Ancient shipbuilding techniques

Short description: none

Ancient boat building methods can be categorized as one of hide, log, sewn, lashed-plank, clinker (and reverse-clinker), shell-first, and frame-first. While the frame-first technique dominates the modern ship construction industry, the ancients relied primarily on the other techniques to build their watercraft. In many cases, these techniques were very labor-intensive or inefficient in their use of raw materials. Regardless of differences in ship construction techniques, the vessels of the ancient world, particularly those that plied the waters of the Mediterranean Sea and the islands of Southeast Asia were seaworthy craft, capable of allowing people to engage in large-scale maritime trade.[1]

## Contents

* 1 History
* 2 Framed boats
* 2.1 Skin boats
* 2.2 Bark canoes
* 3 Early wooden boats
* 3.1 Rafts
* 3.2 Dugout boats
* 4 Shell-first
* 4.1 Sewn and lashed-plank
* 4.2 Clinker and reverse clinker
* 4.3 Mortise-and-tenon joint
* 5 Frame-first
* 6 See also
* 7 Notes
* 8 References
* 9 Further reading

## History

The earliest archaeological evidence comes from dugout canoes found in peat bogs in Pesse, the Netherlands, and dates to around 8000 years ago.[2] Seafaring is found around the world,[3] and many of these techniques are still in use today.[4]

## Framed boats

### Skin boats

Skin boats dominated seafaring in places that were scarce on wood, including the arctic and subarctic. They were made by stretching skin or leather over frames of wood or bone. These include kayaks and umiaks, coracles and currachs.

### Bark canoes

Bark canoes were made by stretching bark over wooden frames, and were used by Native Americans in North America.[5]

## Early wooden boats

### Rafts

Main article: Engineering:Raft

Rafts were made where wood was available but not large enough to carve into dugouts and they could also be made from reeds. The earliest Egyptian boats were rafts made of papyrus; wooden boats did not replace rafts until the Gerzean/Naqada II Period.[6]

### Dugout boats

Main article: Engineering:Dugout canoe

Dugout boats were made wherever trees grew large enough to support them, including Holocene Europe, Northeastern Nigeria[7] [2] the West Coast of America,[8] and Polynesian seafarers. Dugouts are defined as being carved out of a single piece of wood, and they could be elaborately decorated and quite seaworthy.

## Shell-first

The shell-first technique involves constructing the "shell" of the boat first, then laying in the framework.

### Sewn and lashed-plank

Main articles: Engineering:Sewn boat and Lashed-lug boat

Instead of using nails, the planks of a boat can be "sewn" together with rope. Evidence for the use of sewn-fastenings in plank boats has been found worldwide. Fastenings of this type have been demonstrated to perform well in coastal regions, being capable of withstanding the rigors of heavy surf as well as the impact of beaching.[9] The lashed-plank technique can be found worldwide as well.[10]

### Clinker and reverse clinker

Main article: Engineering:Clinker (boat building)

The clinker and reverse-clinker construction techniques involve fastening together an overlapping layer of planks with straight nails (clinker) or hooked nails (reverse clinker). The clinker tradition developed in Northern Europe,[11] while the reverse-clinker technique, although rarely found worldwide, has been found to be prevalent among certain South Asian communities, such as that of Orissa in India.[4]

### Mortise-and-tenon joint

Main article: Engineering:Mortise and tenon

Assembling a ship hull's planks by mortise and tenon joint strengthened with dowels

This construction technique relied extensively on structural support provided by peg-mortise-and-tenon joinery through the shell of the boat. This method of ship construction appears to have originated from the seafaring nations of the Mediterranean, although evidence of peg-mortise-and-tenon joinery later appears in Southeast Asia.[10]

## Frame-first

Frame-first construction involves laying down the framework of the vessel before attaching the planks to the boat. This is normally done by erecting a "master frame" in the center of the keel, and deriving the shapes of the other frames using a curved piece of wood stretched between the frame and the end posts, or through a geometric curve. The Yassiada wreck dating to the 7th century AD was long cited as the earliest evidence for frame-first construction technique, but two wrecks for Dor (Tanura) Lagoon in Israel dated to around 500 AD were built frame first.[12] This technique was rarer in the rest of the world until the coming of the modern era.[10][3]

