Period (before ca. 3000 b.c.e.), and clear evidence of seacraft
is known by the Old Kingdom (ca. 2575–ca. 2134 b.c.e.).
Egyptian traditions in boat construction were unique in the
ancient world until late in the Dynastic Period, and some
techniques have persisted into modern times.
Th e earliest Egyptian watercraft were developed in
response to the need for transport along the Nile and the
marshes of the delta, especially during the inundation
season, when settlements along the Nile Valley would ef-
fectively be turned into islands. Th ese were simple raft s,
constructed by tightly binding bundles of papyrus reeds.
Th ey were easy to construct, made of readily available ma-
terial, and required little technology. Longitudinally bind-
ing the bundles as tightly as possible made the craft more
watertight and reduced the rate at which the reeds would
become waterlogged. Th e binding gave the resultant raft a
crescent shape, the front and rear curving upward, with the
ends of the bundles splaying outward in the shape of a lotus
fl ower. Th e appearance of these river craft would be imitated
in later Egyptian wooden vessels.
Th ese raft s are probably the types of boats that are de-
picted on Naqada II (ca. 3500–ca. 3200 b.c.e.) pottery from
the late Predynastic Period. Such images show cabin struc-
tures and standards on these vessels and seem to indicate that
they could carry a fair contingent of rowers. One representa-
tion on a Naqada III (ca. 3200–ca. 3000 b.c.e.) jar seems to
indicate that sails had been developed by this time and were
used on such craft. Th ese simple vessels were used through-
out the history of ancient Egypt.
Construction of boats in wood is not known in Egypt
prior to the Early Dynastic Period. Native Egyptian woods are
of very poor quality and produce only short lengths of timber.
However, longer lengths could be produced from timbers im-
ported from the eastern Mediterranean, and it is of note that
the apparent advent of wooden boat construction in Eg ypt co-
incides with the earliest evidence of imported woods in Egypt.
It does seem that Egyptian craft smen frequently used native
and imported woods in combination within a single vessel.
Wooden craft from their inception until the Middle
Kingdom (ca. 2040–ca. 1640 b.c.e.) are evidenced archaeo-
logically only from royal funerary contexts, where special pits
were excavated in order to inter the boats alongside a king’s
tomb. Th is practice began in the First Dynasty (ca. 2920–ca.
2770 b.c.e.), and more than 30 such pits from this time have
been identifi ed, at a handful of sites throughout Egypt. Most
of the pits’ contents were no longer recognizable, but 12 brick
structures from the funerary enclosure of the king Khasekhe-
mui (d. ca. 2686 b.c.e.) were discovered in 1991 with their
planked boats intact.
Most other known boat pits from the Old and Middle
Kingdoms were found at Giza and Dahshûr. From these pits
came eight vessels: the famous reconstructed boat of Khufu
housed today beside the Great Pyramid in Giza; a second,
unexcavated boat from the same pyramid complex; and six
boats from the pyramid of Sesostris III (r. 1878–1841? b.c.e.)at Dahshûr. Th ese vessels give vast insight into the construc-
tion of planked vessels in Dynastic Egypt.
Egyptian wooden vessels were created hull fi rst, any
framing being installed aft erward. Egyptian vessels did not
have a keel proper, but they were sometimes built up from a
long plank (or a connected series of planks) that was some-
what thicker than the surrounding planks and that may have
served as a rudimentary keel. More planks would be placed
around this central piece, building up the bottom and sides.
Th ese planks were initially attached through a series of mor-
tise-and-tenon joints and then fastened by lashings made
through a number of V-shaped cuttings within the thick-
nesses of the planks. Th is “sewn” technique persisted through
the Ptolemaic Period (304–30 b.c.e.).
Once the hull was complete, crossbeams and other fram-
ing elements would be installed, and decking would be laid.
Cabin structures could be built on the deck planking. Th e
stem and stern posts were oft en large and decorative aff airs,
curving upward to a vertical or bent post with a lotiform (like
a lotus petal) fi nial; as noted earlier, such features mimicked
t he appea ra nce of reed ra ft s. Th e boats would be fi tted out with
a number of oars and one or two rudder paddles at the stern.
When ships were fi tted with sails, they were hung from
a bipod (forked) or post mast that was set well forward of the
middle of the ship. At fi rst the sails, probably made of linen,
appear to have been taller than they were broad, but by the
Sixth Dynasty (ca. 2323–ca. 2150 b.c.e.) they were consis-
tently broader than they were tall. Th e use of a bipod mast
was soon abandoned, and the mast itself moved closer to the
middle of the ship through time.
Seagoing vessels had additional adaptations. One impor-
tant addition was the hogging hawser, a rope extending from
stem to stern that could be twisted to maintain tension. Th is
line helped maintain hull tension and kept the bow and stern
from sagging. Before the New Kingdom (ca. 1550–ca. 1070
b.c.e.) sailing vessels also seem to have had rope netting fi tted
around the hull above the waterline, which probably served
to maintain hull integrit y. New Kingdom vessels, however, do
not seem to have included this feature. Some of these later
vessels do seem to have had a diff erent internal layout that
allowed rowers to sit below the hull line.
Th ese seagoing vessels were used by Egyptian kings to
conduct trading and military expeditions in the Mediterra-
nean and Red Seas. Egypt is known to have had contacts with
the eastern Mediterranean by the First Dynasty and with the
Aegean by the late Middle Kingdom and into the Second In-
termediate Period (ca. 1640–ca. 1532 b.c.e.). Military cam-
paigns were launched against k ingdoms of the Levant as early
as the Sixth Dynasty and sporadically throughout the rest of
the Dynastic Period. Beginning in the Old Kingdom, trad-
ing expeditions were also sent to Punt, a kingdom located on
the eastern coast of Africa in the Red Sea region. Hatshepsut
(r. 1473–1458 b.c.e.) famously recorded an expedition dur-
ing her reign on the walls of her mortuary temple at Deir el-
Bahri, including wonderful depictions of her ships.976 ships and shipbuilding: Egypt0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i976 976 10/10/07 2:30:38 PM