Ancient Egypt Boat Ship Building Nile Barge Navy Roman Ptolemaic Tarkhan Abydos

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Seller: ancientgifts ✉️ (5,439) 100%, Location: Lummi Island, Washington, US, Ships to: US & many other countries, Item: 122909954652 Ancient Egypt Boat Ship Building Nile Barge Navy Roman Ptolemaic Tarkhan Abydos. A comprehensive survey of Egyptian nautical archaeology and history from the Predynastic period to the end of the Ptolemaic period is based on the latest findings in nautical archaeology and research.

  "Egyptian Boats and Ships (Shire Egyptology)" by Steve Vinson.

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  DESCRIPTION:  Softcover.  Publisher: Shire Publications (2008).  Pages: 56.  Size:  8¼ x 6 inches; 1/2 pound.  Summary:      A comprehensive survey of Egyptian nautical archaeology and history from the Predynastic period to the end of the Ptolemaic period is based on the latest findings in nautical archaeology and research. In particular, the book takes advantage of the study of possible or certain Early Dynastic boat remains from Tarkhan and Abydos, the discovery of large Middle Kingdom ship timbers from Lisht and the find of a Persian-period boat near Heliopolis. Beginning with an examination of the physical environment of the Nile Valley, the author surveys the principal chronological divisions of Egyptian history, concentrating as much as possible on actual remains of boats but also using artistic representations and historical sources. A final chapter surveys the place of boats in Egyptian religious beliefs and practices.

CONDITION:  NEW. New oversized softcover. Shire Publications (2008) 56 pages. Unblemished, unmarked, pristine in every respect. Pages are pristine; clean, crisp, unmarked, unmutilated, tightly bound, unambiguously unread. Satisfaction unconditionally guaranteed. In stock, ready to ship. No disappointments, no excuses. PROMPT SHIPPING! HEAVILY PADDED, DAMAGE- FREE PACKAGING! Meticulous and accurate descriptions! Selling rare and out-of-print ancient history books on-line since 1997. We accept returns for any reason within 14 days! #6541a.

PLEASE SEE DESCRIPTIONS AND IMAGES BELOW FOR DETAILED REVIEWS AND FOR PAGES OF PICTURES FROM INSIDE OF BOOK.

PLEASE SEE PUBLISHER, PROFESSIONAL, AND READER REVIEWS BELOW.

  PUBLISHER REVIEWS: 

  REVIEW:  A comprehensive survey of Egyptian nautical archaeology and history from the Predynastic period to the end of the Ptolemaic period is based on the latest findings in nautical archaeology and research.

REVIEW:  Osprey Publishing (Shire) has been providing books for enthusiasts since 1968 and since then it has grown, evolved and taken on new challenges until it stands today as one of the most successful examples of niche publishing around.

REVIEW:  Steve Vinson is a doctoral student in Egyptology at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. He has long been interested in ancient ships and earned a master's degree in nautical archaeology at Texas A&M University in 1987. While a marine archaeology student, he participated in the excavation of the late Bronze Age shipwreck at Ulu Burun, Turkey, in 1985 and 1986, and has done research on boat graffiti on Egyptian temples.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Chronology.

Introduction.

Before the Old Kingdom.

The Old Kingdom.

The Middle Kingdom.

The New Kingdom.

The Late and Graeco-Roman Periods.

Boats in Egyptian Religion.

Further Reading.

Museums.

  PROFESSIONAL REVIEWS: 

  REVIEW:  The author traces the development of the different types of boats and the techniques of their construction through the Old, Middle, and New Kingdom periods. A well-written and vital study.

REVIEW:  Examines the different types of boats, their methods of construction, and an analysis of their use, both for practical and ritual purposes. Compact yet informative, superbly written.

 

  READER REVIEWS: 

  REVIEW:  This book comprehensively outlines the latest findings of nautical archaeology with regard to Ancient Egyptian boats dating between the Predynastic to the end of the Ptolemaic period. New boat remains have been excavated at places like Abydos, Trakhan, Lisht and Heliopolis. Interestingly enough, the author includes a fascinating section on the natural environment in Ancient Egypt, which shaped its boat building industry. Apart from describing and interpreting the actual physical boats remains, he also draws on artistic representations and historical sources. The book ends with a look at the place of boats in ancient Egyptian religious beliefs and practices. Recommended for all scholars, interested students, and Egyptology enthusiasts.

REVIEW:  Despite its brevity, it is by far the best book on the subject.

REVIEW:  This serves as an excellent index or overview for further detailed research. It mentions many locations and boats, but due to its brevity, most of the mentioned places and boats are not displayed by map, photo, or drawing. There is little speculation on the intricacies of technique and method of actually using the boats. For instance rowing has not really been tested on any of the Egyptian boats, yet most had oars. Steering looks ungainly on many fixed with an overhead steering oar. However the scope of the book is necessarily limited by its introductory/overview nature to an archeological accounting of actual finds related to given time periods.

REVIEW:  Five stars. Love it. Great illustrations, very understandable.

REVIEW:  Five stars! Very informative.

  ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND: 

  REVIEW:  A great video which describes Egyptian shipbuilding and seafaring techniques. The Egyptians were advanced shipbuilders and these details are examined (https://www.ancient.eu/video/1059/).

REVIEW:  REVIEW:  Ancient Egyptians pioneered the development of river craft and various types of Egyptian Boats and ships were built. The Nile provided an excellent means of transport and every corner of the city could be reached by boats. Need for an efficient navy was recognized by Pharaohs like Senefru who had a fleet of 40 ships. Ships and Egyptian Boats were built for fishing, trade, transportation, processions and travel. Agricultural produce, troops, cattle, stone and funeral processions were all carried on the Nile and its canals. Animals and goods were transported. For Egyptians, both building and rowing a boat were not easy jobs. The wood was cut with a chisel.

  Mainly three types of Egyptian boats for different purposes were made in ancient Egypt. Simple reed rafts were used mostly for hunting in marshes. Eventually, stronger wooden boats were used for lengthy ocean excursions as well as to transport boulder blocks weighing many tons. The third type of boat was the papyri from the boat. Papyrus boats were used for daily activities like hunting or religious ceremonies. These boats were made of bundles of bound papyrus reeds, and were lashed together into a long thin hull form in the style of a slight crescent.

  Sailboats were also in use which had one square sail. The elegant Funeral boats were used to carry the dead across Nile river. They were buried along with the dead. When this became expensive, models of boats were buried. Military ships gradually evolved. Model boats for the symbolic journey of the sun god were also found. The earliest record of a ship under sail is depicted on an Egyptian pot dating back to 3200 B.C. These Egyptian boats were made of either native woods or conifers from Lebanon. Cedar was important as a boat building material. Boats were often named.

  The world’s oldest boat is found in the pyramid of King Khufu. It is a good example of papyri from a boat. The pieces were found unassembled. Some believe it was for the king to use in his afterlife. The Abydos boats were discovered in 2000. They are a great white, ‘ghostly’ fleet of 14 boats. They were about 25 meters long, two to three meters wide and about sixty centimeters deep, seating 30 rowers. The pharaohs prided themselves on their pleasure boats with multiple decks containing cabins, kitchens, dining rooms and lounges. [AncientEgyptianArtifacts.Com].

REVIEW:  Several Ancient Egyptian solar ships and boat pits were found in many Ancient Egyptian sites. The most famous is the Khufu ship now preserved in the Giza Solar boat museum beside the Great pyramid at Giza. The full-sized ships or boats were buried near Ancient Egyptians' Pyramids or Temples at many sites. The history and function of the ships are not precisely known. They might be of the type known as a "solar barge", a ritual vessel to carry the resurrected king with the sun god Ra across the heavens. However, some ships bear signs of being used in water, and it is possible that these ships were a funerary "barge".

  Seven boat pits have been identified around the Great Pyramid. Five of which belong to the Great Pyramid proper. The other 2 are associated with the pyramid of Hetepheres and the pyramid of the Ka. Khufu's boat pits are located on the eastern side of the pyramid and the southern side. 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 2500 B.C. It was thus identified as the world's oldest intact ship and has been described as "a masterpiece of woodcraft" that could sail today if put into water.

  The Khufu ship is one of the oldest, largest, and best-preserved vessels from antiquity. It measures 43.6 m (143 ft) long and 5.9 m (19.5 ft) wide. The ship was one of two rediscovered in 1954 by Kamal el-Mallakh – undisturbed since it was sealed into a pit carved out of the Giza bedrock. It took years for the boat to be painstakingly reassembled, primarily by the Egyptian Department of Antiquities’ chief restorer, Ahmed Youssef Moustafa (later known as Haj Ahmed Youssef). The ship is today housed in The Khufu Boat Museum, a small modern facility built in 1982 resting alongside the Great Pyramid.