## See also

* Ancient navies and vessels
* Boat building
* Shipbuilding

## Notes

1. ↑ Manguin 1993.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Bednarik 1997.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 McGrail 2004.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 McGrail 2003.
5. ↑ Adney, Edwin Tappan; Chapelle, Howard Irving (2007). Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
6. ↑ Steve, Vinson (1994). Egyptian Boats and Ships. Osprey Publishing. p. 12.
7. ↑ "Directing archaeological excavation". https://www.si.edu/object/siris_sil_689781/.
8. ↑ "Dugout Canoe". https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/dugout-canoe.
9. ↑ McGrail 2004, p. 71, 77.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Bellwood & Cameron 2007.
11. ↑ McGrail 2004, p. 244.
12. ↑ Catsambi, Alexis; Ford, Ben; Hamilton, Donny (2011). The Oxford Handbook of Maritime Archaeology.

## References

* Bednarik, Robert (1997). "The earliest evidence of ocean navigation". International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 26 (3): 183–191. doi:10.1111/j.1095-9270.1997.tb01331.x.
* Bellwood, P.; Cameron, J. (2007). "Ancient Boats, Boat Timbers, and Locked Mortise-and-Tenon Joints from Bronze/Iron-Age Northern Vietnam". The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 36: 2–20. doi:10.1111/j.1095-9270.2006.00128.x.
* Manguin, P.Y. (1993). "Trading Ships of the South China Sea". Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 36 (3): 253–280. doi:10.1163/156852093x00056.
* McGrail, S. (2003). Boats of South Asia. RoutledgeCurzon.
* McGrail, S. (2004). Boats of the World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

## Further reading

* Bass, George F.; van Doorninck, Frederick H. Jr. (1982). Yassi Ada 1: A Seventh-Century Byzantine Shipwreck. College Station.
* Roorda, Eric (2020). The Ocean Reader: History, Culture, Politics. Duke University Press.

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Ancient seafaring

Vessels

| Types|

* Balangay
* Bangka
* Beden
* Coracle
* Dhow
* Dragon boat
* Dugout canoe
* Fire ship
* Galley
* Penteconter
* Kunlun ship
* Liburna
* Longship
* Multihull
* Navis lusoria
* Obelisk ship
* Outriggers
* Sakman
* Single-outrigger
* Catamaran
* Trimaran
* Polyremes
* Bireme
* Oared warships
* Trireme
* Quadrireme
* Quinquereme
* Hexareme
* Tessarakonteres
* Raft
* Reed boat
* Sailing ship
* Solar ship
* Tomol
* Tākitimu
* Uru

|

by region|

* Austronesia
* Egypt
* Persia
* Rome

Propulsion|

* Paddling
* Sailing
* Towing
* Poling

Components|

* Anchor
* Bow
* Cabin
* Deck
* Figurehead
* Hull
* Planking
* Keel
* Mast
* Oar
* Paddle
* Rope
* Rudder
* Steering oar
* Sail
* Sail components
* Stem
* Sternpost
* Strake
* Tiller

Construction|

* Boat building
* Careening
* Carvel built
* Clinker built
* Dugout
* Framing
* Frame-first
* Shell-first
* Joinery
* Lashed-lug
* Mortise and tenon
* Phoenician joint
* Scarf joint
* Sewn-plank
* Shipbuilding
* By region:
* Egypt

Rigging|

* Crab claw
* Fore-and-aft
* Lateen
* Settee
* Tanja
* Triangular sail
* Junk
* Mast-aft
* Spritsail
* Square

