SHIPS AND SEAMANSHIP IN THE ANCIENT WORLD

Men of the ancient world, throughout their historical timeline, were reluctant to venture far from the sea. It was intricately woven into the fabric of their existence, and among their significant contributions to future generations was their mastery of this exceptionally useful yet perilous means of communication. The ancient mariners of the Mediterranean can be credited with most of the major advancements in shipbuilding and navigation that the western world would recognize until the advent of steam power.

The specifics of this accomplishment—the strategies they developed for rowing war galleys, the rigging they created for merchant vessels, the methods they devised for constructing a hull, and similar topics—constitute a highly technical and specialized field, yet one that is closely linked to the daily lives of ancient people. It is no coincidence that the west's first epic poet chose to narrate the tale of a storm-battered captain, and its first historian and dramatist emphasized a pivotal naval confrontation.

Despite the clear significance of this topic, no scholar adequately addressed it until the very end of the last century. In 1895, Cecil Torr published his work, Ancient Ships, which provided a concise yet commendable overview of the knowledge available at that time regarding the design, construction, and equipment of Greek and Roman vessels.

This publication addressed much of the existing gap, but not all; and although Torr promised further studies on other aspects of shipping, he never completed them. Furthermore, due to the increasing volume of new material that archaeologists were continuously discovering, even his contributions quickly became outdated. Subsequently, after World War II, underwater archaeology emerged and began to explore a source of entirely new evidence...