 

  In one of the southern boat pits a disassembled wooden barge was discovered in 1954. It has been reconstructed and resides in the boat shaped museum.In 1987, the western boat pit at the Great Pyramid was examined by a microprobe inserted through a hole drilled into the pit, confirming the presence of a second wooden boat similar to the first. It was originally decided that the second boat should remain in its pit, in conditions which made its preservation near perfect. The second solar boat of Khufu is being excavated in 2012-2013 and is going to be reconstructed.

  Sakuji Yoshimura, a Waseda University professor who is leading the restoration project with Egypt's Antiquities Council, said (June 2011) that scientists discovered that this second ship is inscribed with Khufu's name. Khafre’s pyramid has five pits that once contained funeral boats. One known boat pit is alongside the east face of Khafre’s pyramid Another two of the covered boat pits of Khafre lie on the east side of the pyramid and covered boat pit lies on the south side of the mortuary temple of Khafre. A few hundred meters to the north of Abusir, about six miles southwest of Cairo is the sun temple known as Abu Gorab.

  There lies the ruins of Niuserre's temple, Outside the temple proper and near its southern side, the German expedition also discovered a large building in the shape of a boat. This was a pit, lined with mud bricks which was at one time plastered, whitewashed and colored. This structure was augmented with several other elements made from different materials such as wood. This structure is believed to have been purely symbolic, representing a "solar boat" in which the sun god was supposed to have floated across the heavenly ocean. The pit might have contained a boat.

  A wooden funerary boat thought to have once belonged to First Dynasty King Den has been discovered at Abu Roash, the place of the pyramid of Khufu’s son, Djedefre. Unearthed in the northern area of Mastaba number six (a flat-roofed burial structure) at the archaeological site, boat consists of 11 large wooden planks reaching six metres high and 150 metres wide. Two boats were discovered at Abu Rawash. At the complex of Djedefre, Emile Chassinat, between 1900 and 1902, discovered the remains of a funerary settlement and a boat pit. The solar boat pit is situated on the east side of the pyramid. It is a ditch 35 meters long cut out of the living limestone. It is destined for the royal boat. The beautiful heads carved into the likeness of Djedefre were found there.

  Neferirkare's pyramid at Abusir was the largest structure in the region. Large wooden boats were buried outside the pyramid in its courtyard on the north and south sides. Archaeologists discovered them by their mention in a cache of papyrus found within the mortuary temple, but unfortunately, when they excavated the southern boat pit, only dust remained of the boat itself. In 1991 in the desert near the temple of Khentyamentiu near Abydos, archaeologists uncovered the remains of the 14 ships dating back to the early first dynasty (2950-2775 B.C.), possibly associated with Hor-Aha.

  These 75-foot-long ships are buried side by side and have wooden hulls, rough stone boulders which were used as anchors, and "sewn" wooden planks. Also found within their desert graves were remains of the woven straps that joined the planks, as well as reed bundles that were used to seal seams between planks. Abydos had at least a dozen boat graves adjacent to a massive funerary enclosure for the late Dynasty II (circa 2675 B.C.) Pharaoh Khasekhemwy. Their age should be more than 400 years older than Khufu's (Cheops) ships. The boats were 25 meters long, 2.5 meters wide and about 0.5 meters deep, seating about 30 rowers.

  They had narrowing sterns and prows and they were painted. They are in meaning and function the direct ancestors of the boat recovered at Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza. The ships are possibly associated with King Aha, the first ruler of that dynasty. The length of the structures varied from nearly 20 to 27 meters. These are the world's most ancient planked hulls. The traditions of the hull construction seen in all the excavated vessels continued through the end of the sixth century B.C. and, with the substitution of nails for mortise-and-tenon joints, into the present.

  An abandoned freighter, stripped of its internal timbers and left on a small branch of the Nile near Mataria (ancient Heliopolis, north of modern Cairo) provides the first instance of pegged mortise-and-tenon joints in an Egyptian hull. Not all joints were through-fastened, and the pegs, or treenails, may also have fastened frames to the hull, but for this marks a dramatic departure from previous shipbuilding techniques. Six boats of Middle Kingdom date were found at Dahshur. They are about 10 meters long each.

  In 1893 Jacques de Morgan discovered six boats near the Middle Kingdom pyramid of Senwosret III at Dashur. He made drawings and measurements of only one boat (the White boat) from the cache at Dahshur. One of the ships measure 18 meters. Excavations conducted in A.D. 1894 and 1895 by French archaeologist Jean-Jacques de Morgan at the funerary complex of Senwosret III on the plain of Dahshur revealed five or six small boats.

  Today, only four of the "Dahshur boats" can be located with certainty; two are in the United States, one in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh and one in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. The remaining two are on display in The Egyptian Museum, Cairo. Since their excavation these boats remained relatively inconspicuous until the mid-1980s when a study of the two hulls in the United States was conducted.

  Amenemhat III's Solar ship pit was discovered at the south perimeter of his pyramid, it measured 15 meter by 5.57 meters. At Saqqarah a 'model estate' and funerary boat was found by W. Emery (in 1957-8; tomb S 3357). At least 3 mud-brick boat graves were associated with First Dynasty rulers and high-ranking officials. The Unas pyramid at Saqqarah has two boats. One the boat pits is 44 meter long and is located 150 meter away from the remains of the funeral temple. Lined with limestone blocks these boat pits are thought to have been simulacra of solar boats.

 

  Remains of Old Kingdom boats were found at Tarkhan. Archaic boats had been found at Helwan by Z. Saad. In total 4 or 5 boat burials were found at Helwan, as well as at the northerly Abydos site of the Royal enclosures. Forty timbers were found in excavations near the Pyramid of Senusret I in Lisht. They were identified as part of vessel or vessels. Amenemhat I's Pyramid Solar boat is present at the Western Perimeter of the wall of Amenemhat I pyramid at Lisht. A mudbrick boat pit has also been found outside Amenemhat I’s pyramid western perimeter wall.

  Excavation of the remains of seagoing ships at Wadi/Mersa Gawasis, south of Safaga on the Egyptian Red Sea coast, in 2004–05 and 2005–06 provides extensive physical evidence for construction techniques, wood selection, and recycling and re-use practices of the ancient Egyptians. Discoveries at Gawasis prove that common Egyptian river-oriented design and construction techniques were successful both on the Nile and at sea. [Wikipedia].

REVIEW:  The Abydos boats were discovered in October 2000. Initially, they appeared to be a white, ‘ghostly’ fleet of 14 boat images in the desert sand. They are not the oldest boat remains to be discovered in Egypt as is sometimes proclaimed, but they have proved to be important to the history of Egyptian boat design and nautical architecture. On October 31, 2000 the University of Pennsylvania Museum and Yale University Expedition to Abydos, Egypt issued a press release in which they described the discovery of the royal solar boats at Abydos.

  At a site a mile distant from the royal tombs, lines of mud brick uncovered by blowing sand were first noticed in 1988. Although the Abydos boats are not the oldest boat remains to be discovered in Egypt, nor are they the world's first boats as is sometimes proclaimed, they are extremely important to the history of boat design and nautical architecture. Understandably, these brick remains at Abydos were first thought to be walls. In 1991, an important clarification was made. A research consensus decided these bricks were remnants of ancient walls after all, but not in the usual sense. They were actually the boundaries for more than a dozen ship burials from an early dynasty.

  Each ship grave had its own brick boundary walls. The outline of each grave was in the shape of a boat, and the surface of each was covered with mud plaster and white wash. Small boulders at the prow or stern of each grave represented anchors. Because of the fragility of the boat remains, almost no excavation was done initially as the situation had to be carefully studied for future conservation. The one exception to the supposed 'look but don't touch' policy was the so-named boat no. 10, which was slowly appearing due to apparent soil erosion. For five days, archaeologists carefully examined the midsection of the ship. They uncovered wooden planks, disintegrated rope, and reed bundles.

  Wood-eating ants had reduced much of the ship's hull to frass (ant excrement), but the frass had retained the shape of the original hull. The midsection of this boat revealed the construction methods used and confirmed the oldest ‘planked’ constructed boat yet discovered. The boat's construction revealed it had been constructed from the outside in, as there was no internal frame. Averaging 75 ft long and 7–10 ft wide at their greatest width, these boats were only about two feet deep, with narrow prows and sterns. Several boats were white-plastered, as were the Abydos tombs, and no. 10 was painted yellow.

