Encyclopedia of Society and Culture in the Ancient World

Th e admiral narrowly escaped being captured himself and

lost his fl agship. Aft er they were defeated by the Romans off

the coast of Sardinia, the Carthaginians crucifi ed Hannibal

as a punishment.

In addition to their navy, Carthaginians also had a large

merchant fl eet. Th eir vessels sailed the Mediterranean before

the First Punic War and through the wars until just before the

outbreak of the Th ird Punic War in 149 b.c.e. Th ese were the

ships involved in trade with Spain and Cornwall, where the

Carthaginians and the Phoenicians bought tin. Th e Roman

poet Avienus (fourth century c.e.) makes a reference to a visit

of the Carthaginian navigator Himilco (fl. ca. 450 b.c.e.) to

Cornwall. Carthaginian ships also sailed down the western

coast of Africa. Th ey are believed to have traded with West

Africa, although whether they did this directly or through

middlemen is not known. According to one theory, the Car-

thaginian navigator Hanno (fi ft h century b.c.e.) sailed to

modern-day Cameroon.

Apart from the Carthaginians, the Numidians had small

trading vessels, but as a client state fi rst of Carthage and then

of Rome they had no need for their own fl eet. Trading vessels

were certainly being built on the western coast of Africa, but

most traveled short distances and kept close to the coastline.

However, the Norwegian explorer Th or Heyerdahl (1914–

2002), in his Ra voyages in 1969 and 1970, managed to prove

to his skeptics that it was possible to build a vessel that could

cross the Atlantic Ocean. Archaeologists have not found the

remains of any of the Carthaginian trading vessels, but from

descriptions of the goods they carried it would seem that they

were similar to the Phoenician merchant ships. Th ese ships

relied far more on the use of sails, as the costs of maintaining

large numbers of oarsmen, even slaves, would have been too

high to justify the gains in speed and the loss of large storage

areas for merchandise.

Many small vessels undoubtedly traveled the eastern

coast of Africa, including Egyptian ships sailing to Punt, the

Egyptian name for a coastal region probably in modern-day

Eritrea and Djibouti. Merchants from these and other ships

were probably the transmitters of knowledge of metallurgy

from Nubia to southern Africa. Th e dates of the iron objects

found in Africa seem to show that the technical advances oc-

curred in coastal areas before permeating inland, which may

explain why the Buganda people of modern Uganda learned

to ut i lize iron in compa rat ively recent t imes. It is a lso possible

that this trade was carried out not by African ships but by

ships from India or elsewhere whose owners plied their wares

along the African coast. Items designed by the Chinese and

Indians have been found in Madagascar, indicating that this

trade did exist from ancient times. In addition, beginning in

the second century b.c.e. the use of dhows—sailing vessels

with triangular sails—for trade between Africa and southern

Arabia started to become important as the exchange of goods

between Axum and Arabia signifi cantly increased.

Besides the ships used for navigating in seas and oceans,

there was also a need for vessels for crossing rivers and trad-

ing along rivers. Raft s would have been used to cover the

shorter distances, along with boats made from hollowed logs

and small watercraft. Being made entirely of wood, none of

these have survived, although some archaeologists have sug-

gested hints of their existence in some of the rock carvings

found in the Sahel.

EGYPT

BY ERIN FAIRBURN

Because ancient Egyptian civilization developed in the valley

and the delta of the Nile River, it is only natural that water-

craft appeared early in Egyptian history. Developed technol-

ogy in the creation of river craft appeared in the Predynastic

The Ra expeditions of the Norwegian explorer Thor

Heyerdahl, which took place in 1969 and 1970, fol-

lowed the Norwegian adventurer’s success with the

Kon-Tiki crossing of the Pacifi c. Heyerdahl intended

to demonstrate that it was also possible for people

to cross the Atlantic Ocean. He had been interested

in connections between the ancient civilizations, and

he believed it might have been possible for seacraft to

have made the long and hazardous voyages.

For that reason Heyerdahl hired boat builders

from Lake Chad, and the boat was constructed out

of reeds in Egypt based on designs shown in ancient

Egyptian drawings, and then taken to Safi , Morocco.

It was accepted that the Egyptians could have sailed

along the coastline of North Africa and through the

Strait of Gibraltar. Here they might have taken on

extra crew or replenished supplies on the boat. Al-

though Heyerdahl’s intent was to show that ancient

Egyptians could have reached the Americas, the fact

that the boat departed from the Atlantic Coast of

Morocco also showed that people before even the

Carthaginians could have made the journey.

With a seven-man crew, Ra sailed on May 25,

1969, but foundered in July after traveling 2,700

miles. It was abandoned after being waterlogged and

in danger of sinking. It was a great disappointment

for Heyerdahl and the multinational crew, but, unde-

terred, the team started work on another boat. The

second boat, Ra II, with almost the same crew, was

built by Aymara Indians from Lake Titicaca on the

border of Peru and Bolivia. It was then taken to Safi ,

from where it managed to cross the Atlantic and ar-

rive at Bridgetown, Barbados, in the West Indies in

1970, having completed the crossing in 57 days.

THE RA EXPEDITIONS OF

THOR HEYERDAHL

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