HATSHEPSUT CARGO VESSELS, (Deir El-Bahri)
Posted on 01/14/2010 7:20:32 PM PST by SunkenCiv
...Boston University archeologist Kathryn Bard and her colleagues are uncovering the oldest remnants of seagoing ships and other relics linked to exotic trade with a mysterious Red Sea realm called Punt... the team led by Bard and an Italian archeologist, Rodolfo Fattovich, started uncovering maritime storerooms in 2004, putting hard timber and rugged rigging to the notion of pharaonic deepwater prowess. In the most recent discovery, on Dec. 29, they located the eighth in a series of lost chambers at Wadi Gawasis after shoveling through cubic meters of rock rubble and wind-blown sand... The reconnaissance of the room and its relics will take time and caution. The chamber's most likely contents include ship parts, jugs, trenchers, and workaday linens, as well as hieroglyphic records...
The remote desert site at the sea's edge was established solely to satisfy the cravings of Egypt's rulers for the luxury goods of faraway Punt: ebony, ivory, obsidian, frankincense, precious metals, slaves, and strange beasts, such as dog-faced baboons and giraffes...
Starting in the middle of the last decade, the Bard-Fattovich team grabbed the attention of nautical archeologists with the unearthing of ship timbers, limestone anchors, steering oars, and hanks of marine rope. The precisely beveled deck beams, hull planks, and copper fittings belong to the oldest deep sea vessels ever found, dating back at least 3,800 years...
The journeys upon the "Great Green" -- as one hieroglyph-inscribed tablet found at Wadi Gawasis refers to the sea -- involved fantastical feats of organization, navigational skill, and daring. Overland trade between Egypt and Punt dates to the third millennium BC. But by 1950 BC, the rival Kingdom of Kush had cut off traditional desert routes, forcing Egypt to find a new passage.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
|
|
|||
Gods |
An update of sorts, here's one from March: To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. |
||
|
· Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists · |
|||
For some reason I thought I saw BYU archeologist... I was thinking oh damn... Not some trade with stinking St Louise!
:’)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1365657/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1775584/posts?page=12#12
HATSHEPSUT CARGO VESSELS, (Deir El-Bahri)
Thanx for the ping.Very impressive:Egyptian shipwrights built the vessels on the Nile-then dismantled them-transported across desert(10 day journey)to Wadi Gawasis-where they were reassembled....
The traditional view is that the ancient Egyptians, and also the ancient Jews, were not seafaring people. Which would make them really strange Mediterranean folks!
I had the pleasure to walk evenings along the Corniche, a beautiful palm lined grassy park on the Arabian Gulf shore in Al Khobar Saudi Arabia. It is a truly beautiful park with sidewalks that curve in and out towards the water. Families gather and groups of men and women put down blankets to have tea or a picnic. Children run all about.
There are Americans like me strolling by and Indians and Philippinos.
Only the Philippinos and some of the Indians venture to the waters edge or actually in the water.
For the desert dwelling Arabs, the sea is for looking at, not for venturing.
They probably had the boats in use for a while, and when the pharaoh needed them somewhere else, it was the easiest plan to implement. :’)
The Egyptians didn’t even much like to venture outside the Nile Valley, though they managed to do so continually for a couple thousand years. Boats on the Nile were well-developed, uh, technology by the time Khufu had those two boats buried in pits near the Great Pyramid (4th Dynasty).
In the lower corner of the bas-relief in Deir el Bahari is depicted a landing place. From the right a "king's messenger" advances at the head of his soldiers; from the left a chief approaches. A line of water with fish swimming about serves to indicate that the place is on the coast. The chief is called "a chief of Punt P'-r'-hw" (Perehu or Paruah). On a tent is written: "Pitching the tent of the king's messenger and his army on the myrrh-terraces of Punt on the side of the sea." Since it is placed on the extreme lower part of the mural, a position of minor importance, this picture probably shows the preliminary expedition or the arrival of the herald of the queen.
Paruah must have been Solomon's representative in the land of Edom, possibly an Edomite vassal of his.
Among the twelve governors of King Solomon at a later period in his reign (when some of these officials were his sons-in-law) one was a son of Paruah (I Kings 4:17). Jehoshaphat, the son of Paruah, was governor in Ezion-Geber and Eloth; his father, apparently, administered the same region. ["Ages In Chaos", p 115]
IOW’s the author is full of it?
The author of the article just rephrased what the arkies said, but this group seems to have a penchant for publicity. The finds are pretty interesting; the ships were not found (which isn’t surprising, ancient ships either sank, burned, or got cut up for salvage, just as modern boats do), but there are inscriptions on artifacts, coils of rope right where they were left by sailors (and those should be RC dated; they’ll be centuries too young for the conventional pseudochronology), other stuff. This site is the real deal. The original Suez Canal went from the east branch of the Nile down to the Gulf of Suez, but that hadn’t been built yet in Hatshepsut’s time.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