  “One of the most important indigenous woodworking techniques was the fixed Mortise and tenon joint. A fixed tenon is made by shaping the end of one timber to fit into a mortise (hole) that is cut into a second timber. A variation of this joint using a free tenon eventually became one of the most important features in Mediterranean and Egyptian shipbuilding. It creates a union between two planks or other components by inserting a separate tenon into a cavity (mortise) of the corresponding size cut into each component."

  Seams between planks were filled with reed bundles, reeds also covered the floor of each Abydos boat. Without internal framing, some of these boats became twisted, as was unavoidable without an internal skeleton for support when out of the water. The wood of the Abydos boats was local Tamarix - tamarisk, salt cedar - not cedar from Lebanon which was used for Khufu’s Solar Barque and favored for shipbuilding in Egypt in later dynasties. Lebanon cedar was used for the poles and beams of the Umm el-Qa'ab tombs and had already been imported earlier; pigment residues hinted at bright colors.

  The wood planks were painted yellow on their outside and traces of white pigment have also been found. “A part of the mud brick casing suggests that there could have been a support for poles/pennants on top of the boats, as in the boats depicted on pottery or atop the archaic shrines onto some mace heads/palettes.” This technology for ship construction persisted in Egypt for more than one thousand years and the standardization of this earliest phase of plank boat construction in Egypt is striking. To scholars, the use of unpegged joints seems odd, if not eccentric, and is not found in well established, ancient Mediterranean shipbuilding traditions.

  This approach allowed Egyptian boats used in trade to be easily disassembled, the planks transported long distances through the desert and then re-assembled to be used on important trading routes such as those in the Red Sea. There are pictographs of boats dating from Predynastic Egypt and the First Dynasty along the first half of the route in the desert known to be used to reach the Red Sea from Upper Egypt. A sketch on an ostracon found at depicts priests carrying the Solar Bark of Amun across the desert. This rock art is not only evidence for take apart, portable boats, but has magical significance as well.

  The Abydos boats were found in boat graves with their prows pointed towards the Nile. Experts consider them to have been the royal boats intended for the Pharaoh in the afterlife. Umm el-Qa'ab is a royal necropolis that is about one mile from the Abydos boat graves where early pharaohs were entombed. The Abydos boats are the predecessors of the great solar boats of later dynasties upon which the Pharaoh joined the Sun God Ra and together journeyed down the sacred Nile during the day. They would have had many of the important attributes and metaphors that were attached to the Solar Barks of later dynasties, and indeed perhaps should be called Solar Boats of an earlier design.

 

  The Khufu ship, built for the Pharaoh Khufu - Cheops - ca. 2500 BC., is usually identified as the earliest Solar Ship. It was buried in a pit at the foot of the Great Pyramid at Giza. The Abydos boat graves were adjacent to a massive funerary enclosure for the late Dynasty II (circa 2675 B.C.) Pharaoh Khasekhemwy at Abydos which is 8 miles from the Nile. Umm el-Qa'ab is a royal necropolis at Abydos, Egypt where early pharaohs were entombed. However, these boat graves were established earlier than late in Dynasty II, perhaps for the afterlife journeys of Hor-Aha, the first king (circa about 2920–2770) of the First Dynasty of Egypt, or Pharaoh Djer also of Dynasty I.

  Two more recently located mortuary discoveries have been identified as those of King Aha, who may have been the son of the famous King Narmer, to whom the first unification of Upper and Lower Egypt is often attributed. The Abydos boats are not the only find of First Dynasty ships. 19 boat burials were found at Helwan by Z. Saad, but only four out of these were poorly published. Six boat graves were found at Saqqara by Walter Bryan Emery of which again only four were published. Finally two full-sized model boats made out of clay are known from Abu Roash Hill.

  Helwan (a suburb of Cairo on eastern side of Nile) contain a huge cemetery field 20 km south of Cairo adjoining Saqqara in which at least 10,000 tombs have been cataloged. The size of Helwan indicates a very large population for Early Dynastic Memphis. Almost all the tombs date from Dynasty 0 through the Third Dynasty. There are 19 elite tombs where 1st Dynasty funeral boat burials have been discovered that resemble those at Abydos, but little published information is available. [Wikipedia].

REVIEW:  The Abydos boats are a fleet of ships discovered in the sands of Abydos, Egypt. Sea vessels played an important role in ancient Egypt, not only in the everyday life of its people, but also in its religion and mythology. The flowing of the Nile from the south to the north of this civilization meant that boats were an indispensable mode of transportation. Additionally, the ancient Egyptian god, Ra, was believed to travel across the sky in a solar-boat.

  Although there are numerous artistic depictions of boats and ships, not many actual boats from this ancient civilization are known to have survived the ravages of time. Thus, the Abydos boats are considered to be a significant discovery. In October 2000, it was reported that a 5000-year-old hull of a wooden boat was excavated by archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania Museum and Yale University Expedition to Abydos. To date, 14 vessels have been discovered at the site, and they are believed to have been built around 3000 B.C.

  The existence of at least a dozen boat graves had already been known as early as 1991 by archaeologists working at Abydos. These boat graves were located adjacent to a massive funerary enclosure for a late 2nd Dynasty pharaoh, Khasekhemwy. Yet, they were not excavated at that time, perhaps due to conservation concerns. Although they were located next to the funerary enclosure of Khasekhemwy, experts have determined that these boats were placed there many years before this enclosure was built, and that they had been intended for an earlier pharaoh, perhaps one from the 1st Dynasty.

  On average, the Abydos boats measured from 18-24 meters (60-80 feet) in length, 2-3 meters (7-10 feet) in width, and about 60 cm (2 feet) deep. Scholars speculate that these boats could have accommodated up to 30 rowers each. Therefore, it has also been determined that these boats were not just models, but could have been vessels used for sailing. It is unclear, however, if these boats had been used prior to their burial, or were built specifically for funerary purposes. Nevertheless, this is a rare find indeed, as models were commonly used in lieu of the real thing for mortuary purposes. For example, 35 boat models were found in the tomb of Tutankhamun.

  It has also been claimed that the Abydos boats are the earliest surviving examples of ‘built boats.’ These are boats that are constructed out of planks fitted together, as opposed to reed vessels or dugout logs. Thus, the Abydos boats also represent a major development in the history of boat-building. Due to the complex technology required to build these vessels, it has been suggested that the Abydos boats are a reflection of a pharaoh’s wealth and power. By extension, these ships have the potential to provide scholars with more information about the power, wealth, and technological prowess of ancient Egypt’s earliest dynasties.

  Apart from practical uses, the Abydos boats may have also had a more symbolic function. In the religion of the ancient Egyptians, the sun god, Ra, was believed to travel through the sky by day and the netherworld by night in a solar boat. This daily journey represents the regenerative cycle of Ra. Therefore, by burying boats near the tomb of a pharaoh, it was hoped that the pharaoh would also enjoy this eternal cycle of regeneration in their afterlife.

  This symbolism of the boat is also visible in the famous Khufu ship, which was discovered at Khufu’s pyramid at Giza, and was possibly constructed about 4 centuries after the Abydos boats. The Abydos boats could be the direct ancestors of this ship – transporting the pharaohs on their journey to regeneration. [AncientOrigns.Net].

  REVIEW:  Ancient Egyptians pioneered the development of river craft and various types of Egyptian Boats and ships were built. The Nile provided an excellent means of transport and every corner of the city could be reached by boats. Need for an efficient navy was recognized by Pharaohs like Senefru who had a fleet of 40 ships. Ships and Egyptian Boats were built for fishing, trade, transportation, processions and travel. Agricultural produce, troops, cattle, stone and funeral processions were all carried on the Nile and its canals. Animals and goods were transported. For Egyptians, both building and rowing a boat were not easy jobs. The wood was cut with a chisel.

  Mainly three types of Egyptian boats for different purposes were made in ancient Egypt. Simple reed rafts were used mostly for hunting in marshes. Eventually, stronger wooden boats were used for lengthy ocean excursions as well as to transport boulder blocks weighing many tons. The third type of boat was the papyri from the boat. Papyrus boats were used for daily activities like hunting or religious ceremonies. These boats were made of bundles of bound papyrus reeds, and were lashed together into a long thin hull form in the style of a slight crescent.

 

  Sailboats were also in use which had one square sail. The elegant Funeral boats were used to carry the dead across Nile river. They were buried along with the dead. When this became expensive, models of boats were buried. Military ships gradually evolved. Model boats for the symbolic journey of the sun god were also found. The earliest record of a ship under sail is depicted on an Egyptian pot dating back to 3200 B.C. These Egyptian boats were made of either native woods or conifers from Lebanon. Cedar was important as a boat building material. Boats were often named.

