utilitarian trends in early industrial age boatbuilding, and were essential in the development of the international port. Although comparatively recent in date, details of their 'bottom-up' construction are not well known.
© 2009 The Authors     

Re-used Boat Planking from a 13th-century Revetment in Doncaster,South Yorkshire

Abstract

AN EXCAVATION was undertaken during 1993–4 on a site at Low Fisher Gate, Doncaster. Urban archaeological deposits of 11th- to 18th-century date, together with evidence of an earlier course of the River Cheswold (the southern arm of the River Don), were uncovered. The excavations were among the largest ever to take place within Doncaster. Among the most significant finds was a riverside revetment, made from re-used portions of two medieval clinker-built boats. These have characteristics not recorded elsewhere which may represent features of a now lost, South Yorkshire boatbuilding tradition. This type of find is still rather rare and the Doncaster timbers add to knowledge of the variety of local vessels and construction features present in the medieval period. The rolls of fibrous material used to waterproof the vessels were also of interest for comparison with similar finds from England and Norway. The boat timbers have been fully conserved and are now on display in Doncaster Museum.     

Sewn Boats of Southeast Asia: the stitched‐plank and lashed‐lug tradition

This article updates research into the sewn‐boat traditions of Southeast Asia with recent finds that provide evidence of the transition from stitched planks with lashed‐lug frames to planks fastened with dowels and locked dowels alongside lashed‐lug frames. The differences between Southeast Asian, East Asian, and Indo‐Arabic boatbuilding are discussed and the meaning of anomalies, such as the Maldivian dhonis, examined. Considering the known history of trade and exchange throughout the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, the lack of hybridization between boatbuilding traditions is noted.     

A Royal Boat Burial and Watercraft Tableau of Egypt's 12th Dynasty (c.1850 BCE) at South Abydos

Excavations at Abydos, Egypt, during 2014–2016 have revealed the remains of a boat burial dating to the reign of Senwosret III (c.1850 BCE). The boat burial occurred inside a specially prepared, subterranean vaulted building. Surviving elements of planking appear to derive from a nearly 20 m‐long boat that was buried intact but later dismantled for reuse of the wood. The vessel may belong to a group of royal funerary boats associated with the nearby tomb of Senwosret III. Incised on to the interior walls of the boat building is an extensive tableau including 120 surviving drawings of pharaonic watercraft. A unique deposit of pottery vessels was found associated with the ceremonial burial of this royal boat.     

Evidence for glass ‘recycling’ using Pb and Sr isotopic ratios and Sr-mixing lines: the case of early Byzantine Sagalassos

The secondary production (working) of glass from imperial to early Byzantine times has been proven at the ancient city of Sagalassos (SW Turkey) by the existence of glass chunks, fuel ash slag and kiln fragments related to glass processing. It had been previously suggested that local green glass might have been recycled from two other locally found glass types (blue glass vessels and chunks and HIMT glass chunks). This paper provides analytical evidence for the recycling of glass next to the use of imported raw glass. The heterogeneous lead isotopic composition of the green and HIMT vessel glass at Sagalassos, with as end members on the one hand the isotopic composition of local blue glass vessels and chunks and on the other hand that of the HIMT glass chunks, could indicate the production of ‘recycled’ glass, although heterogeneous raw materials could have been used. However, the use of Sr-mixing lines confirms local recycling. It is clear that the Sr in the green and HIMT vessels is a mixture of the Sr in the aforementioned end members. It cannot be proved whether the green ‘recycled’ glass was produced from a mixture of chunks alone, or from a mixture of cullet and chunks. Suggestions are made towards the possible origin of the raw materials for the blue and HIMT glass on the basis of Sr isotopic signatures and absolute Sr contents in the glass.     

Archaeology of 17th‐Century Iberian Shipwrecks: reassessment and comparison of excavated,recorded, and published hull remains

Of 55 17th‐century wrecks located around the world identified as Iberian, 37 have either been destroyed, looted, or salvaged by treasure hunters, and just 11 the subject of archaeological work. Of these, only seven have been published: structural components, planking, fasteners, caulking, and other hull remains are reported to different degrees of detail. This article compares hull components within this small sample to assess the shared traits, or distinctive Iberian shipbuilding tradition, proposed by Oertling (2001; 2005), Castro (2008), and Hormaechea et al. (2018: 64–65). Additional traits are proposed that have been observed in the archaeological record.