Armaments|

* Ballista
* Catapult
* Corvus
* Dolphin
* Fire ship
* Harpax
* Ram
* Sambuca

Wrecks
and relics|

| Earliest|

* Pesse canoe
* Dufuna canoe
* Abydos
* Moor Sand
* Dokos
* Khufu ship
* Ferriby Boats
* Dover Bronze Age Boat
* Uluburun
* Canaanite
* Cape Gelidonya
* Zambratija
* Rochelongue

|

Austronesia|

* Pontian boat
* Butuan boats

Black Sea‎|

* Sinop D

Greek|

* Kyrenia
* Leontophoros
* Syracusia
* Ashkelon
* Antikythera

Canaanite
and Phoenician|

* Bajo de la Campana
* Canaanite shipwreck
* Gozo
* Ma'agan Michael
* Mazarrón

Punic|

* Marsala Punic shipwreck

Roman|

* Alkedo
* Arles Rhône 3
* Blackfriars I
* Caligula's Giant Ship
* De Meern ships
* Isis
* Madrague de Giens
* Nemi ships
* Marausa
* Yassi Ada

Nordic|

* Hjortspring boat
* Nydam boat

Lists|

* Oldest surviving
* Museum ships
* Surviving ancient ships

Navigation, and ports and harbors

| Navigation|

* Celestial
* Charts
* Coastal
* Lighthouses
* History
* Ocean swell
* Stick chart
* Periplus
* Piloting
* Pilot boat
* Maritime pilot
* By region:
* Inuit
* Micronesian
* Polynesia

|

Ports and
harbors|

* Actium
* Aden
* Adulis
* Alexandria
* Apollonia
* Aradus
* Arikamedu
* Arsinoe
* Avalites
* Barbarikon
* Barygaza
* Basra
* Berenice Troglodytica
* Bosphorus
* Byblos
* Caesarea Maritima
* Canopus
* Carthage
* Centumcellae
* Charmutha
* Chittagong
* Delos
* Essina
* Giao Chỉ
* Godavaya
* Guangzhou
* Jambukola
* Jeddah
* Kaveri Poompattinam
* Kedah
* Korkai
* Leptis Magna
* Lothal
* Manthai
* Madurai
* Malao
* Mersa Gawasis
* Myos Hormos
* Martaban
* Mueang Phra Rot
* Muscat
* Muziris
* Narbonne
* Nesis
* Óc Eo (Cattigara)
* Opone
* Ostia Antica
* Palembang
* Piraeus
* Portus Augusti
* Portus Pisanus
* Prosphorion
* Ptolemais Theron
* Puteoli
* Qal'at al-Bahrain
* Qandala
* Quilon
* Rhacotis
* Sarapion
* Satingpra
* Sidon
* Socotra
* Sounagoura
* Thapsus
* Trincomalee
* Tulum
* Tyndis
* Tyre
* Wadi al-Jarf
* Zanzibar

History

| Prehistory|

* Timeline
* Britain
* Oceania
* Remote
* Near
* Ubaid period
* Indus Valley

|

Civilizations|

* Ancient Egypt
* Old Kingdom
* Austronesia
* Sa Huỳnh
* Lapita
* Micronesia
* Langkasuka
* Kedah
* Champa
* Kutai
* Tarumanagara
* Kalingga
* Srivijaya
* Sunda
* Polynesia
* Minoan
* Indus Valley
* Tamilakam
* Chola
* Chera
* Pandya
* Somalia
* Dilmun
* Maya
* Nuragic
* Mycenaean
* Phoenicia
* Olmecs
* Carthage
* Greece
* Archaic
* Classical
* Rome
* Achaemenid
* Nabatea
* Aksum

Migration and
exploration|

* Peopling of Australia
* Peopling of Micronesia
* Austronesian Expansion
* Greeks in pre-Roman Gaul
* Ocean exploration
* Phoenician maritime expansion
* Sardinia
* Circumnavigation of Africa
* Pytheas's voyage to Britain
* Roman circumnavigation of Britain
* Timeline

Mariners and
explorers|

* Henenu
* Euthymenes
* Hanno the Navigator
* Himilco
* Sataspes
* Androsthenes of Thasos
* Archias of Pella
* Alexander the Great
* Nearchus
* Pytheas
* Megasthenes
* Xu Fu
* Hippalus
* Julius Caesar
* Eudoxus of Cyzicus
* Maes Titianus