  The world’s oldest boat is found in the pyramid of King Khufu. It is a good example of papyri from a boat. The pieces were found unassembled. Some believe it was for the king to use in his afterlife. The Abydos boats were discovered in 2000. They are a great white, ‘ghostly’ fleet of 14 boats. They were about 25 meters long, two to three meters wide and about sixty centimeters deep, seating 30 rowers. The pharaohs prided themselves on their pleasure boats with multiple decks containing cabins, kitchens, dining rooms and lounges. [AncientEgyptianArtifacts.Com].

  REVIEW:  In ancient Egypt, sacred boats called barques were believed to ferry the dead to the afterlife, the sun god Ra across the sky, and various other gods and royalty up and down the Nile River. Now a barque resting place made of stone blocks from the time of Queen Hatshepsut has been discovered on Elephantine Island and will give scholars some insight on the religion of her time, the Ministry of Antiquities announced on its Facebook page.  The ancient Egyptian barque resting station that was part of a sacred building dating back to the time of Hatshepsut has been discovered on the island in the Nile River at Aswan.

  The German Archaeological Institute has found a number of blocks upon which the sacred boat would have rested when it was not being used in a procession, said Mahmoud Afify of the ministry. “According to Dr. Felix Arnold, the field director of the mission, the building served as a way station for the festival barque of the god Khnum,” the ministry’s press release states. “The building was later dismantled and about 30 of its blocks have now been found in the foundations of the Khnum temple of Nectanebo II. Some of the blocks were discovered in previous excavation seasons by members of the Swiss Institute, but the meaning of the blocks has only now become clear.”

  Queen Hatshepsut is represented as a woman on some of the blocks, so they must have been carved during the early years of her reign because in later years she was represented as a king, the ministry wrote in the press release. This is one of very few buildings from the early period of her reign to have been discovered so far. The only other buildings dating to the early period of Hatshepsut’s rule were discovered at Karnak. Hatshepsut was in power from 1508 to 1458 B.C. “The newly discovered building thus adds to our knowledge of the early years of Queen Hatshepsut and her engagement in the region of Aswan,” the statement says. “In the reign of Thutmosis III. all mentions of her name were erased and all representations of her female figure were replaced by images of a male king, her deceased husband Thutmosis II.”

  Experts believe they can reconstruct the building’s appearance based on the blocks found so far. The building would probably have had a chamber lined on all four sides by pillars in which rested the god Khnum’s barque. The pillars bear representations of Khnum and other gods, including Imi-peref, which means “He who is in his house”; and Nebet-menit or “Lady of the mooring post”; and Min-Amun of Nubia. So, the discoveries add not just to the knowledge of Queen Hatshepsut but also help Egyptologists understand the religious milieu and beliefs on Elephantine Island during Hatshepsut’s reign, the press release states.

  The barque station was probably watched over and guarded by priests when the boat was not in procession, says Heritage Daily in an article about the discoveries. Barques were used from the beginning of recorded history in Egypt. There are many depictions of them in reliefs and paintings. Ancient Egyptians believed barques were used to transport people to the afterlife, and images of the boats are depicted in many temples and tombs. Also, the Egyptian god Ra was believed to have traveled in a barque. According to the Egypt Art Site:

  "One legend states that each day, Ra was born and began a journey across the sky. Ra was believed to travel in the Manjet-boat. or the 'Barque of Millions of Years'. He was joined on this daily journey by a crew of many gods. The Manjet-boat would sail through the twelve provinces, representing the twelve hours of daylight. At the end of each day Ra was thought to die and embarked on his night voyage. For this journey he was called Auf, which means 'corpse.' Ra sailed in a boat called the Mesektet-boat or night-barque on his journey through the twelve hours of darkness." The page Reshafim.org has an article titled “Solar Ships and Funerary Boats” that says “Some of the divine vessels belonged wholly in the realm of mythology like the sun barks; the bark of the other world; or the bark of the gods.” [AncientOrigns.Net].

REVIEW:  Beneath the golden sands west of the Nile, at the ancient Egyptian sacred site of Abydos, archaeologists have made an extraordinary discovery: a whole fleet of boats that were sketched onto the interior walls of a subterranean mud-brick boat chamber in about 1840 B.C. The structure was part of the mortuary complex of a 12th-dynasty king named Senwosret III, whose tomb lies nearby. This unique find reveals new details about how the rituals of the king’s funeral may have played out.

  It also suggests that an age-old royal burial tradition was still honored here, though that would soon fade as radically different funerary practices came into fashion. The structure was first noticed during the winter of 1901-02, when British archaeologist Arthur Weigall exposed the barrel-vaulted roof as well as the tops of the interior walls. There he got the first glimpse of the building’s boat-themed decoration. But the central part of the roof collapsed as his crew excavated the sand from under it, putting an end to the project.

  Now archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania, working with Egypt’s Ministry of State for Antiquities, have exposed the ruins of what was once a grand hall some 70 feet long and 13 feet wide. This work was partly funded by a grant from the National Geographic Society. The finely plastered, whitewashed walls were decorated with more than 120 incised drawings of boats, each slightly different from the next. Some were simple outlines of hulls curved like crescent moons. Others were more elaborate, showing a mast and sails and oarsmen. Most were crowded together, with many touching or overlapping.

 

  At first, Wegner and his team had no idea what this building might have been used for. “We were quite mystified,” he says. “We were expecting it to be a tomb.” But the clues they’ve uncovered suggest it was constructed to bury a large wooden boat that had been used in a royal funeral, in line with a tradition that stretches back to the earliest days of dynastic Egypt. As a graduate student, Wegner participated in an excavation at Abydos that found 14 wooden vessels—some as long as 75 feet — from about 3000 B.C. All lay in mud-brick structures arrayed outside the funerary complex of a 1st-dynasty king. Wegner sees evidence of a similar scheme at this site, known as south Abydos.

  When his crew dug a test trench to find the floor of the building with the boat sketches, they found a gentle curve—the perfect shape to cradle a boat’s hull. They also found a few pieces of wood that were badly decayed and ravaged by insects. Wegner believes these are the remaining scraps of a boat that was looted in antiquity for its lumber. Since the boat had a royal connection, the lumber probably included expensive cedar planks imported from Lebanon—very much worth stealing, especially in a country where trees of any kind are scarce.

  The boat would have been built at the height of the 12th dynasty, when Egypt sent military campaigns to both the Levant in the north and Nubia in the south. During this period of great wealth and power, the king must have had money to burn on any number of monumental projects—including more than one potential burial place. Each required an enormous investment of resources and reflected very different designs. The 5,000-year-old wooden boats from Abydos are the oldest planked craft ever found. Arranged like a fleet moored at a wharf, they lie in mud-brick graves beside a 1st-dynasty king’s funerary enclosure at Abydos. The recently discovered boat tomb continued this same tradition some 1,200 years later.

  Senwosret III ruled from the north of the country, and he has one burial place there. His capital, Itjtawy [pronounced itch-TAU-wee], lay somewhere near the Fayum, a region about 280 miles north of Abydos. Its exact location was one of Egypt’s many mysteries until National Geographic explorer Sarah Parcak identified a likely site recently through satellite imagery. Following tradition, the king had a pyramid tomb built at the nearby site of Dashur, not far from the famous 4th-dynasty pyramids at Giza. But it doesn’t look like he was buried there.

  He also had a tomb, mortuary temple, and associated funerary buildings prepared at the already ancient site of Abydos, far to the south. That spot was the mythical location of the tomb of Osiris, the god of the afterlife, and had long been an important pilgrimage site. “Senwosret III had a personal interest in the cult of Osiris, who was worshipped in the main temple at Abydos,” Wegner says. In fact, at the same time the king was building his own final resting place, he assigned a commission of high officials to completely renovate the god’s temple.

  The royal tomb was dug deep into the bedrock under a cliff known in antiquity as the Mountain of Anubis, the jackal-headed god associated with mummification. Wegner’s crew has been excavating there, too. Among other things, they’ve found a magnificent stone sarcophagus. It was empty and not in its original location. But together with other clues, it leads them to believe Senwosret III was, indeed, buried in Abydos. The king most surely died somewhere else, so his body had to have been brought to Abydos.

  The logical route was the fluid highway of the Nile. Wegner envisions a great procession of boats traveling along the river, all accompanying the great craft that carried the mortal remains of the recently departed ruler. As part of the funerary ceremonies, at least one of those boats was probably dragged across the sand and maneuvered into an underground chamber of mud brick. And then, perhaps, each of the many people who had participated in this ritual left an individual piece of art—the image of a boat quickly scratched into the chamber wall to commemorate the king’s passing.

