Archaic Ship Graffiti from Southern Attica, Greece: typology and preliminary contextual analysis

Abstract

Since 1994 almost 2000 ancient rupestral engravings, both verbal and pictorial, have been discovered in southern Attica. These include about 200 depictions of warships, merchantmen, and smaller vessels of various types. These engravings are dated to the 6th century BC on the basis of their style and the formal characteristics of their associated inscriptions. They contain the earliest‐known labelled images of the Greek ship types triakonter, pentekonter, and holkas, as well as the earliest depictions of two‐masted merchantmen, and possibly Greek triremes. They also include the earliest images of the three‐pronged ram and of the spur of a merchantman used as a cutwater, as well as possibly the earliest depictions of lead sheathing and of the spritsail.

Seamen on Land? A Preliminary Analysis of Medieval Ship Graffiti on Cyprus

“…They have been found in monuments of different character, such as caves, temples, public buildings, fortifications, churches, prisons, and private houses, dating to various periods, from the 3rd millennium BC onwards (Basch, 1987). In the eastern Mediterranean, ancient SG have attracted the attention of several scholars (for example Doumas, 1965; Basch, 1987; Basch and Artzy, 1985; Artzy, 1999; Langdon and Van de Moortel, 1997; Pomey, 2006; Van de Moortel and Langdon, 2017) but those from medieval and later contexts have been recorded only sporadically, as for example those from the Black Sea (Emetz, 1995; Ocharov, 1995), Cyprus, Israel (Kahanov et al. , 2008; Kahanov, 2011) and various areas in Greece: Attiki (Getakos, 1956; Meinardus, 1970–1972; Basch, 1978; Delouca, 2000; Damianidis, 2011); Aegina (Basch, 1986; Delouca, 1990, 1996); Mystras (Orlandos, 2000: 72–73, fig.…”