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illuminate several important aspects of their seafaring. In the eastern Mediterranean,
a convoy of three tubby commercial ships c. 750 bce were found more than 33 miles
off the shore of Ashkelon/Israel. Two have been investigated. They contained 396
and 385 visible amphoras, respectively (representing just the top two tiers of ampho-
ras, with more remaining below), loaded with a single commodity, wine. The ampho-
ras were designed to be easily stacked in the hold of a ship. The ships’ location more
than 30 nautical miles from shore on a straight line connecting Ashkelon with Egypt
strongly suggests that these ancient mariners chose the more direct route than the one
hugging the coast—unless they had been swept off course (Ballard et al., 2002).
Though the hulls have not been investigated, two Phoenician wrecks of similar date
found at Mazarrón in south-western Spain help fill the gaps in our knowledge. They
demonstrate pegged mortise-and-tenon planking joints associated with frames lashed
to the planking. This is the first evidence of frames. Furthermore, the edges of the
planks were leveled and sewn. From this technology evolved Archaic-Greek sewn-hull
design (Pomey et al., 2012: 291–292).
By the sixth century bce, two innovations attest both to the intensification of sail-
ing regardless of conditions and to intimate knowledge of the Mediterranean and
beyond. Both were used, with modifications, until the modern period. One was
purely technological: the sounding weights used to measure the depth of the water,
assess the nature of the seabed, and estimate distance from land. These were essential
navigational tools in the dark or poor visibility. By the first century bce, the technol-
ogy was advanced enough to measure a depth of over one mile (Wilson, 2011: 45–46).
It was used as a navigational tool until modern times despite the adoption of the
compass and marine charts from the mid-thirteenth century. Only in the nineteenth
century did mechanical systems replace sounding weights.
The second invention, introduced in the sixth century bce, was the periploi that
documented ports and coastal landmarks. These works, that came to encompass the
whole Mediterranean and Black Sea, evolved, mainly during the Roman period, to
include information regarding navigation, such as winds, marine obstacles like reefs,
depths taken with sounding weights and so on. These are the ancestors of medieval
portolans and modern pilot books (Medas, 2011).
From the sixth century bce, the major surviving wrecks are Greek. The hulls
show an evolution in construction technique from total reliance on sewing compo-
nents to a gradually-increasing dependence on mortise-and-tenon joints for the
ship’s integrity. This evolution permitted the formation of hulls with a “wineglass”
section that improved stability and reduced leeway (Pomey et al., 2012: 292–295).
It was coupled with another and earlier innovation in hull design for exactly the
same purpose. Iconography from the sixth century bce through the Roman period
depicts all merchant galleys and sailing ships with straight or concave prows that end
in a forefoot at the waterline. This cutwater design reduced leeway, allowing ships
to hold a course closer to the wind (Arnaud, 2011; Wilson, 2011: 40–41). These
innovative hull designs facilitated the ventures of Mediterranean ships throughout
the Mediterranean and beyond. The Kyrenia wreck of the fourth century bce dis-
plays a high standard of carpentry—sometimes actual carving and sculpting—that
persisted until the late Roman period. Four thousand joints were required to attach
all pre-carved planks edge-to-edge. Its framing pattern exhibits the first evidence of
closely set, alternating floor timbers and half frames, which is evident all through the