  Senwosret III’s preparations for his own demise foreshadowed big changes in burial customs. Although kings would continue to build pyramids until about 1500 B.C., the idea of a hidden tomb gained momentum. By the time of the New Kingdom, Egypt’s next golden age, rulers were hiding their tombs beneath the Valley of the Kings, and the tradition of burying funerary boats had entirely died out. The most famous discovery there, King Tut’s tomb, included exquisite model boats that served a similar function to Senwosret’s full-size ones.

  They were supposed to become available magically for the use of the deceased king in the next world. Those preparations for a life everlasting endured for 30 dynasties and almost 3,000 years, even as the details changed with the passage of time. [National Geographic].

  REVIEW:  More than 120 images of ancient Egyptian boats have been discovered adorning the inside of a building in Abydos, Egypt. The building dates back more than 3,800 years and was built near the tomb of pharaoh Senwosret III, archaeologists reported. The tableau, as the series of images is called, would have looked upon a real wooden boat said Josef Wegner, a curator at the Penn Museum at the University of Pennsylvania, who led the excavation.

  Only a few planks remain of the wooden boat, which would have been constructed at Abydos or dragged across the desert, Wegner said. In ancient Egypt, boats were sometimes buried near a pharaoh's tomb. Archaeologists found that the tableau was incised on the white plaster walls of the building. The largest images are nearly 5 feet (1.5 meters) in length and show "large, well-rendered boats depicted with masts, sails, rigging, deckhouses/cabins, rudders, oars and in some cases rowers," wrote Wegner in an article published in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology.

 

  Some images are small and simple, the smallest reaching only about 4 inches (10 centimeters) in length, wrote Wegner. Some of the larger boats are highly detailed, showing masts, sails, rigging, cabins, rudders and oars. Though 120 boat images survive today, there would have been more incised on the building walls in ancient times, Wegner wrote. In addition to the boats, the tableau contains incised images of gazelle, cattle and flowers, he noted. Near the entranceway of the building — whose interior is about 68 feet by 13 feet (21 by 4 m) — archaeologists discovered more than 145 pottery vessels, many of which are buried with their necks facing toward the building's entrance.

  "The vessels are necked, liquid-storage jars, usually termed 'beer jars' although probably used for storage and transport of a variety of liquids," wrote Wegner in the journal article. The existence of the building was first noted in a 1904 report by an Egypt Exploration Fund (EEF) team that worked at Abydos between 1901 and 1903. However, that team didn't have time to excavate the building and didn't know what was in it; "they came down on the very top of the boat building. They saw the vault of it but abandoned work," Wegner said. The discoveries leave archaeologists with a series of mysteries that future excavations may help solve.

  The archaeologists don't know who drew the tableau or why they created it. "We can't conclusively answer that on the basis of what's preserved," Wegner told Live Science. However, the researchers think multiple people created the tableau within a short period of time, he added. One possibility is that the people who built the boat also created the tableau, he said. Or, perhaps, a group of people taking part in a funerary ceremony after the death of pharaoh Senwosret III etched the images onto the building walls.

  Yet another possibility is that a group of people gained access to the building after the pharaoh died and created the tableau.  Archaeologists found that a group of individuals entered the building at some point after the pharaoh's death and took the boat apart, reusing the planks. Archaeologists are also puzzled over the purpose of all the pottery found near the entrance of the building. It's possible that those attending a funerary ceremony could have spilled liquid from the pots on the ground on purpose. "Potentially a massive decanting of liquid, likely predominantly water, at the entrance of the building was a way of magically floating the boat," Wegner wrote in the paper.

  The boat would not have been literally floated if this ceremony took place. Another possibility is that the wooden boat was transported on a wooden sledge across the desert. In that case, "water and other liquids may have been used to lubricate and solidify the ground along the path of the boat as it was pulled from the floodplain to its desert resting place," wrote Wegner, adding that "the ceramic vessels used in this journey may themselves have taken on a ritual significance, and both boat and jars were then buried together as ceremonial interment of objects associated with royal mortuary rites."

  The team plans to carry out excavations in the future that may help solve the various mysteries, he said. Wegner's team, in cooperation with Egypt's Ministry of State for Antiquities, carried out the excavations of the building between 2014 and 2016. [LiveScience.Com].

  REVIEW:  Over the past three years, archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology have been excavating an ancient Egyptian boat burial in Abydos. Although very little of the actual vessel survives, it was originally interred in a vaulted subterranean mudbrick building. The site dates to around 1850 B.C., and is believed to have been part of the elaborate funerary complex of the 12th Dynasty king Senusret III.

  “Boats were used during funerary ceremonies and took on a magical significance,” says lead archaeologist Josef Wegner. “The boats used in this way were ritually buried as a means of emphasizing this symbolic connection with the deceased.” The team recently uncovered a decorative tableau that was incised into the white plaster walls along the interior of the boat building. The surviving scene extends for over 80 feet and depicts more than 120 ancient Egyptian watercraft, along with animals and floral motifs.

  The renditions of the boats range in size and complexity, with the largest measuring five feet long, with finely detailed masts, sails, rigging, and deckhouses. Researchers are still unsure who made these etchings, as the images do not compose a single unified scene, but appear to have been created by several different hands of varying talent. It is likely that the carvings were left by individuals who were involved in the funerary ceremonies and participated in depositing the boat. [Archaeological Institute of America].

REVIEW:  Egyptologist Yann Tristant was reading a 1914 excavation report on a First Dynasty (circa 3150–2890 B.C.) tomb at the elite cemetery of Abu Rawash when he noticed something strange. The author, legendary French archaeologist Pierre Montet, wrote that just north of the mudbrick tomb, or mastaba, he had uncovered a wooden floor. That seemed bizarre to Tristant, of Macquarie University in Sydney, because he knew that no other archaeologists have reported finding wooden floors around mastabas.

  Sensing a mystery, he directed his team to excavate at the same spot Montet had almost a century before. The hunch paid off and led Tristant to a pit bounded by a brick wall that held the oldest boat found in Egypt, a 20-footlong vessel dating to 2950 B.C. It’s clear the boat played some role in the burial ceremonies of the tomb’s owner, a high-ranking official. Tristant uncovered artifacts nearby that point to a lavish funerary feast, including ceramic beer jars and bread molds.

  Ceremonial boats have been found at tombs at royal cemeteries; they were intended to symbolically carry pharaohs into the afterlife. But since so few boats have been found at nonroyal tombs, Tristant hesitates to speculate exactly what religious function the Abu Rawash vessel served. “It’s a good example of why we must sometimes re-excavate sites,” says Tristant. “I never would have expected to find a boat at a tomb like this.”  [Archaeological Institute of America].

 

  REVIEW:  A 60-foot-long boat dating to about 2550 B.C. has been discovered to the south of a large mudbrick tomb in the Old Kingdom necropolis at Abusir. Its wooden planks, joined with wooden pegs, are intact, as are the plant fibers that covered the planking seams. Ropes that bound the boat together are also well preserved.

  Most of the ancient Egyptian boats uncovered by archaeologists have been poorly preserved or were dismantled in antiquity, so this vessel offers a unique opportunity to examine how ships were built 4,500 years ago. The name of King Huni from the Third Dynasty has been found on a stone bowl in the tomb, but the name of the tomb’s high-status occupant is unknown.

  “In fact, this is a highly unusual discovery since boats of such a size and construction were, during this period, reserved solely for top members of the society, who usually belonged to the royal family. This suggests the potential for additional discoveries during the next spring season,” Miroslav Bárta, director of the mission for the Czech Institute of Archaeology at Charles University, said in a press release.  [Archaeological Institute of America].

  REVIEW:  Archeologists Find a Rare 4,500-Year-Old Egyptian Funerary Boat. The watercraft is so well preserved that it still has the pegs, ropes and plant fibers that once held it together. Desert sand has long buried the area surrounding the Abusir pyramids, a necropolis known for its royal burials from Egypt’s Fifth Dynasty, circa 2480 B.C. But that sand has also helped preserve the artifacts there. Now, Czech archeologists have uncovered an ancient funerary boat, a unique find, seeing as its wooden planks had to last through millennia. The 62-foot-long boat, dating back more than 4,500 years, was found in a tomb or mastaba made of mud bricks, reports Archaeology magazine.

