The archaeology of ships of war in the ancient Mediterranean · The archaeology of ships of war in...
Transcript of The archaeology of ships of war in the ancient Mediterranean · The archaeology of ships of war in...
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The archaeology of ships of war in the ancient Mediterranean
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By the 7th century BCE the Mediterranean hadbecome a contested sea, with conflicts inherent inthe commercial and imperial interests emanatingfrom the Levant, and from the Aegean and the Italic peninsula
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Part 1 of lecture: the ‘evolution’ of the warship from a troop transport and fighting platform to a weapon
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Part 2 of lecture: the iconic trireme as an archaeologicaland historical case study
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Earliest representations and records of ships in martial contexts:evidence from Egypt
The navy of Ramses III decimating theSea Peoples’ fleet (ca. 1200 BCE)
Campaigns of Thutmosis IIIinto Syro-Palestine (ca. 1450 BCE)included mobilizing ships(earliest unambiguous use of shipsin a military campaign)
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Homeric epithet for ships: ‘chariots of the sea’
Reconstructions of Hittite and Egyptianchariots from the Battle of Qadesh(ca. 1270 BCE)
From the Aegean: Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Agegalleys in martial contexts
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When did the ship itself become a weapon?
A Phoenician warship from a relief in the Assyrian palace of Sennacherib (701 BCE)
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This (Phoenician) innovation in military technology…
may well have been inspired by this (Assyrian) one
From the palace ofKing Ashurnasirpal II(ca. 880-860 BCE)
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Roughly contemporary evidence from the (late) Early Iron Age Aegean:Are these accentuated bow projections rams or not?
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The earliest conclusive representation of a ram (from the Aegean): the Attic ‘Sirens Vase’(ca. 480-470 BCE)
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Herodotus in Histories (ca. 450-430 BCE) describes theearliest use of the ram by Greek warships
535 BCE: A Phocaean (Greeks from Asia Minor) fleet of pentecontersengaged a combined fleet of Carthaginians and Etruscans: casualtiesincluded ships ‘with their rams twisted off’
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But it was the trireme in the Battle of Salamis (480 BCE) and not thepenteconter for which the ram is most well known
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The trireme is the most extensively studied class of ship from the ancient world
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The elusive (field) archaeology of warships of the ancient Mediterranean
Where are all the sunken galleys?
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One ram has been recovered from underwater contexts
Athlit ram (Israel, 2nd century BCE
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With very little shipwreck evidence how did John Coates and John Morrison (the naval architect and classicist of the Olympias trireme project) arrive at this reconstruction?
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A few fragments of timbers were attachedto the Athlit ram; this much of the bowof a trireme can be archaeologicallyreconstructed
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The remainder of the Olympias trireme was reconstructed with iconography, statuary, texts, ship sheds, architectural intuition and remarkable scholarship
Lyndos rock relief (Rhodes) Nike of Samothrace
A rhyton (drinking cup)
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An example of how a text can inform the reconstruction of a trireme:(there is no detailed description of what these ships looked like)
Herodotus (Histories) describing Xerxes voyage home on a Phoenicianwarship after his defeat at Salamis:
‘…he was rather severely tossed about, the ship being overloaded, with the deck packed by a large number of Persians in his entourage…for if thehelmsman had really made this reply, the king would quite obviously haveordered the people on deck to go below…’
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Reconstruction of ship sheds,Piraeus, Athens (ca. 400 BCE)
Archaeological plan of ship sheds,Piraeus, Athens (ca. 400 BCE)
Dimensions of ships sheds at Piraeus, the harbor of Athens: 37m x 6m (length to beam 1:6)
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Additional evidence from texts to assist in reconstructing a trireme:
**inventory of ship equipment (from the Decree of Themistocles, commanderof the Greek fleet at Salamis): each trireme fitted with 170 oars, and extras)
**two different classes of oarsmen (from several textual sources):thalamioi (thalamos=the hold of the ship), thranites (position not clear, butabove the thalamioi)
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A floating cargo boxunder wind propulsion
A floating (battering) ram and fighting forceunder wind propulsion (cruising) and oarpropulsion (fighting)
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The three most important construction and design considerations when building a trireme:
1) Speed (light, narrow length to beam)
2) Accommodating the source of speed(without compromising lightnessand narrow length to beam)
3) Accommodating the weapon