planks two cubits long and arrange them like bricks’. Study of Ship 17 has vindicated almost all of Herodotus’ observations.

‘It is astonishing,’ says Alexander. ‘His description of “bricks” suggests a very unusual way of building a hull. Generally, the longer the planks the better, but in Ship 17 they really are like bricks. They are very thick and rectangular in section; none of the planks is over 3.7m in length, and most are under 2m. These are longer than the ones that Herodotus saw, as two cubits is about 105cm, but the resulting appearance is the same. Indeed, the result doesn’t just make the hull look like brickwork, because when you examine the planking, you see that the procedure was also to build it in the same manner as a brick wall! To my knowledge, boats were not constructed in this manner anywhere else in the world.’

‘The reason is that this design was imposed by the wood. As Herodotus says, this was acacia. According to ancient sources, the maximum length of plank you can cut from this tree is 12 cubits, or 6m. Usually, though, they are much shorter. Acacia is very hard wood, and some trees have a density exceeding that of oak. It is very heavy, but also very brittle, so if you don’t use your tools correctly it will just break. There is also a high silica content, which rapidly blunts woodworking tools. So, acacia is not easy to work with, but it is also characteristic of the Nile valley. What we are seeing is an ingenious approach to using a difficult but plentiful wood source that can be dated back to the Old Kingdom, and which we can now confirm continued until at least the 5th century BC.’

Life on the Nile Examining the vessel also reveals clues about where it was used. ‘We can guess from the construction that Ship 17 was not designed for sea voyages,’ Alexander says. ‘It had an open hull with no deck, while the lower external surfaces show no traces of erosion from when it was beached, which suggests that it was used in a clayey rather than sandy environment. Also, when the boat was fully loaded it would have sat quite low in the water, so most probably this ship was navigating within the delta. Unfortunately, there were no traces of the cargoes that

Ship 17 carried, or any of the crew’s belongings, but some of the other barides at the site seem to have transported stone blocks. We’ve calculated that Ship 17 could transport about 112 tonnes of cargo.’

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t A reconstruction of Ship 17, during the final stages of its construction. It is not to scale. DR AW

eracleion. Oxford Centre for Maritime A rchaeology Monograph 10, O xford, £45, ISBN 978-1 905905362. left A plan showing the exposed planking of Ship 17. T he vessel would have been about 28m in length, and had an open hull with no deck. O ne remarkable feature of the construction was that the hull planking was fashioned and laid in such a way that it resembled a brick wall ( belo w).

‘We know that the ship had a sail, because there was a notch for the mast visible in the keel. There is no arrangement for rowers – probably it was too heavy to row – so this was a sailing ship. Herodotus tells us that a baris could sail upstream if there was a favourable wind, but at other times it was hauled along from the bank. In that regard it was very like the pre-steam barges that inherited its name. The Nile delta is not an easy environment. You need a lot of knowledge to navigate safely the various water flows, islands, sandbanks, and so forth. Back then there was no sailing academy or anything like that, so it was something that was passed down through the generations. This was very valuable knowledge. We know from the ancient sources that sometimes to oppress a polis as a maritime force, it was sufficient simply to kill the helmsmen and captains. It is not very nice, but it happened.’

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FURTHER INFORMATION The results from the excavation of Ship 17 have no w been published, alongside a discussion of its wider context and new translation of H erodotus’ account of a baris: A Belov (2019) Ship 17: a baris from Thonis

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