1. Egypt: The Birthplace of Water Transport (3000 - 4000 BC) Egyptian hieroglyphics depicting a ship Egyptian wall painting depicting a wooden boat with square sail
THINK OF SOMETHING FUN Ancient Egyptian artefacts such as pots were found depicting ships and boats, dating back to over 3000 BC
The Egyptians are credited with inventing sails. They used first plants or leafy branches to catch the wind. By 3500 BC they were employing a square sail, probably woven of reeds and set on a single vertical mast placed in the bow. Between 2200 BC and 1900 BC the position of the mast migrated from the bow to amidships. This made it possible to drive the boat forward using cross winds, not just tail winds. The need to transport large stone blocks down river for monument building may have spurred the conversion from reed boats to wooden plank hulls. http://warandgame.wordpress.com/2007/09/07/the-first-boats/ --- The Egyptians made use of bundles of bound papyrus reeds to make their earlier boats. Papyrus is different from paper because papyrus is a laminated material made from thinly cut strips from the stalk of Cyprus Papyrus plant and hence enabled the boat to stay buoyant. These Egyptian boats were made of either native woods or conifers from Lebanon. Papyrus boats were useful for hunting or crossing short stretches of water, using a paddle or a pole. Elsewhere in Mesopotamia: boats were built out of inflated and stretched animal skins and clay pots. ---- Wooden boats generally replaced papyrus rafts for Nile travel, and, since they were faster and more stable than rafts, they were also used for transport. Cedar was very important to the Egyptians as a boat building material. These boats were built of relatively short blocks of timber, and were braced and secured with rope lashings very much in the same style that was used in papyrus boats. Ship builders of that era did not use pegs (treenails) or metal fasteners, but relied on rope to keep their ships assembled. Planks and the superstructure were tightly tied and bound together. All the cities and towns were easily accessible by boat, and the Nile provided the perfect means of transport, since it was cheap and quick. The necessary water power was provided by the current and the wind.
At Abydos (one of the most ancient cities in upper egypt), the boat-builder's tool kit included tools known for at least 500 years, and tool marks provide a range of information about tool type, size and sharpness. Metal saws were used to shape the planks, and lashing channels were cut with a chisel. Sandstone polishers were probably used as well, as the few toolmarks visible were located inside channels and on an 8cm area of one plank. REALISTICPICTURE
The Egyptians would cut out planks of wood which would then be lashed with each other using tools that were fed through specially created mortises. This is an ancient joint and has been found joining the wooden planks of the " Khufu ship “ EXPLAIN The wooden planks had seams between them and reeds were used to caulk them. Unlike modern-day boats the ancient Egyptian boat design did not factor in internal framing. An uncovered boat would appear to be twisted.
The transition from the paddle to the oar took place in Egypt around 2500 BC. The oar had several advantages over the paddle and permitted both the size and speed of vessels to increase. The oar was secured to the boat, giving the oarsman more leverage. It also permitted multiple rowers to be placed side-by-side manning a single oar, although this innovation was not adopted until centuries later. The deck of the traditional paddle boat needed to be low to the waterline so the paddles could reach the water. This restriction had limited the overall size, height, and displacement of boats of that time. Long oars made larger boats possible. Oversized oars dipped into the water near the rear of the boat were used to steer. This early rudder was first simply held by the helmsman and not connected to the boat. Large vessels of the time had as many as five steering oars.
In ancient times, Egyptian society depended upon the Nile River for its existence. Society flourished for approximately 3000 years because of the Egyptian people’s ability to harness the power of the river for agricultural purposes, social events, community projects, religious purposes. demonstrating prestige and exhibition of power connected to warfare and domination. Boats for war, boats for administering justice, boats for trade and boats to travel to the next world are some of the earliest symbols of royal power The burial of boats in ancient Egyptian funerary monuments is as significant a socio-economic statement about the nature of power as the construction of massive mudbrick and wood tombs or even pyramids. They also traveled by boat around Egypt and into the Mediterranean Sea to trade with other cultures. Egypt's expanding interests in trade goods such as ebony, incense such as Myrrh and frankincense, gold, copper and other useful metals inspired the ancient Egyptians to build suitable ships for navigation of the open sea. They traded with Lebanon for cedar and traveled the length of the Red Sea to the Kingdom of Punt, which is modern day Ethiopia and Somalia for ebony, ivory and aromatic resins. Because the boats could be taken apart, they also could be carried across the desert and put back together on the coast for a Red Sea voyage http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3284/is_307_80/ai_n29259209/pg_5/
It is of the type known as a " solar barge “ (a mythological representation of the sun riding in a boat ). However, it bears some signs of having been used in water, and it is possible that the ship was either a funerary "barge" used to carry the king's embalmed body from Memphis to Giza, or even that Khufu himself used it as a "pilgrimage ship" to visit holy places and that it was then buried for him to use in the afterlife. By the twelfth dynasty this practice became too expensive. So instead, models of boats were placed in the tombs, which would serve the same purpose as the full-sized vessels.