Military|

| Navies|

* Egyptian
* Achaemenid
* Greek
* Roman

|

Battles|

* Mediterranean: Alashiya
* Nile Delta
* Salamis
* Artemisium
* Eurymedon
* Naupactus
* Olpae
* Syracuse
* Cynossema
* Arginusae
* Mytilene
* Hellespont
* Echinades
* Salamis II
* Mylae
* Cape Hermaeum
* Ecnomus
* Drepana
* Aegates
* Lake Trasimene
* Chios
* Myonessus
* Nile
* Naulochus
* Mycale
* Actium

Tactics|

* Boarding
* Grappling
* Incendiaries
* Oared vessels
* Sailing ships
* Greek navy
* Ramming

By region|

* China
* India
* Odisha
* Japan
* Rome
* South America
* Rafts

Economy and trade

* Whaling
* Fishing
* Egypt
* Land of Punt
* Indo–Mesopotamia relations
* Meluhha
* Tin
* Spice trade
* Austronesian network
* Sa Huynh-Kalanay
* Incense trade
* Maritime Silk Road
* Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
* Maya
* Greece
* Greco–Indian
* shipping
* Rome
* Indo–Roman

Piracy

* History
* Mediterranean piracy
* Ameinias the Phocian
* Cilician pirates
* Jewish pirates
* Kidnapping of Julius Caesar
* Pompey's campaign against the pirates

Research and education

| Scholars|

| Historians|

* David Blackman
* Lionel Casson
* Fik Meijer
* John Sinclair Morrison
* William L. Rodgers
* Chester G. Starr

|

Archaeologists|

* George Bass
* Jean-Yves Empereur
* Boris Rankov
* J. Richard Steffy
* Peter Throckmorton
* Shelley Wachsmann

Topics
and theories|

* Coastal defence and fortification
* Grave goods
* Lighthouses
* Alexandria
* Marine art
* Marine navigation
* Maritime archaeology
* Naval warfare
* Maritime temples
* Temple of Isthmia
* Temple of Poseidon, Sounion
* Samothrace temple complex
* Nusantao network
* Phoenician discovery of America
* Pre-Columbian theories
* Sea Peoples
* Shipbuilding
* Shell middens
* Ship burial
* Tacking
* Thalassocracy
* Underwater archaeology
* Underwater exploration

Sites|

* H3
* Qal'at al-Bahrain

Experimental
archaeology|

* Ship replica
* Heyerdahl expeditions
* Kon-Tiki
* Ra and Ra II
* Austronesian replicas
* Hōkūleʻa
* Sarimanok
* Te Au o Tonga
* Hawaiʻiloa canoe
* Samudra Raksa
* Alingano Maisu
* Saina
* Balangay Voyage
* Faʻafaite
* Gaualofa
* Marumaru Atua
* Mediterranean
* Olympias
* Regina
* Phoenician Ship Expedition
* Viking replicas
* Viking
* Others
* Vital Alsar
* Ivlia
* Abora
* Viracocha
* Tangaroa
* Oakleaf
* Morgawr

Institutes and
conferences|

* Advisory Council on Underwater Archaeology
* Archaeological Institute of America
* European Association of Archaeologists
* Institute of Nautical Archaeology
* International Congress of Maritime Museums
* Nautical Archaeology Society
* RPM Nautical Foundation
* Sea Research Society
* Society for American Archaeology

Museums and
memorials|

* Boat Museum, Kolkata
* Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology
* Giza Solar boat museum
* Grand Egyptian Museum
* Ancient Shipwreck Museum at Kyrenia Castle
* Museum of Ancient Seafaring
* Museum of Ancient Ships, Pisa
* National Museum of Subaquatic Archaeology
* Viking ship museums:
* Oslo
* Roskilde

Legend and literature

| Legend|

* Ark of bulrushes
* Flood myths
* Genesis
* Gilgamesh
* Greek

|

Literature|

* Odyssey
* Histories (Herodotus)
* On the Ocean
* Argonautica
* Histories (Polybius)
* Metamorphoses
* Geography
* Aeneid

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