conference

PRIFYSGOL CYMRU ABERTAWE,
UNIVERSITY OF WALES SWANSEA.

Exposing Ancient Shipbuilders Secrets Through Experimental Reconstruction

Pearce Paul Creasman (Curator of Collections, Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research,The University of Arizona (USA))

For as long as humans have taken to the water, ships have been one of the primary vectors of cultural and technological exchange. A shipwreck or boat burial offers a glimpse of the past, but it is only the last chapter in a complex story.

Boats and boat-models are well-known, if not universal, features of Egyptian funerary practices. In contrast to the abundance of boat-models and representations from tombs, interments of actual vessels are comparatively rare and recovered examples are usually confined to royal contexts. As a vessel embodies the culture that produced it, much can be learned by interpreting them as artifacts of the people who built them. Despite the available archaeological evidence, many fundamental questions remain unanswered.

Experimental ship and boat reconstructions can help to address a wide range of these outstanding questions, including: construction technology, resource procurement, and navigation, to name a few. This presentation will discuss some of the benefits of experimental ship reconstructions, highlighting recent examples, and introduce a reconstruction based on an ancient Nilotic vessel, which is in development.

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