Ancient Mediterranean Sewn-Boat Traditions

Abstract

This article provides a summary and analysis of current knowledge of the archaeological remains of the 64 sewn boats that have been excavated in the Mediterranean region, dating from the Bronze Age to the Medieval periods. A detailed examination of the construction techniques, particularly the methods used to assemble and seal sewn planks and the systems used for lashing frames to the planking, has enabled six distinct construction traditions to be distinguished within the sewn‐boat assemblage. Phases within these traditions are examined, alongside transitions to mortise‐and‐tenon fasteners, and explanations for the longevity of sewn techniques in specific regions are suggested.

Sewn Boats of Southeast Asia: the stitched‐plank and lashed‐lug tradition

“…Ethnographic and textual evidence of the 16th to 20th centuries also corroborates this evolution from stitches (and few dowels) to dowels only. A similar development, from sewing to dowelling and/or tenons and mortises, with comparable composite intermediary phases took place in Greek vessels around the mid 1st millennium BCE (Pomey, ; Pomey and Boetto, ). As noted for Mediterranean vessels, such an evolution in Southeast Asian seas may not have been unilinear.…”

Archaeological, Historical, and Ethnographic Approaches to the Study of Sewn Boats: past, present, and future

“…New discoveries expand our understanding of the detail of sewn‐boat construction, providing insight into the extended geographical reach of sewn boats, and highlighting how techniques have changed over time in different regions of the world. Besides exciting new site‐specific discoveries, a number of comprehensive overviews such as the work of Vosmer (, ), Pomey and Boetto () and Manguin (), also provide a more refined appreciation of the place of sewn boats within regional boatbuilding traditions. At the same time, research still references the pioneering work of the early scholars, and in particular the approach adopted by Prins that presented the first comprehensive evaluation of sewn boats, drawing on ethnographic, historical, archaeological, and experimental‐reconstruction perspectives, determining geographical spread, taxonomy of boatbuilding, and sewing technologies, comparing approaches, diversity, and coherence through time (Prins, : 28, table 2).…”

“…In the Mediterranean, a sewn‐plank tradition has been documented throughout the 1st millennium BC with recent discoveries that extend across the length of the Mediterranean Sea from the Iberian Peninsula and southern France to the Levantine coast (Pomey, ; Kahanov and Pomey, ; Pomey and Boetto, ). The planks of these vessels were guided by dowels and secured by stitching that passed through trapezoidal holes.…”

“…Gradually, mortise and tenon joints became the predominant form of fastening, with sewing only visible at the vessel extremities. The latest summary of this material was presented by Pomey at the Fibre and Wood workshop in 2015 and published in IJNA edition 48.1 (Pomey and Boetto, ).…”

Studying woodworking technology on ancient shipwrecks through digital photography and photogrammetry

“…1). It is the oldest preserved fully sewn boat in the Mediterranean, and probably the first example of the north-eastern sewnboat shipbuilding tradition (Boetto, 2016;Pomey and Boetto, 2019). Laying at a depth of 2.5 m, the shipwreck was investigated since 2008 and the last excavation campaign took place in 2013 through collaboration between the Archaeology Museum of Istria and the Centre Camille Jullian (Fig.…”