354 © 2006 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2006 The Nautical Archaeology Society

NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 35.2

that the ancient names defrutum, sapa and caroenum(which often appear as painted labels on Haltern 70amphoras) all correspond to a single substance,known in Spanish as arrope and in English as ‘boiledmust’. Both Roman authors and modern winemakersprescribe the reduction by boiling of freshly-pressedgrape-must to provide an additive which in certaincircumstances can be used to improve a vintage. Theresultant juice also provides a medium in which fruitcan be ‘bottled’ for transportation (as found in thewell-known example of the olives found in the ThamesEstuary, or in amphora inscriptions from ContinentalEurope). In ancient Iberia, then, the amphoras foundin northern Lusitania or north-western Tarraconensiswould have been carrying boiled must as an additiveto pep up local wines. Since this was obviously arelatively specialized and irregular trade, we can explainthe lack of bulk cargoes of Haltern 70 amphoras(Culip VIII being one of the largest known); compareother specialized products which appear to havetravelled in rare amphora-forms, such as Lipari alumin Richborough 527 amphoras.

This is a handsome volume, like the others in theseries, but it suffers academically from a seriousdrawback. Nearly all the text is in Catalan (Aguilera’scontribution being in Castilian), and there are nosummaries or captions in any other language. Whileone welcomes the resurgence of the Catalan languageat home, one must deplore, in the modern situation,the publication of something which is of suchinternational interest without any aids, no matter howbrief, to readers outside Catalunya.

A. J. PARKERUniversity of Bristol, England

The Philosophy of Shipbuilding: Conceptual Approaches to the Study of Wooden Ships(Ed Rachal Foundation Nautical Archaeology series)

FREDERICK M. HOCKER and CHERYL A. WARD

183 pp., 109 b&w illustrations, 2 tables

Texas A&M University Press, College Station, TX77843–4354, USA, 2004, £52.95 (hbk), ISBN 1-58544-343-1

This book of homage, dedicated to Emeritus Professorof Nautical Archaeology J. Richard Steffy, has beendelayed a long time for various reasons (explained inthe Acknowledgements). Indeed, it was in 1990 thatDick Steffy retired from teaching at Texas A&MUniversity, College Station. His retirement as professor,however, was not synonymous with retirement asresearcher. His important contribution to the first

volume of the 12th-century Serçe Limani shipwreckmonograph (2004) is a fine illustration of his presentscientific activity.

In the foreword, George F. Bass recalls the veryoriginal scientific way of an engineer named DickSteffy—talented model-maker of ancient ships andgreatly interested in the history of wooden shipbuilding.This engineer became in a few years the outstandingexpert, internationally respected, of ancient nauticalarchitecture and of the interpretation of shipwrecks.His book Wooden Shipbuilding and the Interpretationof Shipwrecks, which first appeared in 1994 (see reviewin IJNA 23, 255–6, and 31.2, 158–9) remains thefundamental reference work for every nauticalarchaeology study. Great scholar Dick Steffy was alsoa great teacher at Texas A&M University and theassociated Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA),the two institutions closely linked to his professorialcareer. The ‘Steffy Ship Reconstruction Laboratory’continues today to be an exceptional training centrefor new generations of students in the discipline, thereconstruction of ancient ships, of which Dick Steffywas the ‘père fondateur’.

In the book under review edited by Fred Hockerand Cheryl Ward, emphasis is on the aspect of ‘thephilosophy of shipbuilding’—an expression that Hockerattributes to Steffy who defined it as ‘the fundamentalconceptual approach underlying a particular ship’sdesign and construction’. In his introductory chapterHocker establishes the historical context of the scientificdebate on the subject. In particular, he analyses twovery important notions: theses of typology and ofclassification in nautical architecture. According tothe two authors, these two concepts have differentmeanings—resulting in various historical conclusionsrelating, for example, to the notion (important butcomplex to use) of ‘shipbuilding tradition’.

After the introductory chapter there are ninecontributions from American and European nauticalarchaeologists and historians of naval architecture,some of whom were erstwhile students of Dick Steffy.These contributions may be divided into two groups:the first (chapters 2–5) illustrates the different approachesof ‘the philosophy of shipbuilding’ within a historicaland geographic frame from Scandinavia to Egypt.Chapters 6–10 form the second group. In Chapter 2,‘Boatbuilding in Ancient Egypt’ (pp.13–24), CherylWard analyses, in particular, the techniques of nauticalcarpentry on the one hand (species of wood, tools, typesof joints), and, on the other, the ‘shell-first’ methods ofEgyptian shipbuilding. Here she introduces the importantdistinction between the building of working water-craftsuch as the Mataria boat and Lisht timbers, and ofceremonial craft such as the Khufu and Dashur vessels.In a certain sense, this distinction might have the sametechnical consequences (‘conception’ and ‘construction’)as those resulting from the distinction, made byLucien Basch, between private shipbuilding for tradeand state shipbuilding for war and official trading.