The Khufu ship is an intact full-size vessel from Ancient Egypt that was sealed into a pit in the Giza pyramid complex at the foot of the Great Pyramid of Giza around 2,500 BC. The ship was almost certainly built for Khufu (King Cheops), the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom of Egypt. 43.6m long, 5.9m wide Found neatly disassembled into >1000 pieces
LINK FROM EGYPTIAN: faster For three turbulent centuries, the glimpse of a square sail and dragon-headed prow on the horizon struck terror into the hearts of medieval Europeans. Indeed, the Viking Age, from A.D. 800-1100, was the age of the sleek, speedy longship. Without this crucial advance in ship technology, the Vikings would never have become a dominant force in medieval warfare, politics, and trade. They could cross the open oceans under sail and then switch to oars for lightning-fast hit-and-run attacks on undefended towns and monasteries. Viking vessels were called “Dragon Ships” because a ceremonial decoration in the shape of a dragon's head was placed on the bow of the ship who rowed the ship. The longboats were long and narrow so were able to travel on the open sea, as well as along rivers. The ships were quite fast (7-12 knots speed) and extremely stable in the rough seas off Scandinavia and the North Atlantic. double-ended, the symmetrical bow and stern allowing the ship to reverse direction quickly, without having to turn around.
The particular design, shape and decoration of the dragon's head symbolized the Viking force and power because the Vikings were great raiders. The Vikings were feared among many civilizations in ancient Europe and the dragon figureheads depicted their strength and brutality as well as their fearlessness. Because Vikings were very superstitious, the heads on their dragon ships were intended to ward off sea monsters and spirits. On land the heads could be removed so they do not ward off friendly land spirits.
It is said that the Vikings preferred to employ oak wood to make their ships, because the natural curving of the branches eased the creation of aerodynamic shapes. The greatest warships were always made from Oak, not only because of the great strength of the timber, but also because the tree was sacred to their warrior God Oðin. Splitting a log involves starting a split with an axe, and whilst the axe is still lodged in the timber, an oak wedge is then hammered in to the split next to the axehead. The axe can then be hammered in further with a wooden mallet. This will make the split travel down the length of the log. Another wedge is added, and the first is banged further in. The axe can then be removed an sometimes hammered in further along the split. So the process goes on, with most of the work being done by the wedges saving the precious axehead. By splitting the timber in this way, the carpenter is working with the wood so as to get the greatest strength out of it. A saw would just cut through anything in it's path, ignoring the grain in the timber. Almost all the work on the ship would have been done with axes of various kinds, and adzes which are much like an axe, but with the blade turned through 90 degrees.
All Viking ships were made by a unique “Clinker” technique of overlapping the edges of the strakes and riveting the overlap section together. As a result, hulls were light and flexible, able to bend in the open sea without breaking. Like the Egyptians as mentioned earlier, the Vikings also did not have an internal frame for their boats. Next, the boat-builders affixed evenly spaced floor timbers to the keel and not to the hull to maintain the boat’s flexibility. Crossbeams were added to provide a deck and rowing benches, and a massive beam along the keel supported the mast.
their ancestral knowledge included a great deal about finding your location by the sun and the stars. However in the far north, the sun is often below the horizon during most of the day, Viking voyages to Iceland, Greenland, and America were almost certainly under such conditions, and often in storms or deep fog. How did they find their way when the sun and stars could not be seen? Several sagas mention a device called a sunstone. The sunstone is mentioned with reverence and undertones that have made it seem magical and legendary. Many today still believe that it is purely a myth. Others speculate that it was a natural crystal which could refract light, making it possible to see the sun when it is not otherwise visible. Read more at Suite101: Vikings, Longboats, and Navigation: Ancestral nautical knowledge http://transportationhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/vikins__longboats__and_navigation#ixzz0iSgIpfM8
A Viking called Bjarni Herjolfsson 'discovered' America by accident in the year 985. He saw an unknown land, after his ship was blown off course on the way from Iceland to Greenland. In 1001, Leif Ericsson, son of Eric the Red, sailed west to find this new land. Leif and his men were the first Europeans known to have landed in America. Soon afterwards, Thorfinn Karlsefni led a small group of Viking families to settle in the new land. But after fights with the local Native American people, the Vikings gave up their settlement.
The Vikings traded all over Europe, and as far east as Central Asia. They bought goods and materials such as silver, silk, spices, wine, jewellery, glass and pottery. In return, they sold items such as honey, tin, wheat, wool, wood, iron, fur, leather, fish. Everywhere they went the Vikings bought and sold slaves. Without this crucial advance in ship technology, the Vikings would never have become a dominant force in medieval warfare, politics, and trade. They pillaged monasteries, churches, the fortresses of Irish Lords, and farms. In 836 the lands of the southern Uí Néill suffered such an episode. In 837, the same thing happened on the Boyne and Liffey rivers on the east coast and on the Shannon on the west. In 840 the Vikings spent a year on Lough Neagh pillaging, amongst others, the monastery of Armagh. Many of the scholars and monks of Louth monastery were captured and sold into slavery. The Vikings plundered monasteries of gold and jewels. They also took livestock and kidnapped children to be slaves. The Vikings were brave sailors and explorers. Vikings settled in Britain, but also sailed out into the north Atlantic Ocean and south to the Mediterranean Sea. Families were ready to risk their lives on long, dangerous journeys to find new land to farm. https://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/vikings/trade_and_exploration/ ---
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