The trace of  *Longboats* in Neolithic Europe 
                                 and Near East
 

As  shown, the  technical standard of neolithic northern Post-Magdalénian 
 allowed to split long trees into  long planks and  to connect these planks by 
sewing.Thus from a technical view long boats could have been built already
 in the Meso-Neolithic North. 

Problem:       Longboats are proveable in the ancient Mediterrranian

                                Where did the shipbuilders come from ?
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                                               Egypt  3200 BC

                         

    d

 a) White and dark boats on a ceramic from a grave in Hierakonpolis( 3200 BC.)
On the left a group of white  curved boats (only one drawn)  together  with an
individual boat, black with one steeply ascending stem.
b)  Nubt, statue of Sennefer.(Petri) The hut in the  center  permits an approxi-
mate estimation of the boat length ( 10 m? )   Notice  the single  side  rudder
typical for double ended long ships (Sea-people 1200 BC, Viking 900 AD)
c) Cyclades, Syros , ´Frying Pans´( 2800-2220 BC)
d) Cutting on a wooden plate from Abydos. King AHA around 3000 BC.
A sea worthy cargoship?.
Did Snefru, the father of Cheops, transport cedar wood for his own ship from
from the Lebanon to Egypt around 2600 BC by such ships?
                                       

Sewn-connection of strong  planks (20 x 10 cm)  to  built  moveable  wooden
 walls needed  by Nomads on the move. Into the planks  rope channels  were
struck, 2500 BC.
(Petri (Tharkan)  supposed  that this  plank  construction  was  a model for
Egyptian recess architecture .( A  small space  created by  building part of
a wall  further back  from  the  rest.  In  Sumer  the  recess  in the wall of the
 Ziggurat)  (Hypothesis: Symbols of early columns supporting the sky ?)

Compareable the swen-construction of  the  dead-boat of Cheops.- The king
believed that after death he had to departure  by boat to cross  the  primeval  
ozean in oder to meet his relatives, the gods at the horizonf  I.e.Cheops needs
a boat. Accordingly to the selfunderstanding of the powerfull king ,it had to be
a large boat, more largely than all preceding.

          Dov

The dead boat of Cheops Cedar, 43,5 m long, 5,9 m broad ,about14 cm thick,
weight  40000 kg This boat refers to the standard of wood technology in the
Early Period (2800-2200 B.C.) The hulls  were  flat  or round  bottomed  with
Cedarwood  planksjoined edge to edge by "mortise-and-tenon" fashion (The sewn-technic in progress to carvel construction?)

Dover The same lashing technique thousand years later in England. (Dover)
A sewn plank boat (l = 15 m, around 1300 B.C.)  Two  oak  planks  form  the
bottom.Tied and pressed together with ropes   http
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                                    Sumer Mesopotamien.

                               

Seal. Long ships with elongated stem, which ends in a  bird or a queue head.
The steersman typical for an pointed-oval  long boat wears horns. 
 ("From the East, that Design element could  have been  carried  westward
 to the  Mediterranean by people  from the Mesopotamien region")
 Manual Robbins Collapse oF the bronze Age 2001 ((no more exact datings)
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                                          Proto Viking ships

 

Transport of timber (Zedar?)  by long boats (Khorsabad, Sargon II.) Probably 
Phoenician. The descendants of the sea-peoples? The rower sit in direction
of motion. The same position as 2000 years before in Negade 3000 BC.(s.o.) 
I.e. the rudders are pressed and not like today pulled.Looks rechnically strange.
(Or only an error of the painter ?)

 

Rovers and steersman wearing a beard             Egypt, Negade II c.3000 B.C

Problem::  Why do  ' nordic'  long boats have a typyical  elongated stem- and
sternpost ?  I see no technical necessity. A mythical meaning ?                            

       a     b
     Seapeople  1200 BC                                       Phoenician    700 BC

         Sea people  attacking Ramses III.The typical sternpost ending with the head                                                   of a water bird.
           b) Carriazo. Bronze relief, Cadiz, supposed Phoenician

In Scandinavian Mythology Odin's twelve handmaids conducted  the  slain
warriors of their choice from the battlefield to Valhalla. The maids ´Valkyrie´
could appear like Swans
"Early one morning they found on the shore of  the lake three women,  who
were spinning  flax. Near  them were  their  swan  garments , fo r the y were Valkyries"Edda/.Völundarkvitha)

  The typical elongated stemm- and sternposts may symbolize the neck
                                               of a waterbird

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Ungarn (1100-950 BC.)                       Sun in swan-ship  (Spanuth)
   Urnfieldtime                   a.) Siem, Amt Olberf, Dänemark  b.) Rossin,  Anklam                                                         c .) Granzin,Kreis  Parchim d.) Prenzlawitz, Graudenz                                                                                        e.) Corneto, Italien      

      a   b

a) The stem- and  sternposts of  three Viking longships from a contemporary
chronicle. The bow stem ends in a bird´s head. Obviously not a  bird  of prey,
a swan?
One sternpost is compareable  with  Phoenician  ships, 1500  years before
b) Nydam  boat.  Schleswig-Holstein  ( North Germany) AD     3.-5- Century .
22.8 m long,3.3 m wide, crew 40 men. Klinker, single side rudder. An offered sacrifice     
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                                    P.S . Methods to build up a hull by joining planks.

                           
                               

 a) Clinker built method  of shipbuilding is characteristic in  North  European
waters during ancient and medieval times, in which the external planks were overlapped and, in earlier times, usually joined by sewing,  later  in historical
times secured with  clinchednails.
b)  Carvel  construction  characteristic in  Mediterranean  waters  during  the
Middle Ages, as contrasted with clinker  construction  in northern  waters.  In
carvel construction the planks were fitted edge to edge against  a  foregoing
built framework.
Hulls so constructed were smooth and well streamlined, but the work required
more precision and skilled labour.
c) and  above.  Egyptian  river boats.  Relative  short  planks  (2m) placed like
bricks, joined together by wooden dowls.

If planks shorter in length of the boat /Cheops boat 43.5 m) then the needed
end to end lashings of the shorter planks are the prominent weak point of the construction, because this lashings had to withstand the tensile forces along
the hull. Week point the wooden dowls.

          

                                        The sun boat of the Nebra sky disk.(1600 BC) Three planks.Obviously not a
                                        carvel  construction.

Facit:                         Proto - Viking Long Boats
                          are provable in the ancient Mediterranean.

  1-2-ancient-shipbuilding 20.12.03.

Index

Next:  Sea People Foreigners with  *Pre-Viking-ships* and horned helms
attacked Ramses III

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