  The discovery is unusual not just because it is so well preserved but also because the practice of boats burials, which began in Egypt’s Early Dynastic Period, was thought to be reserved for members of the royal family. The Abusir discovery, however, was not located close enough to a royal pyramid to suggest that its owner was royal. The size of the tomb, however, indicates that whoever was buried in it was an elite, a press release from Charles University in Prague writes. The millenia-old planks’ wooden pegs are still visible in their original positions. Even plant fiber battens that covered the boat’s seams are also still there, as are some of the ropes that held the boat together. ”All these minute details are of the highest importance, since most of the ancient Egyptian boats and ships have survived either in poor state of preservation, or were dismantled in pieces,” the press release notes.

  Egyptologists still don’t know exactly why boats were buried in tombs. They may have been the barges that bore the deceased into the afterlife or a form of transportation the dead could use once they arrived to the underworld. In Egypt’s Old Kingdom, royals often had several boats buried inside their pyramids. Most of these boats have been lost thanks to the inexorable grind of time. Only “brown dust in the shape of the original boat” remains in some of the pits designed to hold them, according to the press release. “It is by all means a remarkable discovery,” says director of the excavations at Abusir, Miroslav Bárta. “The careful excavation and recording of the Abusir boat will make a considerable contribution to our understanding of ancient Egyptian watercraft and their place in funerary cult.”

  One of the only other surviving ancient Egyptian boats is a ship that was buried in pieces, found in the Great Pyramid of King Khufu in 1954. That 144-foot-long vessel was carefully reconstructed and put on display. Researchers hope this smaller vessel will help them learn more about the purpose of these boats and perhaps indicate the possibility of future discoveries in the area. As Bárta puts it, ″Where there is one boat, there very well may be more.” [Smithsonian.Com].

  REVIEW:  Back in January, we had talked about some 5,000 years old hieroglyphs that allude to the Ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis along with depictions of boats. Intriguingly enough, archaeologists have also been able to salvage actual boat structures from the Giza complex. And this time around, the boat analogy has once again come to fruition – with Czech archaeologists uncovering an actual an 18 m (59.1 ft) long ship near an ancient tomb in Abusir, Egypt. Probably belonging to some noble from the Old Kingdom, the extant boat specimen is interestingly almost contemporary to the Great Pyramid, with its presumed date of ‘crafting’ being at around 2550 B.C. And the good news is, this marine craft was found to be in a relatively well preserved condition.

  This hints at the possibility of more comprehension and understanding as to why boats/ships had played a significant part in Ancient Egyptian funerary traditions. Extraordinarily, the desert sand has preserved the plant fiber battens which covered the planking seams. Some of the ropes that bound the boat together are also still in their original position with all their details intact, which is a unique discovery in the study of ancient Egyptian boats. All these minute details are of the highest importance, since most of the ancient Egyptian boats and ships have survived either in poor state of preservation, or were dismantled in pieces.

  The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities have also confirmed the find by denoting its actual resting place atop a pile of stones. They have also analyzed artifacts like pottery present inside this craft, and have determined that the boat is from the end of Third or beginning of the Fourth Dynasty. Now the question as to whom this boat was dedicated to (i.e., the occupant of the mastaba) still remains unanswered. The historians however hypothesize that the man in spite of being a noble, was probably not related in blood to the royal family. In other words, he might have been a very high ranking official who was close to the king, but was not a member of the royal family. [RealmofHistory.Com].

  REVIEW:  The mission of the Czech Institute of Egyptology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague has recently made an unexpected discovery at Abusir South that once again highlights the importance of this cemetery of the Old Kingdom officials. Work commenced in 2009 on a large mastaba, followed by several seasons of excavations. Its exceptional size (175 x 75 feet), orientation, architectural details, as well as the name of king Huni (Third Dynasty,) discovered on one of the stone bowls buried in the northern underground chamber, indicate the high social standing of the person buried in the main (so far unlocated) shaft.

 

  Unfortunately, his name remains unknown due to the bad state of preservation of the cruciform chapel. Clearing the area south of the Mastaba revealed an 60 foot long wooden boat during the 2015 excavation season. It was lying on tafla, covered with the wind-blown sand. Although the boat is situated almost 12 miles south of the Mastaba, its orientation, length, and the pottery collected from its interior, make a clear connection between the structure and the vessel, both dating to the very end of the Third or beginning of the Fourth Dynasty, circa 2550 B.C.

  While extremely fragile, the roughly 4,500 year old planks will shed new light on ship building in ancient Egypt. The wooden planks were joined by wooden pegs that are still visible in their original position. Extraordinarily, the desert sand has preserved the plant fiber battens which covered the planking seams. Some of the ropes that bound the boat together are also still in their original position with all their details intact, which is a unique discovery in the study of ancient Egyptian boats.

  All these minute details are of the highest importance, since most of the ancient Egyptian boats and ships have survived either in poor state of preservation, or were dismantled in pieces. During the 2016 season, the Czech Institute of Egyptology will launch a project, together with experts from the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) at Texas A&M University, to study the techniques used in the hull’s construction.       The construction details are not the only features that make the boat unique.

  The habit of burying boats beside mastabas began in the Early Dynastic Period. This phenomenon has been well documented for royal structures, as well as for some tombs belonging to members of the royal family, the elite of society. Dr. Miroslav Bárta, director of the mission notes: “In fact, this is a highly unusual discovery since boats of such a size and construction were, during this period, reserved solely for top members of the society, who usually belonged to the royal family. This suggests the potential for additional discoveries during the next spring season.”

  Scholars debate the purpose of Egyptian boat burials. Did they serve the deceased in the afterlife, or might they have functioned as symbolical solar barques, used during the journey of the owner through the underworld. The Old Kingdom kings adopted the earlier tradition, and often had several boats buried within their pyramid complexes. Unfortunately, most of the pits have been found already empty of any timber, others contained little more than brown dust in the shape of the original boat. The only exception were the two boats of Khufu that have survived, and were reconstructed or are in the process of reconstruction.

  However, there was no boat of such dimensions from the Old Kingdom found in a non-royal context, until the new discovery at Abusir.  “It is by all means a remarkable discovery. The careful excavation and recording of the Abusir boat will make a considerable contribution to our understanding of ancient Egyptian watercraft and their place in funerary cult. And where there is one boat, there very well may be more.” adds  director of the excavations, Miroslav Bárta.

  The boat by the southern wall of the Mastaba indicates the extraordinary social position of the owner of the tomb. Since it is not located adjacent to a royal pyramid, the owner of the mastaba was probably not a member of the royal family: both the size of the tomb, as well as the presence of the boat itself, however, clearly places the deceased within the elite of his time with strong connections to the reigning pharaoh. [Charles University, Prague].

REVIEW:  Archaeologists and restorers traveled to the Giza Plateau to investigate the condition of one of the beams of a solar boat buried along with the pharaoh Khufu, which was damaged during an excavation, according to a report from Ahram Online. A Japanese-Egyptian team has been working since 2010 to lift, restore, and reconstruct the boat, which was buried around 4,500 years ago as part of Khufu’s burial rites.

  In all, 745 out of 1,264 pieces of the boat have been removed so far from the excavation pit. One of the boat’s beams was damaged by a malfunctioning crane. According to Ayman Ashmawi, head of the Ancient Egyptian Department at the Ministry of Antiquities, the damage appears to be easily reparable. The boat will ultimately be reconstructed and put on display alongside a previously excavated Khufu boat. Both boats were part of the pharaoh’s extensive grave goods, intended for use in the afterlife. [Archaeological Institute of America].

REVIEW:  While excavating an underground storage system cut into bedrock at Wadi el-Jarf, nearly 110 miles south of Suez and close to the Red Sea, archaeologists discovered fragments of boats, ropes, and pottery. The artifacts date to the reign of the 4th Dynasty King Khufu, or Cheops, builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza, who ruled from 2551 to 2528 B.C. Beginning on the shore and continuing underwater, an assembly of large blocks and limestone slabs inscribed with Cheops’ name form the remains of an L-shaped jetty.

  Limestone anchors from numerous large ships testify to voyages launched to export copper and stones from the Sinai Peninsula to the Nile Valley. “Ancient inland harbors are known on riversides, but the jetty of Wadi el-Jarf predates by more than 1,000 years any other known structure of this kind,” says expedition leader Pierre Tallet, a University of Paris-Sorbonne Egyptologist, about the 4,500-year-old harbor.

  Tallet and colleagues also found 10 very well-preserved papyri among hundreds of fragments. The documents, which are proving difficult to reassemble, are the oldest papyri ever found in Egypt. One fragment is a diary written by Merrer, an Old Kingdom official involved in the building of the Great Pyramid. Though actual details of the pyramid’s construction are scarce, Tallet says, "the journal provides a precise account for every working day." [Archaeological Institute of America].

