This article focuses on early shipbuilding in the Eastern Mediterranean provided by shipwreck and terrestrial excavations. The study of the construction of early watercraft is mainly in the form of artistic representation. Egypt is the largest depository of early watercraft. The details of Near Eastern ships are painted on the Theban tomb of Kenamun. Hull remains from Late Bronze Age shipwrecks excavated off the coast of Turkey provide archaeological evidence for Levantine ships. The only pre-classical Aegean shipwreck to be excavated and studied by nautical archaeologists is that of a trading vessel, that sank on the southwestern Turkish coast. Greek builders strengthened their hulls transversely with internal framing comprised of preassembled “made-frames” alternating with top-timbers. The ancient seafaring cultures of the eastern Mediterranean each developed their own unique set of solutions to create elegant, sturdy, and capable boats and ships well suited to their environments and intended purposes.

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Excavation of the 9th-century AD shipwreck B in Tantura Lagoon, Israel, yielded four toggles, numerous rope fragments, and three pierced wooden spatulate objects believed to be associated with the ship's rigging. In the first half of the article, the toggles are described and compared to a corpus of similar devices found on both land and shipwreck sites. The spatulate devices are tentatively identified as spill-toggles, pierced for attaching a trip-line. The second half of the article traces the textual and iconographical evidence for toggles and sail types--in particular, the lateen--in the ancient Mediterranean, and their possible association.

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