REVIEWS

© 2006 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2006 The Nautical Archaeology Society 355

In ‘Principles and Methods of Construction inAncient Naval Architecture’ (Chapter 3, pp.25–36),Patrice Pomey returns to ‘shell-first’ Greco-Romanshipbuilding. In considering eight wrecks situated inboth the eastern and western Mediterranean, hediscusses two concepts which cover two distinctaspects from a methodological point of view. The firstis the ‘principle of construction’—that is, the formand structure of the vessel; the second is ‘methodsor processes of construction’ concerned with thepractical realisation of the vessel. It must be said thatfrom the operational angle of the shipyard these twoaspects are very close together.

After Egypt and the Mediterranean, it is northernEurope that is the subject of Ole Crumlin-Pedersen inhis ‘Nordic clinker Construction’ chapter (pp.37–63).With reference to the five 11th-century Skuldelevwrecks, in particular, Crumlin-Pedersen describes themost significant characteristics of the Nordic ‘shell-first’ clinker construction. He also addresses thepractical problem of cutting up planks by splitting orsawing as a theoretical question: the concept of theform as a ‘mental template of the ship’ resulting (forexample) in the predetermination of the ‘number ofstrakes and their curvature near the ends, right upto the sheer’. Chapter 5, by Fred Hocker, is titled‘Bottom-based shipbuilding in Northwestern Europe’and runs to 29 pages. He gives a circumstantialanalysis of a ‘philosophy of shipbuilding’ which isneither shell-first, skeleton-first nor ‘frame-based’.This ‘bottom-based’ construction is mainly associatedwith inland navigation—rivers and lakes—but does notexclude the maritime zones of northwestern Europe,from the Baltic to the Channel. In accordance withhistoriographical logic, the shipbuilding of theRoman-Celtic tradition is studied in great detail sinceit gave rise to the important development in themedieval period of the ‘cog tradition’ and, morerecently, the ‘North Holland shipbuilding tradition’.This important synthesis ends the first group ofcontributions.

The second group consists of five contributions inthe form of case histories. These are presented morebriefly to reflect the more limited approach (to the‘philosophy of construction’). It is from the study ofwritten sources—in the form of Egyptian papyri by aman of Greek origin named Zenon—that LionelCasson in Chapter 6, ‘“I’ve already sold my tunic”:Nile skippers and their Problems in the mid-thirdcentury BC’ (pp.95–102) describes the difficultiesencountered during trading on the Nile. There arefinancial difficulties, for example, the wages of thecrew; and material difficulties, for example, the repairof vessels. After the written sources, ship models arestudied in Chapter 7, ‘Two Athenian Ship Models ofthe Third Millennium BC’ (pp.103–11). Here LucienBasch proposes a very detailed analysis of twofragments of ship models in terracotta which posehard problems of architectural interpretation.

In Chapter 8, ‘The Tantura Wrecks and AncientMediterranean Shipbuilding’ (pp.113–27), the archaeo-logical data are again examined. Yaacov Kahanov,Jeffrey Royal and Jerome Hall interpreting the wrecksof Tantura A (dated to the 6th century AD) andTantura B (first quarter of the 9th century AD) as‘frame-based construction’, give a new historicalreading—more complex and less linear—of the problemof development during the Early Middle Ages in theeastern Mediterranean. The chapter written byThomas Oertling, ‘Characteristics of Fifteenth- andSixteenth-Century Iberian Ships’ (Chapter 9, pp.129–36) returns to his definition—from 11 architecturalcharacteristics of archaeological data—of the ‘Atlantic’or ‘Ibero-Atlantic’ tradition of shipbuilding. Thisdefinition is examined only from the point of view ofstructure, without reference to conceptual aspects; inparticular, the process of ship’s design which, duringthis period, seems very close to each other in Atlanticand Mediterranean contexts. In the last chapter, ‘Sailson an Inland Sea: the evolution of Lake Champlain’sSailing Merchant Fleet’ (Chapter 10, pp.137–62),Kevin Crisman studies, from a group of wrecks wellpreserved in the cold, dark waters of Lake Champlain,the process of architectural adaptation of ships (throughform, structure, propulsion) to necessities and constraintsof the inter-regional economy of water transport in theGreat Lakes between 1783 and 1900.

A glossary, a general bibliography taking in thebibliography of each individual chapter, and an index,complete this book of homage. In perfect harmonywith what we call (with great respect and affection)‘the Steffy philosophy of shipbuilding’, many chapterscontribute remarkably to the history of naval architecture.This book must be recommended to ‘old, present andfuture’ generations of nautical archaeologists andhistorians of shipbuilding.

ERIC RIETHCentre National pour la Recherche Scientifique, Paris

Roar’s Circle: A Viking Ship Returns to the SeaHENRIK JUEL

160 pp., 8 pp. colour, 29 b&w photos, in-text drawings

Lutterworth Press, PO Box 60, Cambridge CB1 2NT,UK, 2005 (1985 in Danish), £15 (sbk), ISBN 0-7188-3045-8

The original Viking ship of the title is the well-known,almost-complete find Skuldelev 3, a small clinker-builtcargo vessel built in Denmark around 1040 AD. Shewas c.14 m long with a beam of 3.28 m, and was