REVIEW:  Metal hooks discovered during excavations of Khufu’s second solar boat, near the Great Pyramid of Giza, proves that ancient Egyptians had much more advanced technology for boat building than was once believed. According to Phys.org, a piece of wood revealed during the excavations near the Great Pyramid of Giza sheds new light on the story of ship building in Ancient Egypt. The artifact contains the oldest example of when people near the Nile used metal in their boats.

  Archaeologists have revealed that the circular and U-shaped metal hooks were discovered in one of the pieces of a boat which was found in 1954 by Kamal el-Mallakh, along with the famous solar ship of Khufu. Both boats were undisturbed since the day when they were buried in Giza. They are both so-called “solar ships”, which were buried in pits next to royal burials. It is believed that they were used for a pharaoh’s funeral rituals, perhaps as a part of the procession. They have also been related to the Egyptian belief about travel to the afterlife.

  The piece of wood is 8 meters (25 feet) long and 40 cm (almost 16 inches) wide. It is four centimeters (1.57 inches) thick. According to Mohamed Mostafa Abdel-Megeed, an official from the Ministry of Antiquities, it is the first example of a piece of an ancient Egyptian boat which contains metal pieces. Sakuji Yoshimura, an Egyptologist from Japan, said that the hooks were used "to place the paddles to prevent friction of wood against wood". The solar ship of Khufu is one of the oldest and the largest boats of the ancient times. It is 43.6 meters (143 ft.) long and 5.9 meters (19.5 ft.) wide. It is a masterpiece of the ancient craft of shipbuilding.

  Discoveries of ancient Egyptian boats are rare, but there are a few well known examples of these kinds of ritual ships. Their discovery has helped researchers to understand something about the boats’ construction, which was similar to the creation of ships used on the Nile. Some of them were discovered recently. As Alicia McDermott from Ancient Origins reported in February 1, 2016:

  “Czech archaeologists have unearthed an 18 meter (59.1 ft.) long boat near a tomb of an unknown member of the Old Kingdom’s elite class in Abusir (Abu-Sir), Egypt...The archaeologists...have said that the boat is unique and in good condition - many of the boards and pegs have even been found in their original positions. The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities told the press that the remains of the ship were found on top of stones, and its orientation, length, and the pottery collected from its interior have led the team to date the boat to the very end of the Third or beginning of the Fourth Dynasty, approximately 2550 B.C.”

  April 2016 brought another discovery, which was a barque resting place made of stone blocks from the time of Queen Hatshepsut discovered on Elephantine Island. As Mark Miller wrote: “According to Dr. Felix Arnold, the field director of the mission, the building served as a way station for the festival barque of the god Khnum. […] The building was later dismantled and about 30 of its blocks have now been found in the foundations of the Khnum temple of Nectanebo II. Some of the blocks were discovered in previous excavation seasons by members of the Swiss Institute, but the meaning of the blocks has only now become clear.” [AncientOrigns.Net].

REVIEW:  An ancient king—heralded by standard bearers and trailing a retinue of soldiers, fan bearers, powerful beasts and deities—projects power and military might in elaborate scenes carved into the very rock in the Egyptian desert. Rock art tableaux at the ancient site of Nag el-Hamdulab, created some 5000 years ago, are thought to have been done by the hands of professional artists close to the royal court. They are the earliest known depictions of a pharaoh wearing the “white crown” of dynastic power, and they represent the transition between pre-Dynastic Egypt’s religious processions into the tax-collecting tour of a triumphant monarch.

  Interpreted and presented for the first time by an international team of experts in the journal Antiquity,  the “most important iconographic source for the period of state formation in Egypt” is revealed through symbols of power and ritual across seven sites on the west bank of the Nile. Study authors Stan Hendrickx, John Coleman Darnell, and Maria Carmela Gatto explore the historical significance of the rock art gallery at the sandy site, west of Nag el-Hamdulab village, about six kilometers (3.7 miles) north of Aswan, in Egypt. The Narmer Palette, dating from about the 31st century BC, contains some of the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions ever found. It depicts the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the king Narmer. He holds a mace and wears the White Crown, as seen in the petroglyphs at Nag el-Hamdulab.

  British Assyriologist and linguist, Archibald H. Sayce stumbled upon some of the rock art in the early 1890s, and recorded his find through simple drawings. The sketches and the rocks themselves would not be examined again for over a century, until 2008, when the site was rediscovered by archaeologists. The old sketches and the newly identified tableaux—seven in all, forming an ancient gallery of scenes—when brought together presented a unique record of a royal celebration and tax collection dating between 3200 and 3100 B.C.

  Hieroglyphic texts beneath the carefully pecked images explain the intent of the scenes. John Coleman Darnell, director of the Yale Egyptological Institute in Egypt, and professor of Egyptology told YaleNews that the Nag el-Hamdulab cycle is significant as it’s the first of such images with hieroglyphic annotation. The team of international researchers, including Egyptologists and archaeologists from institutions in America, Europe and Egypt have used high-tech digital reconstruction to analyze the images and texts.

  Showcasing a series of vignettes, the rock art inscriptions of Nag el-Hamdulab represent a cycle. Interpreting the images, archaeologists believe the scenes of hunting, animals, boats, warfare, soldiers, prisoners, and an anonymous king wearing the White Crown are highly symbolic. Though the scenes have been heavily damaged within recent history, the styles and techniques of the artists are evident, and suggest to researchers that all the works were the creations of only one or two individuals, and that it was created with an overarching ‘grand scheme’, and was not added to, piecemeal, over time.

  Antiquity reports that the scene at Site 1 is dominated by boats. Near several reed boats a figure wearing feathers lies prostrate—possibly a prisoner or a foreign ally. Three prisoners follow a boat (they’re shown with their hands bound behind their backs and ropes around their necks.) It is the boats which symbolize power and military might, rather than humans. Sites 2 through 5 are located very close to each other, nestled within cliffs at the center of the Nag el-Hamdulab plain.

  The first tableaux has a military theme wherein bowmen and prisoners are seen next to a boat upon which two figures stand. The two elevated figures each hold a staff. Who they are or what they represent is unclear. A unique individual stands between bowmen. His arm is shown bent behind his back, and his other arm is “upturned before the chest, in a manner unlike any other representation at Nag el-Hamdulab.” Before the boat stands a single bowman with a very large bow. Bows were symbols of power and could be found often in Egyptian art appearing by themselves without an archer.

  The second tableaux at Site 2 shows boats with many oarsmen and oars. An ancient sickle-shaped boat has a unique element – it is decorated with a bull standard. The king wears the White Crown or hedjet, the tall crown of Upper Egypt. In front of the king a dog is seen, a canine deity related to hunting and warfare, and his name “Wepwawet” means “the opener of ways” meaning the choices of life or the paths to death and the underworld. Site 3 has been mostly destroyed, and is only available via archive photographs.

  In the two scenes at the site the presence of a boat forms a connection to the other locations, but the king here is portrayed as a powerful ruler, rather than a symbolic religious placeholder. A man leads a wild bull or calf, and this is followed by the image of a large knife, suggesting that these are sacrificial animals for offerings. A feast is presented in the rock art at Site 4. The festival scene shows brewing, and a figure sitting and drinking. What is thought to be a Nubian figure (by his distinctive bow) is depicted as bigger, perhaps signifying an important presence of Nubians in the Aswan region during pre-Dynastic times, the study notes.

  Site 5 is unfortunately heavily damaged, but an interesting depiction of a bull’s head and a female dancer can be seen. The dancer sports a long braid, the end of which has an oval shape that is said to be a weighted ball or disc found in hairstyles of female dancers during the Old Kingdom, effectively dating the scene. The bull and dancer communicate the rituals of hunting, butchering, feasting, music and dance of the Old Kingdom. A scene of cattle being controlled by humans and dogs is shown at Site 6. This isolated tableau in the south of Nag el-Hamdulab highlights both wild and domesticated animals.

  The researchers note that hunting was important iconography of the pre-Dynastic era; it was part of an elite lifestyle and done not necessarily for survival, but for important festivals or burials. The hunting scenes are said to represent the wealth of local, likely Nubian, cattle-herding groups. Site 7 is believed to be the most important of the series, the culmination of the cycle. Composed of four tableaux, one the largest of them all, the pecked rock images depict many boats in a row, with one notably higher than the others. An obvious ruler figure is followed by a fan bearer, and is preceded by standard bearers and a canine.

