Sewing boats
As anyone knows who has visited Khufu's ship at the Great Pyramid, the ancient Egyptians literally sewed their ships together. They bored holes in the edges of the planks and threaded ropes through them which were then tightened to hold the ship together. Other ropes ran across the ship, holding its sides together while on sea-going ships still other ropes ran from end to end to take the strains of hogging and sagging.
As a technique it was simple and easy but it had significant disadvantages, not least the possibility that the constant working of the ship would wear and weaken the ropes until an extra large wave hit and snapped one, in which case your ship would unravel like a moth-eaten cardigan leaving you bobbing in the water clutching a pile of planks. It is no wonder that as ship-building developed, craftsmen and sailors turned to ribs and pegs, strakes and keels.
It is therefore surprising to learn that the technique was not only used outside Egypt but survived down to Roman times. Archaeologists in Croatia, working in the sunken Roman town of Kissa, which lies at the bottom of Caska Bay on the island of Pag, have discovered the remains of a Liburnian ship which was sewn together.
Professor Zdenko Brusic from Zadar University and the French National Institute for Scientific Research have been exploring the sunken city, which is near the modern city of Novalja. They have discovered aqueducts, basilicas, tombs and a port. They suggest that the town was an important port on the route between Greece and northern Italy, a place where ships could wait for favourable winds before undertaking the voyage across the Adriatic.
The latest discovery is of the lower part of the ship consisting of body panels that were joined with rope "stitches" and fastened to a wooden skeleton with more rope. The archaeological context means that it is at least 2,000 years old, but its exact age will depend on the results of carbon-14 dating and dendro-chronology.
basilicas The term basilica refers to a style of architecture, not to a place of worship. A basilica has a high central space flanked by lower aisles on either side as a means of roofing a large floor space. In Roman times basilicas were used as law courts, warehouses, town halls and gymnasia, but later on the style was adopted by Christians to hold the crowds who flocked to worship and has not become synonymous with "church". Return
© Kendall K. Down 2009
