PREHISTORIC SHIPS: THE EARLIEST PICTURES OF EGYPTIAN VESSELS
The pottery of the second period of Egyptian civilisation is rich in representations of prehistoric ships. The vessels are shown with many oars, and the cabins are placed amidship with a gangway between. It is gathered from these crude drawings that in prehistoric times there was a considerable shipping trade along the coast of Egypt.
SECOND CIVILISATION. The second prehistoric civilisation, of which we have traced the Asiatic source, is specially marked by the use of a hard buff pottery, on which designs are often painted in brown outline. The art of these has no connection with that of the early white line designs; the habit of covering figures with cross lines, and the imitation of basket-work, have entirely disappeared; and, on the contrary, the plant, ostrich, and ship designs are quite new.
What, then, were the connections of these people? One indication is gleaned from carvings at the close of the prehistoric age. Two tributaries of the new king of Egypt are shown bearing stone vases of the style of those of the second prehistoric civilisation, S.D. 45–75. They have large pointed noses, and wear pigtails, and another tributary of the same type wears a long robe. Hence we may see that they came from a cold region where stone vases were wrought; and that by the form of the vase they were probably the same people as the later prehistoric stock. Yet, on the other hand, we occasionally find pottery vases of that people in the earlier prehistoric age, so that they must have been in touch with Egypt throughout. The more likely source for them was the mountainous region, where snow sometimes lies, between Egypt and the Red Sea; and certainly this was the source of the rare igneous rocks used for the prehistoric vases.
The general conclusion would be, then, that a people occupying the mountainous region east of Egypt had an independent civilisation, and were in touch with the early prehistoric people of the Nile valley. Then about S.D. 38 they began to push down into Egypt, and fully entered it by S.D. 44, bringing with them various different points of their own civilisation, and expelling the Osiris worship in favour of Set, who was their god. They probably brought in the Semitic elements to the Egyptian language, along with the other Asiatic connections.
Fleet of Prehistoric Ships
SHIPPING. Under this new order of things we see much more foreign and maritime connection. The introduction of silver from Asia, of lazuli from Persia, of hæmatite from Sinai, of serpentine from the Arabian desert—all show this. On the vases we see the starfish painted, and one of the most usual decorations was the figure of a great galley or ship. These ships are shown with oars on the pottery vases, and without oars or sails on the tomb paintings. From the proportion of the figures they appear to have been as much as 50 ft, long, and this is confirmed by the oars, which number up to sixty. Neither indication is exact; but the tendency would be to exaggerate the size of the figures, and certainly not to diminish them, and so aggrandise the ship. The shipbuilding in the early history may prepare us for the earlier rise of such work, when we read of Senefru building sixty ships of a hundred feet long in one year.
What the Ships Were Like
These prehistoric ships were all of one pattern. Amidships were the large cabins, and there was no poop or forecastle structure, probably because of the want of support fore and aft, the flotation being mainly in the middle. The two cabins were separated by a broad gangway across the boat, and joined above the gangway by a bridge from roof to roof. Lesser cabins projected fore and aft from the main cabins. On the roofs were rails at the corners, so as to secure top cargo without getting in the way of loading it up. In a large ship there was an upper cabin on the hinder main one, a light shelter shaded with branches. From the back of the hinder cabin stood up a tall pole bearing a solid object as a standard, which we shall notice below. At the stern was the steersman seated by an upright post, to which was probably lashed the steering oar, as in the historical boats. In the bows was a low platform, with a rail round it, for the look-out, shaded with branches. The cabins were narrower than the beam, and left free space for rowers on each side.
Trade in Those Days