A Companion to Mediterranean History, First Edition. Edited by Peregrine Horden and Sharon Kinoshita.
© 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
chapter ten
This chapter discusses the evolution of Mediterranean nautical technology—hull
design and steering and propulsion systems. It addresses the following questions: was
ship design the product of mere technological invention or the result of economic or
political environments that induced technological solutions? What was the contribu-
tion of nautical technology to seafaring capabilities and to the shrinkage of horizons
in the Mediterranean and beyond? What were the by-products of this evolution in
nautical technology?
Documentary sources for shipbuilding technology appear only in the mid-
thirteenth century ce, and these are not manuals, even when accompanied by draw-
ings and measurements. In the fifteenth century the Venetian treatises on this subject
were hodge-podge books, zibaldone, only for theoretical study. Their drawings did
not reflect contemporary geometrical methods for determining dimensions that could
be used in shipyards. Only in the late sixteenth century, in Venice, do we find the first
manuscript giving a detailed description of shipbuilding technology. Until then, the
required skill was the monopoly of shipwrights giving oral instructions to shipyard
workers (Hocker and McManamon, 2006; Bondioli, 2009), and evidence for the
historian comes mainly from iconography and underwater archaeology, each with
their own limitations. Furthermore, only merchant ships have been found under
water, since galleys tended to vanish without trace. The only three galleys to be
excavated were found inland.
The earliest evidence for the development of Mediterranean seafaring, attested on
Cyprus and in the Aegean, seems to have taken place during the harsh climate of the
Younger Dryas 10 800–9600 bce, and later with the expansion of Neolithic groups.
Until the mid-third millennium bce longboats, powered by rows of paddlers, that in
favorable conditions could travel 40–50 km a day on the open sea for four–six days
and could carry a ton of water were the basis of voyages for migration and in the
pursuit of exotic goods. During this early period, such vessels enabled interactions
between far-flung areas and trade networks within the Mediterranean as well as
beyond the Straits of Gibraltar, along the Atlantic coast of Iberia to the Bay of Biscay.
Nautical Technology
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