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Remains of ancient Egyptian seafaring ships discovered

16:02 23 March 2005

NewScientist.com news service

Emma Young

The first remains of ancient Egyptian seagoing ships ever to be

recovered have been found in two caves on Egypt's Red Sea coast,

according to a team at Boston University in the US.

 

The team also found fragments of pottery at the site, which could

help resolve controversies about the extent of ancient Egyptian

trade voyages. But details of the newly disclosed finds remain

sketchy.

 

Kathryn Bard, who co-led the dig with Italian archaeologists in

December 2004, has revealed to the Boston University weekly

community newsletter that the team found a range of items -

including timbers and riggings - inside the man-made caves, located

at the coastal Pharaonic site of Wadi Gawasis.

 

According to the report, pottery in the caves could date at least

some of the artefacts to a famous 15th century BC naval expedition

by Queen Hatshepsut to the mysterious, incense-producing land of

Punt. This voyage is depicted in detailed reliefs on Queen

Hatshepsut's temple on the west bank of the Nile, near modern-day

Luxor.

 

Bard declined to speak to New Scientist. But the find is exciting,

says John Baines, professor of Egyptology at the University of

Oxford, UK, who has been in contact with Bard. "These finds put

flesh on what we might have imagined," he says.

 

Gold and ebony

The pottery finds include items the Italian researchers think could

be from Yemen - a potential candidate for the modern identity of

Punt. The ancient Egyptians sourced a variety of exotic wares in

Punt, including gold, ebony and incense.

 

"The Yemeni pottery is very interesting because it was suspected

that there were contacts across the Red Sea - and this proves that

there were," Baines says.

 

The naval artefacts included two curved cedar planks which might

have been parts of steering oars. But linking these to Queen

Hatshepsut's famous voyage might be a little too specific, he says.

 

"Kathryn [bard] has told me the pottery is early New Kingdom, and we

know of no other expedition to Punt in that period, so it is a

reasonable guess. But we also have to bear in mind that almost

everything from antiquity is lost, so there could well have been

other voyages."

 

It is not clear exactly why the artefacts were sealed up inside the

caves. But it is possible that they were offerings to the Egyptian

gods. "That sounds very plausible to me, not least because previous

excavations found a structure made of stone anchors that could again

be some sort of thanks-offering," says Baines.

 

The team plans to return to the caves in December 2005 to continue

their excavations.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7190