Ships and Seafaring in Ancient Times

Ships and Seafaring in Ancient Times PDF Author: Lionel Casson
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
Ever since the earliest travelers took to the water on reed rafts or inflated goatskins, ships and boats have played a paramount role in the history of the Western world. The invention of the sail about 3500 BC resulted in ever faster and more efficient water transport, and the great civilizations of Egypt, Greece, and Rome depended on ships and seafarers for their prosperity. This entertaining book by the world's foremost authority on ancient seamanship traces the development of the boat from the most primitive craft to the powerful warships of the Greeks, the huge Roman merchant vessels, and the slender galleys of the Vikings. Professor Casson shows how the discoveries of marine archaeologists and recent experiments with full-size replicas of ancient boats have increased our knowledge of the way in which ships were built and used. Drawing upon written accounts and contemporary artistic depictions of naval battles, trading expeditions, and other voyages, he brings the world of seafaring in ancient times vividly to life.

Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World

Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World PDF Author: Lionel Casson
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 140085346X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 576

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Book Description
Written to replace and extend Torr's Ancient Ships, this generously illustrated underwater Bible" traces the art and technology of Mediterranean ships and seamanship from their first crude stages (about 3000 B.C.) to the heyday of the Byzantine fleets. Originally published in 1971. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The Sea and Civilization

The Sea and Civilization PDF Author: Lincoln Paine
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307962253
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 802

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Book Description
A monumental retelling of world history through the lens of maritime enterprise, revealing in breathtaking depth how people first came into contact with one another by ocean and river, lake and stream, and how goods, languages, religions, and entire cultures spread across and along the world’s waterways, bringing together civilizations and defining what makes us most human. Lincoln Paine takes us back to the origins of long-distance migration by sea with our ancestors’ first forays from Africa and Eurasia to Australia and the Americas. He demonstrates the critical role of maritime trade to the civilizations of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Indus Valley. He reacquaints us with the great seafaring cultures of antiquity like those of the Phoenicians and Greeks, as well as those of India and Southeast and East Asia, who parlayed their navigational skills, shipbuilding techniques, and commercial acumen to establish thriving overseas colonies and trade routes in the centuries leading up to the age of European expansion. And finally, his narrative traces how commercial shipping and naval warfare brought about the enormous demographic, cultural, and political changes that have globalized the world throughout the post–Cold War era. This tremendously readable intellectual adventure shows us the world in a new light, in which the sea reigns supreme. We find out how a once-enslaved East African king brought Islam to his people, what the American “sail-around territories” were, and what the Song Dynasty did with twenty-wheel, human-powered paddleboats with twenty paddle wheels and up to three hundred crew. Above all, Paine makes clear how the rise and fall of civilizations can be linked to the sea. An accomplishment of both great sweep and illuminating detail, The Sea and Civilization is a stunning work of history.

The Ancient Mariners

The Ancient Mariners PDF Author: Lionel Casson
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691212996
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
Written by the renowned authority on ancient ships and seafaring Lionel Casson, The Ancient Mariners has long served the needs of all who are interested in the sea, from the casual reader to the professional historian. This completely revised edition takes into account the fresh information that has appeared since the book was first published in 1959, especially that from archaeology's newest branch, marine archaeology. Casson does what no other author has done: he has put in a single volume the story of all that the ancients accomplished on the sea from the earliest times to the end of the Roman Empire. He explains how they perfected trading vessels from mere rowboats into huge freighters that could carry over a thousand tons, how they transformed warships from simple oared transports into complex rowing machines holding hundreds of marines and even heavy artillery, and how their maritime commerce progressed from short cautious voyages to a network that reached from Spain to India.

The Ancient Sailing Season

The Ancient Sailing Season PDF Author: James Beresford
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004241949
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
Providing a comprehensive examination of the capacity of ancient ships and seafarers to cope with seasonally changing sea conditions, this book draws on a wide range of ancient literary sources while also taking account of modern weather records, hydrological data, and recent archaeological discoveries. Taking a fresh look at the various ways in which seasonality affected maritime transport across the sea-lanes of the ancient world, this book offers new perspectives on the nature of seaborne trade, naval warfare and piratical operations. The result is a volume that questions many long-held scholarly assumptions concerning the strength and seaworthiness of ancient vessels, as well as the abilities of Greek and Roman mariners, to regularly undertake voyages across hazardous stretches of sea.

