spars, or poles, from the sides of the craft to prevent the craft
from capsizing. Carrying men, women, and probably chil-
dren, as well as pigs, seeds for planting, and other foods, they
would have set sail into open ocean beyond the last island
they knew. Th is practice probably caused many people to be
lost at sea, but the Polynesians had great navigational skills
to aid them.
Even today, some Polynesians still can read wave pat-
terns to navigate across large expanses of water with no land
in sight. Where most people would just see a chaos of waves,
Polynesian navigators would recognize patterns in the di-
rections of the waves, their heights, and their speed. Th ey
would be able to tell where a boat was by how waves of dif-
ferent types bumped into each other. Th is knowledge made
navigating between known islands mostly science, not luck.
Polynesians also used the sun, moon, and stars to help them
fi nd their way. Th e sun and moon told them whether they
were going west or east. For these ancient seafarers, this
method alone was valuable for exploring because they knew
they wanted to go eastward. Th e stars gave them an idea of
how far they had gone in their journeys. To determine their
latitudes—how far north or south they were—they chose
what they called “on top stars.” By keeping under a particu-
lar star, they could sail east or west and know how far north
or south they were. For example, the star Sirius was over the
latitude for Tahiti, and if one were west of Tahiti, then sail-
ing east under Sirius would enable one to fi nd Tahiti. For
exploration, knowing the latitudes of the stars enabled sail-
ors to avoid retracing unsuccessful routes and to fi nd home
if they had to do so.
For the mainland cultures of ancient Asia, navigators
tended to stick close the coastlines. Th e Chinese tended to
emphasize sailing on China’s great rivers, and China’s navy
was intended primarily for warfare inland on rivers. Piracy
was a problem along China’s eastern coast, which provided
many coves and inlets in which pirates could hide, and the
navy was expected to patrol the coastline. It is possible that
one reason the Chinese sought out the Japanese as allies in
the third century c.e. is that they hoped the Japanese would
aid them in curbing the activities of pirates in the ocean near
Korea and northeastern China. In about the fourth century
c.e. Chinese merchants began to venture farther from the
coastline, following routes used by Indian traders. Although
the Chinese long knew of the tendency of lodestones (mag-
netite) and magnetized iron to point north and south, they
did not employ them in navigation until the medieval era,
perhaps the 12th century c.e.
Th e feats of Indian seafarers were justifi ably legendary
because these sailors overcame many great hazards as well as
their own fears of giant fi sh, dragons, and other monsters of
the deep that could swallow them up. Under Hindu religious
law, people were not supposed to sail across the sea. A Brah-
man who did so could lose his status, becoming an outcast
without home or sanctuary. Others could suff er the loss of
funeral rites. Th is practice left Buddhists, outcasts, and thosewilling to risk the loss of their status in their communities to
be sailors.
Th e most important person on a ship was the pilot, and
no ship left port without one. Th e pilot knew how to read cur-
rents, winds, stars, and birds for directing the course of a ship
over open water. A pilot actually trained birds to fl y in the
direction of land but to return to the ship if they did not see
land midway in their fl ight, and several of the birds would
be kept in cages on deck for this purpose. Pilots had their
own guilds, through which captains could fi nd pilots for their
ships and which regulated the work of pilots. Ordinary sail-
ors were expected to show their inferior status at all times, to
pilot, captain, and passengers. Living quarters on ships were
always cramped and uncomfortable, with the rocking of the
ship causing misery for passengers, but apparently those ships
that sailed west toward the Near East, Africa, and the Medi-
terranean were fi lled with people willing to take the risks of
a sea voyage to visit foreign lands. If they made some good
trades, they could return home as rich people.
It seems that most Indian ships reached their destina-
tions despite the dangers. When a ship was in trouble, its crew
and passengers would pray to the goddess Manimekhala,
who drowned sinners but would save others. When a ship
sank, those on board had little hope of survival. If they did
not drown, sharks and other predators would eat them, some-
times turning the sea red with blood. If a ship were becalmed
for days, those on board would draw lots to see who would be
put out of the ship on a raft to be abandoned as a sacrifi ce to
bring wind.EUROPE
BY MICHAEL J. O’NEAL
Th e oldest-known European boat, hollowed out from a single
log, was discovered at Pesse in the Netherlands and dates to
about 7000 b.c.e. Many other such prehistoric boats have
been found at submerged and waterlogged sites across north-
ern Europe in which wood was preserved. For example, the
Hasholme boat, in Yorkshire, England, dates from about 300
b.c.e. It was craft ed from the trunk of a single oak tree that
was probably more than 800 years old when it was felled. In
inland areas such boats were used along streams and across
lakes, but in coastal areas people rowed them a short distance
out to sea to catch fi sh and also used them for transporta-
tion along the coast and to nearby islands. Scholars have tra-
ditionally believed that during this period navigation relied
primarily on the observation of landmarks along coasts and
that people usually did not venture far out of sight of land.
Supporting this assumption is the large number of ancient
boats that have been discovered in shallow coastal waters.
In recent years some archaeologists have been rethink-
ing this long-held belief. In 2005, for example, archaeologists
discovered fl ints and other objects on the Mediterranean
island of Cyprus that date from about 10,000 b.c.e. Cyprus,
however, was not inhabited until about 9000 b.c.e., so the ob-956 seafaring and navigation: Europe0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i956 956 10/10/07 2:30:33 PM