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

Abstract

Sewn‐plank vessels have been a pervasive form of ship construction since antiquity. This paper provides an introductory overview of the current state of the field of sewn‐plank studies, with a particular focus on the Indian Ocean. It describes the basic function of sewn‐plank techniques, and then discusses textual references and historical approaches to the topic. The relevant archaeological evidence is reviewed, and prior ethnographic work relating to the topic is outlined. It summarizes numerous experimental sewn‐plank reconstructions that have been undertaken and concludes with a discussion of the current directions of the field and suggestions for the future.

Re‐sewing the Sewn: An Ethnographic Record of Repair and Reuse of Sewn‐plank River Boats in Goa, India

“…Observing and understanding the repair of sewn boats has shed light on raw materials, technology, and the problems and challenges encountered. Archaeological and historic evidence suggests that people used different raw materials and technologies to fasten sewn‐plank boats (Blue and Staples, ). Studying such differences in raw material and technology enables us to describe regional variations in sewn‐boat technology that may be used to identify regional identities and eventually provenance sewn boats discovered in archaeological contexts.…”

Sewn boats in the Qatar Museums collection, Doha:baggāras andkettuvallams as records of a western Indian Ocean technological tradition

“…On baggāra 2, in contrast, the two plies of the cord were S‐laid and comprised a coarse buff‐coloured fibre 8 . This use of cordage alone as a wadding material is not reported in other regional ethnographic studies, although a number of authors report its use over a core of coir fibres (Varadarajan, 1998: 68; Kentley, 2003a: 150; Shaikh et al ., 2011: 152–153; Shaikh, 2019: 382–383) and in several experimental reconstructions (Vosmer et al ., 2011: 417; Ghidoni, 2019: 367, 369, 375; Staples and Blue, 2019: 319–322, 329).…”

“…1, 88–125, vol. 2, 10–127 ( passim ); 2012; Shaikh et al ., 2011; Jansen van Rensburg, 2016: 114–115; Burningham, 2019; Dixon, 2019; Fenwick, 2015; 2019; Ghidoni, 2019: 375; Shaikh, 2019: 377; Staples and Blue, 2019; Weismann et al ., 2019). The baggāras in particular are extremely rare.…”

Sewn‐Plank Reconstructions of Oman: construction and documentation

“…One of the reasons that the Sultanate of Oman has been so involved in sewn‐plank reconstructions is that sewn‐plank vessels have played a large role in Oman's maritime history. Although sewn‐plank methods of construction were present throughout much of the world for most of the pre‐modern period, the sewn‐plank method of construction is particularly relevant for the western Indian Ocean for at least the past two millennia (Prins, ; Staples and Blue, ). The Greco‐Roman navigational treatise, Periplus Maris Erythreae , records the existence of sewn‐plank boats in the Arabian Peninsula in the 1st century CE (Casson, ).…”