ships are depicted on pottery beginning in the eighth century
b.c.e. For short distances, there is evidence of a small craft
that was rowed by one or two men. Th is ship is represented in
the reliefs of the Assyrian king Sargon II (r. 721–705 b.c.e.).
Th e front of the ship, which carried a cargo of timber, is in the
shape of a horse’s head. Th e ship’s oars would have been used
to steer the ship.
Th ere is little archaeological evidence of Mesopotamian
ships, owing to the poor quality of surviving representations
and a lack of shipwrecks. Th ey certainly once existed, how-
ever, as Sumerian texts refer to ships sailing down the Persian
Gulf to locations as far away as Africa and India. Th ese texts
date from around 2350 to 1800 b.c.e. and suggest that from
an early period the Mesopotamians were able to construct
ships that traveled great distances. Th e Persians did not have
a standing fl eet, since most of their military campaigns were
on land in Asia Minor. Th ey relied instead upon their con-
quered coastal territories to supply them with the ships they
needed. Th ey also used sailing ships from the Levant to im-
port wine, oil, metals, and other products into their empire.
In the 11th century b.c.e. a group known as the Sea Peo-
ples caused havoc along the eastern Mediterranean. Areas of
the Hittite Empire, Cyprus, and important cities in the Near
East such as Ugarit (in modern-day Syria) were laid waste.
Th e Sea Peoples seem to have been defeated by the Egyptians
under the reign of Ramses III (r. 1198–1166 b.c.e.). Represen-
tations from Medinet Habu in Egypt show the naval battle
between the Egyptians and the Sea Peoples. Th ey suggest that
naval warfare at fi rst involved mainly hand-to-hand combat,
with troops boarding each other’s vessels.
Beginning in the late eighth century b.c.e. naval warfare
changed with the invention of the ram. Representations of
the ram have been found dating from this period in the sculp-
tures of Sennacherib (ca. 681 b.c.e.), who followed Sargon II
as king of the Assyrian Empire. Th is new weapon could cause
considerable damage to opposing vessels. Th e oldest ram that
has been discovered was found off the coast of Israel at ‘Atlit
and dates from the second century b.c.e. Th e ram was found
without any other ship wreckage around it.
Besides the right weaponry, speed was an important
factor in naval warfare. Th e ability to outmaneuver a rivalwas vital. Large steering oars on the back of the boat meant
that the ship could change direction quickly. Ships were also
built very long to counter the eff ects of a bow wave. Th is
wave was created when ships attempted to sail at high speed.
Vessels needed to use a great deal of energy to climb the
wave created, which would slow down the ship. Longer, nar-
rower ships could better cut through this wave and so travel
more quickly.
On the reliefs of Sennacherib there is early evidence of
vessels with a second row of oars, called biremes. Th is in-
crease in the number of oarsman helped to propel ships at
ever-increasing speeds. To maintain the stability of the ship,
the platforms where the oarsmen sat were lowered. As a de-
fensive measure, warships oft en had a balustrade on the top
deck that was covered with shields. By the late sixth century
b.c.e. ships called triremes had developed a third row of oars.
Such ships were used in large numbers at, for example, the
battle of Salamis between the Persian and victorious Greek
navy in 480 b.c.e.
Beginning in the fourth century b.c.e. changes in design
were needed to adapt ships to new changes in battle tactics.
Vessels became increasingly used as stages to fi re artillery at
the enemy. In naval warfare the frequency of troops boarding
other ships increased. To counter this, larger and larger ships
were constructed. During the period of wars between the rival
successors to Alexander the Great (r. 336–323 b.c.e.), called
the Diodochi (322–281 b.c.e.), sexiremes, vessels with six sets
of oars, were used in the battle of Salamis in 306 b.c.e. Aft er
the political unifi cation of the Mediterranean by the Romans
the demand decreased for such large war vessels. Triremes
were used again, for example, in the Battle of the Hellespont
in 324 b.c.e. when Constantine’s son Crispus (d. 326 c.e.) de-
feated the Roman emperor Licinius (r. 308–324 c.e.).ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
BY JUSTIN CORFIELD
Nautical technology in China was highly developed in the an-
cient world. Th e Chinese had vessels for traveling along rivers
and navigating the seas. Asians took a number of sea voyages
around the Pacifi c, although details on many of them rely
on legends or remain conjecture. With few images surviving
of the ships used and no archaeological confi rmation, much
of the evidence for ships and shipbuilding techniques come
from descriptions in chronicles.
It seems probable that vessels were used during the
Shang (1500–1045 b.c.e.) and the Zhou (1045–256 b.c.e.)
dynasties, but most of the historical records were destroyed
during the famous burning of the books by the order of the
emperor Zheng (r. 221–210 b.c.e.) in 213 b.c.e., so little infor-
mation about them survives. Th e kingdoms of Wu and Yue
were known to be important naval powers with signifi cant
coastlines, and they oft en used river-based fl eets to attack the
inland kingdom of Chu. Th eir boats would have been con-
structed entirely from wood, using sails and a rudder for nav-Terra-cotta model of a merchant ship, Amathus, Cyprus, about
600–500 b.c.e. (© Th e Trustees of the British Museum)978 ships and shipbuilding: Asia and the Pacific0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i978 978 10/10/07 2:30:38 PM