The Ferriby boats -- 1600BC

Centre for Maritime Archaeology, University of Southampton ^ | Aug 13 1999 | J.S. Illsley

[SunkenCiv]

The Ferriby boats were first found in 1938, and two further boats were discovered in 1940 and 1963, all by E.V. Wright who has become the principal authority on them. All were buried in the thick and very difficult blue clay in the intertidal regions of North Humberside... The people who built these boats evidently lived in a wood rich society and were familiar with working large timbers on a gross scale (check with Frances on Stonehenge as a wooden building)... Nevertheless the quality of the joins and seams is very high, especially where the side strakes join the edges of the bottom plank at the ends of the boat... Similar methods of reinforcing the weak joins between the keel/stem/stern/strake joins can be seen on early Egyptian ships... Tool marks of remarkable uniformity are apparent on the Ferriby timbers which suggest that the wood was worked with two adzes, one with a blade of 3.5 cms and one with a blade of 7.5 cms. There is also some evidence of the use of a heavy knife or drawshave, and the hole for the stitching are also of a uniform size suggesting the use of some kind of auger.

[SunkenCiv]

Illsley says the first one was found in 1938, while this source says 1937.

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[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

Lately my list pings have not "finished" and returned to the topic screen. I'm concerned that the list is so large now that the last few names aren't receiving pings. Hate to say it, but we may have to split the list in half. Anyway...

Finding Artifacts is Not Archaeology
interview of George Bass
July/August 2003
Archaeology magazine

Few people may believe this, but my most exciting discoveries have all come in the library, long after the diving was over. It was perhaps half a year after the conclusion of the Cape Gelidonya excavation before I had the first inkling that we had excavated a Near Eastern rather than a Mycenaean ship. The notion first came to me when I was studying the ancient merchant's pan-balance weights, which proved to be based on Near Eastern weight standards. This led to further library research that later rewrote part of Bronze Age history. I could repeat this story many times. Finding artifacts is not archaeology.

[mtbopfuyn]

Neat. Thanks.

[mcar]

more pics

[Little Bill]

I agree with Bass. These people excavate and make all kinds of unwarrented assumptions based on no evidence. I bought a book one time on the Old Stone Age. One of the chapters was on stone tools.

In this chapter the author used some really difficult math to describe how the Makers struck and restruck various flint tools at a site that he dug. The whole thing came down to they made tools and they resharpened them and some were left handed.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks.

[SunkenCiv]

:') What he's actually saying is, that just digging up a bunch of artifacts isn't (by itself) archaeology. But that is the only way evidence is uncovered. Going to the library doesn't work without the digging first. Bass' point should be, there's too much specialization (actually compartmentalization). Had there not been, Bass would himself have been familiar with the various kinds of wrecks he might encounter. Of course the Cape Gelidonya wreck is from quite a while back...

[mcar]

Thank you. I enjoy reading these posts.

[SunkenCiv]

My pleasure.

[Little Bill]

My argument is: evidence of what? Wood working technique is is not terribly unique across time, nor is boat building technique, similar problems have similar solutions. For example, the Viking sewed their boats together, so did the Egyptians, the difference the Vikings had bigger trees to work with, the actual shaping of the strakes wasn't all that different.

One of the reasons that I posted that stuff on the Minoans is that people think that our ancestors were different in some magical way. I think not. For example: I was at a dinner with an Archaeologist one time and he was talking about a Temple(?) and extrapolated all kind of stuff from his finds.

I Asked him if he might of misinterpreted his find as a temple could it not be a Bronze age VFW, lots of wine bottles and evidence of barbecued bones. On the evidence my argent was as valid as his, he guessed, I guessed.

[SunkenCiv]

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