Arab Seafaring in the Indian Ocean in Ancient and Early Medieval Times

Arab Seafaring in the Indian Ocean in Ancient and Early Medieval Times PDF Author: George F. Hourani
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691000329
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
In this classic work George Hourani deals with the history of the sea trade of the Arabs in the Indian Ocean from its obscure origins many centuries before Christ to the time of its full extension to China and East Africa in the ninth and tenth centuries. The book comprises a brief but masterly historical account that has never been superseded. The author gives attention not only to geography, meteorology, and the details of travel, but also to the ships themselves, including a discussion of the origin of stitched planking and of the lateen fore-and-aft sails. Piracy in the Indian Ocean, day-to-day life at sea, the establishment of ancient lighthouses and the production of early maritime guides, handbooks, and port directories are all described in fascinating detail. Arab Seafaring will appeal to anyone interested in Arab life or the history of navigation. For this expanded edition, John Carswell has added a new introduction, a bibliography, and notes that add material from recent archaeological research.

The Children of Noah

The Children of Noah PDF Author: Raphael Patai
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691009681
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
The late Raphael Patai recreates the fascinating world of Jewish seafaring, from Noah's voyage through the Diaspora of late antiquity. Patai weaves together Biblical stories, Talmudic lore, and Midrash literature to bring alive the world of these ancient mariners. Illustrations.

Seafaring and Seafarers in the Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean

Seafaring and Seafarers in the Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean PDF Author: Arthur Bernard Knapp
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789088905551
Category : Bronze age
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book presents a diachronic study of seafaring, seafarers and maritime interactions during the Early, Middle and Late Bronze Ages of the eastern Mediterranean (Cyprus, Anatolia, the Levant, Egypt)

Seagoing Ships and Seamanship in the Bronze Age Levant

Seagoing Ships and Seamanship in the Bronze Age Levant PDF Author: Shelley Wachsmann
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 1623497000
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description
During the Bronze Age, the ancient societies that ringed the Mediterranean, once mostly separate and isolate, began to reach across the great expanse of sea to conduct trade, marking an age of immense cultural growth and technological development. These intersocietal lines of communication and paths for commerce relied on rigorous open-water travel. And, as a potential superhighway, the Mediterranean demanded much in the way of seafaring knowledge and innovative ship design if it were to be successfully navigated. In Seagoing Ships and Seamanship in the Bronze Age Levant Shelley Wachsmann presents a one-of-a-kind comprehensive examination of how the early eastern Mediterranean cultures took to the sea--and how they evolved as a result. The author surveys the blue-water ships of the Egyptians, Syro-Canaanites, Cypriots, Early Bronze Age Aegeans, Minoans, Mycenaeans, and Sea Peoples, and discusses known Bronze Age shipwrecks. Relying on archaeological, ethnological, iconographic, and textual evidence, Wachsmann delivers a fascinating and intricate rendering of virtually every aspect of early sea travel--from ship construction and propulsion to war on the open water, piracy, and laws pertaining to conduct at sea. This broad study is further enhanced by contributions from other renowned scholars. J. Hoftijzer and W. H. van Soldt offer new and illuminating translations of Ugaritic and Akkadian documents that refer to seafaring. J. R. Lenz delves into the Homeric Greek lexicon to search out possible references to the birdlike shapes that adorned early ships' stem and stern. F. Hocker provides a useful appendix and glossary of nautical terms, and George F. Bass's foreword frames the study's scholarly significance and discusses its place in the nautical archaeological canon. This book brings together for the first time the entire corpus of evidence pertaining to Bronze Age seafaring and will be of special value to archaeologists, maritime historians, philologists, and Bronze Age textual scholars. Offering an abundance of line drawings and photographs and written in a style that makes the material easily accessible to the layperson, Wachsmann's study is certain to become a standard reference for anyone interested in the dawn of sea travel.

Sailing Through Time

Sailing Through Time PDF Author: Elsē Spatharē
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
The most important phases of Greek civilization are connected with the sea, through voyages of discovery, naval campaigns and ocean trading. Over the years, and due to its leading role as a means of communication, the ship also became a subject for artistic creations. The history and the evolution of the Greek ship from prehistoric times to the present day are presented through the work of known artists and anonymous craftsmen, executed in a variety of different materials. Ships were carved in stone and marble, incised on bronze, painted on clay or wood, depicted in paintings and murals, embroidered on cloth, printed on paper, offered as votives or worn as amulets. The rich illustrative material has been selected from museums and collections both in Greece and abroad.