Haifa School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures/Facebook
Posted on 09/24/2022 10:12:58 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
...At Dyrrhachium in what is now Albania, Caesar attacked Pompey's supply base on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Because of the vagaries of the wind, Caesar sent supply ships to several destinations across the Mediterranean Sea to ensure his own troops could be fed and outfitted in the coming campaign...
An Israeli researcher... studied wind patterns and ancient texts about the weather. And then he did something more unusual. He and a team of experts built a replica of a 5th century B.C. boat and sailed it across part of the Mediterranean to test his theory...
In addition, by examining Roman and Greek texts about the weather, he discovered that those breeze cycles are virtually unchanged over the past three millennia.
Gal said the sailors' lives depended on anticipating weather patterns, so they knew when to begin a journey and when to find a safe port. They often waited days before catching the right winds to begin or resume travel...
The second phase of the study involved understanding the weather. In addition to reading 3,000-year-old texts, Gal reviewed modern records of the winds and waves around the Mediterranean. He collected data points from 7,000 different locations, taken every hour over the past 15 years...
Gal found that ancient vessels were able to locate brief breezes blowing to the west that usually occurred in the early mornings and late evenings. Those light airflows would enable the ships to sail for a short time toward Rome. Once the winds stalled, the crews would drop anchor and wait until they started again.
(Excerpt) Read more at stripes.com ...
The other GGG topics added since the previous digest ping, chrono sort:
Kon-Tiki....
But but but. Global warming
Thanks for another great post.
Harbors rule...
That may be why many were built in the Med. back in the daze of earlier Civ.
Made me wonder if perhaps they employed drift socks in times of unfavorable winds. Strike the sail and throw it out.
Good question.
Somebody had to invent the concept.
What do the currents in the Med look like?
Sorry, I almost pinged you to your own thread...
past my bedtime.
Looks like port-hopping counterclockwise would be pretty easy, with favorable winds.
Thanks for another very interesting read!
Study showed that breeze cycles haven’t changed in three millennia. If climate change has been occurring as they say, wouldn’t it have effected the breeze cycles?
Getting through the straits of Messina would appear to be the tough part.
Done already like 50 yrs ago with Kontiki.
That is what I was thinking.
Well at least he was smart enough to someone to pay him while he did it.
What this research will prove is how amazing seafarers of the day were given the limited technology they had. Some humans, when given a problem, sure have the ability to figure out unique solutions that end up helping all of us.
Profits could be so enormous, taking a cargo that was cheap in one place to where it was super valuable and expensive, that sailors were willing to take what we today would consider wild risks.
I don’t know about the BC Med, but I’ve read estimates that during the first centuries of trans-Atlantic voyages, ten percent of ships were lost at sea.
Yet they kept going. The rewards were enormous. Even for migrants, getting to the “new world” could be a huge life changer. Peasants could rise to land owners, nearly impossible in Old Europe. Minor nobles could live like kings.
Please see 19.
As soon as the Vikings figured out sailing, they set off to raid England, for profit.
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