  This king figure stands on a decorated cabin, wears the White Crown, and holds a scepter. He is flanked by standards of falcons and bull horns, royal symbols. A shrine, or divine boat, is seen below this, lending the scene a religious context. Four bearded men tow the divine boat with a rope. The ritual procession is under the supervision of the king, and represents royal power. Other scenes portray groups of animals—real and mythological—such as dogs, lions, ostriches, ibex, and animals whose heads radiate strange lines.

  Antiquity writes, “The ultimate meaning of the tableau is the royal, human assurance of control, the triumph of order over chaos on a cosmic level, referring eventually also to regeneration. The link between site 7 and those previously described is not only made by the royal image, the boats, and the concept of ritual processions, but also by a small—and unfortunately poorly preserved—hunting scene close to the royal boat procession.” In all, researchers believe these rare panels are meant to highlight and extol the power of the first Egyptian pharaohs and their grand tax collection tours. Symbolic images drive home the royal domination over humans and a chaotic natural world.  This ensemble sheds light on very early state formation in Egypt. [AncientOrigns.Net].

REVIEW:  The Nile River spans almost 4,175 miles (6719 km), crosses nine countries throughout Africa, and is widely regarded as the longest river in the world. While all this might be considered common knowledge, the winding waters of the famous river have many intriguing facts that you might not know. Here are ten of the most fascinating ones.

  1. Without the Nile, the Ancient Egyptian Civilization May Never Have Existed. The Nile River was considered the source of life by the ancient Egyptians and played a vital role in the country's history and rich culture. The river was also a very important factor in the socioeconomic development and success of ancient Egypt. Without the Nile River, the great ancient civilization may have never existed, since rainfall was almost non-existent in Egypt and the Nile River was the only source of moisture to sustain crops.

  2. The Real Source of the Nile River Remains Unknown. Some might tell you that Lake Victoria, Africa’s main lake, is the source of the Nile River. Others will say the Kagera River and its tributary the Ruvubu, having its headwaters in Burundi, is the real source. The truth is, however, that the source of the Nile River remains a mystery to this day.

  3. The Nile “Highway”. The Nile River was the highway that joined the country together and was essential for trade and transportation. Up until the 19th century, travel by land was virtually unknown in the region. Ships and boats were the main means of transporting people and goods around the country.

  4. Nile, The Life-Giver. Other than providing water, the Nile offered an excellent soil for growing food, which is the main reason why so many Egyptians lived near it. Locals used spears and nets to catch fish and trap different birds that flew close to the surface of the water.

  5. Contributing to the Production of Papyrus. So much of what we know about ancient Egypt comes from the plethora of written records left behind on papyrus. The Nile was responsible for providing this papyrus. It came from the reeds growing on the side of the river.

  6. The Flooding of the Nile. Melting snow and heavy summer rain within the Ethiopian Mountains sent a torrent of water, causing the banks on the River Nile in Egypt to overflow in this flat desert land, causing massive floods every year. The reason why it does not flood now is because of the construction of the Aswan High Dam in the 1960’s.

  7. Akhet: The Inundation. Until the Aswan High Dam was built, the yearly inundation of the Nile happened between June and September, in a season the Egyptians called akhet: the inundation. This was seen by the Egyptians as a yearly coming of the deity Hapi, bringing fertility to the land. The goddess of the flood was the goddess Mehet-Weret, “The Great Flood.”

  8. Osiris: The Nile’s Most Sacred God. Despite Hapi being the local deity in a way, the god most closely associated historically and culturally with the Nile was Osiris, who was killed by his brother Seth on the riverbank and then became the king of the Underworld. For that reason, the Nile River was an important part of Egyptian spiritual life as well. The Egyptians believed that it was the passageway between life and death. That’s why all Egyptian tombs are built on the west side of the Nile - the west was considered the place of death since the sun god Ra set in the west each day.

  9. A Popular Ancient Sport was Played on the Nile’s Waters. Ancient Egyptians practiced a popular river sport - water jousting. Modern knowledge of this sport comes from studying ancient Egyptian tomb reliefs, thus it is limited. These depictions show that vessels held a small group of men, each one wielding a long pole. While most of the crew used theirs to maneuver the boat, a few of them would stand upright, wielding their poles to knock opponents off their respective boats.

  10. The Nile’s Oldest “Residents”. Crocodiles have been living in the Nile Rivers’ waters for thousands of years and they don’t really like it when humans get close to them. They are known to attack humans regularly, usually people washing clothes or fishing at the shore. It’s estimated that there are 200 attacks a year from Nile crocodiles in Africa. [AncientOrigns.Net].

  I always ship books Media Mail in a padded mailer.  This book is shipped FOR FREE via USPS INSURED media mail (“book rate”).  All domestic shipments and most international shipments will include free USPS Delivery Confirmation (you might be able to update the status of your shipment on-line at the USPS Web Site ) and free insurance coverage.  A small percentage of international shipments may require an additional fee for tracking and/or delivery confirmation.  If you are concerned about a little wear and tear to the book in transit, I would suggest a boxed shipment - it is an extra $1.00.  Whether via padded mailer or box, we will give discounts for multiple purchases. International orders are welcome, but shipping costs are substantially higher. 

    Most international orders cost an additional $12.99 to $33.99 for an insured shipment in a heavily padded mailer, and typically includes some form of rudimentary tracking and/or delivery confirmation (though for some countries, this is only available at additional cost). There is also a discount program which can cut postage costs by 50% to 75% if you’re buying about half-a-dozen books or more (5 kilos+).  Rates and available services vary a bit from country to country.  You can email or message me for a shipping cost quote, but I assure you they are as reasonable as USPS rates allow, and if it turns out the rate is too high for your pocketbook, we will cancel the sale at your request.  ADDITIONAL PURCHASES do receive a VERY LARGE discount, typically about $5 per book (for each additional book after the first) so as to reward you for the economies of combined shipping/insurance costs.  Your purchase will ordinarily be shipped within 48 hours of payment.  We package as well as anyone in the business, with lots of protective padding and containers.

    All of our shipments are sent via insured mail so as to comply with PayPal requirements.  We do NOT recommend uninsured shipments, and expressly disclaim any responsibility for the loss of an uninsured shipment.  Unfortunately the contents of parcels are easily “lost” or misdelivered by postal employees – even in the USA.  That’s why all of our domestic shipments (and most international) shipments include a USPS delivery confirmation tag; or are trackable or traceable, and all shipments (international and domestic) are insured.  We do offer U.S. Postal Service Priority Mail, Registered Mail, and Express Mail for both international and domestic shipments, as well United Parcel Service (UPS) and Federal Express (Fed-Ex).  Please ask for a rate quotation.  We will accept whatever payment method you are most comfortable with.  If upon receipt of the item you are disappointed for any reason whatever, I offer a no questions asked return policy.  Send it back, I will give you a complete refund of the purchase price (less our original shipping costs).

  Most of the items I offer come from the collection of a family friend who was active in the field of Archaeology for over forty years.  However many of the items also come from purchases I make in Eastern Europe, India, and from the Levant (Eastern Mediterranean/Near East) from various institutions and dealers.  Though I have always had an interest in archaeology, my own academic background was in sociology and cultural anthropology.  After my retirement however, I found myself drawn to archaeology as well.  Aside from my own personal collection, I have made extensive and frequent additions of my own via purchases on Ebay (of course), as well as many purchases from both dealers and institutions throughout the world - but especially in the Near East and in Eastern Europe.  I spend over half of my year out of the United States, and have spent much of my life either in India or Eastern Europe.  In fact much of what we generate on Yahoo, Amazon and Ebay goes to support The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, as well as some other worthy institutions in Europe connected with Anthropology and Archaeology.

    I acquire some small but interesting collections overseas from time-to-time, and have as well some duplicate items within my own collection which I occasionally decide to part with.  Though I have a collection of ancient coins numbering in the tens of thousands, my primary interest is in ancient jewelry.  My wife also is an active participant in the "business" of antique and ancient jewelry, and is from Russia.  I would be happy to provide you with a certificate/guarantee of authenticity for any item you purchase from me.  There is a $2 fee for mailing under separate cover.  Whenever I am overseas I have made arrangements for purchases to be shipped out via domestic mail.  If I am in the field, you may have to wait for a week or two for a COA to arrive via international air mail.  But you can be sure your purchase will arrive properly packaged and promptly - even if I am absent.  And when I am in a remote field location with merely a notebook computer, at times I am not able to access my email for a day or two, so be patient, I will always respond to every email.  Please see our "ADDITIONAL TERMS OF SALE."

 

  • Condition: NEW. See detailed condition description below.
  • Material: Paper
  • Title: Egyptian Boats and Ships
  • Subtitle: Shire Egyptology

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