Loose‐footed Sails of the Egyptian New Kingdom Ships

The relief from the temple of Ramesses III (1184–1153 BC) in Medinet Habu is often considered to be the most ancient representation of a brailed sail. According to many researchers, the loose‐footed sail and the system of brails were invented in the ancient countries of the Syro‐Canaanite coast and were later adopted by the Ancient Egyptians. However, iconographic material from Ancient Egypt testifies to the indigenous origin of a loose‐footed sail. The article presents an unknown relief from the Amarna period (1352–1336 BC) that further supports this hypothesis.     

Viking woollen square-sails and fabric cover factor

The discovery of the five scuttled Viking ships of Roskilde Fjord in Denmark and the subsequent excavation, preservation and analysis of the remains has initiated a programme of reconstructive archaeology led by the Viking Ship Museum of Roskilde in which four of the five hulls have now been reconstructed together with their rigs and square-sails. The reconstruction of the sails has been based on fragments of heavy woollen cloth found within the roof of Trondenes church in Norway dating to the mid-13th century. This paper uses the'cover-factor' modelling methods of modern textile engineering to analyse the'Viking' sail fabrics and assess their strength, resilience and performance in comparison with the linen sails from the wreck of the Vasa .     

周一汉毛织品的染色工艺探讨

为探讨1985年新疆且末县扎洪鲁克墓群和洛浦山普拉墓群出土的一批周一汉毛染织品的染色工艺,用能量色散x射线荧光仪和色度仪对这批毛染织品分别进行了元素分析和反射光谱的测定。结果表明,这批毛染品均使用植物染料染色,分别采用四种染色工艺：直接染色、媒染染色、复染染色和套染染色。其中,蓝色毛织品为直接染色;红色毛织品采用了媒染、复染工艺,绿色毛织品由蓝色与黄色套染而成。进一步的研究表明,红色毛织品是用铝盐作媒染剂染色而成,铝盐含量与毛织品的色度呈相关性。说明能量色散X射线荧光分析仪和色度仪的使用是分析古代毛染品染色工艺的有效手段。     

A Needle Assemblage from a Roman Shipwreck off the Israeli Coast

Underwater excavation of a shipwreck‐site off Hof Carmel, south of Haifa, Israel, yielded numerous artefacts associated with a ship and cargo dated to the 3rd century AD. Among them were eight sewing needles: six of bronze, one of copper and one of brass. This article describes the needles including their chemical composition, discusses comparable finds from nautical and domestic contexts, and their possible uses and roles aboard a Roman ship.     

Toggles and Sails in the Ancient World: Rigging Elements Recovered from the Tantura B Shipwreck, Israel

Excavation of the 9th-century AD shipwreck B in Tantura Lagoon, Israel, yielded four toggles, numerous rope fragments, and three pierced wooden spatulate objects believed to be associated with the ship's rigging. In the first half of the article, the toggles are described and compared to a corpus of similar devices found on both land and shipwreck sites. The spatulate devices are tentatively identified as spill-toggles, pierced for attaching a trip-line. The second half of the article traces the textual and iconographical evidence for toggles and sail types––in particular, the lateen––in the ancient Mediterranean, and their possible association.
© 2008 The Author     

Sails from the Roman port at Berenike, Egypt

A 1st-century AD midden deposit at Berenike, a major port on the trade route between the Roman Empire and India, has produced cotton textile fragments reinforced with a rectangular grid-pattern of cotton strips, interpreted as the remains of sails. Webbing fragments of cotton and linen, in some cases attached to stout cotton or linen cloth, may also have come from sails. The only published example of a Roman-Period sail is a linen sail of 1st-century BC-AD date from Thebes in Egypt, to which the Berenike fragments bear a close resemblance. The S-spun linen sails were presumably manufactured in Egypt. Most of the Berenike material, however, was of Z-spun cotton: an import, it is argued, of Indian origin. The construction of Mediterranean-type sails entirely from Indian materials has implications for the presence of Westerners on the Indian sub-continent.