Traditional boats of the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and the Gulf

First published in Buzzle on 16th August 2006

Republished on the same day here:
http://sudaneseonline.com/en2/publish/Articles_and_Analysies_12/Sudan_s_Beja_Blemmyes_and_their_Right_to_Freedom_a_929.shtml

Republished on 23rd August 2006 and discussed in the forum below:
http://www.politicsforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=62793
At the moment the misinformed international community plans to spend so easily US $ 3 billion for Lebanon's reconstruction, it is essential to highlight that much less money would be enough to bring peace in the strategically crucial area of Eastern Sudan where the Blemmyes / Beja have started their struggle for self-determination and independence. Support to historically indigenous Beja would bring the Khartoum tyrants at the brink of collapse, opening the path of independence for the oppressed peoples of Sudan, and at the same time it would reshape the entire area of the Red Sea where historical nations demand international recognition.

Hawari are traditionally logboats carved from a single tree into a double-ended vessel which can be propelled by either sails or paddle. Hawari can be found throughout the Indian Ocean from India through to East Africa, yet little is known about this ubiquitous vessel. The aims of this research are to address this lacuna in our knowledge by documenting the rich source of hawari present on the island of Socotra, Yemen.

Indigenous, or Khaliji, art from the Arabian and Persian shores of the pre-modern Gulf offers evidence of extinct types of watercraft, in particular the kalbā (gallivat) and the dāw (dhow) with their conspicuous counter stern. While European art and texts offer testimony of these vessels' appearances, lesser-known indigenous petroglyphs, graffiti, woodcarvings, and manuscript paintings offer a Khaliji view of their own watercraft. Even images seemingly deficient as architectural diagrams remain significant in light of the few reliable referents from oral history, ethnography, archaeology, or modern watercraft. The distinctive projecting counter stern common to these vessels allows identification of the kalbā and the dāw in iconographic sources that otherwise lack technical merit. Both types of vessel were used as fighting vessels in the Gulf, while the dāw was also operated in commercial roles in the Arabian and Red Seas. The shared fate of the kalbā and the dāw, both rendered anachronistic by shifting styles and influences in shipbuilding, is important for understanding the nautical technology of pre-modern Khaliji societies.

The hūrī (pl. hawārī) is a traditional logboat, carved from a single tree into a double-ended vessel which can be propelled by either sail or paddle. Hūrīs are found throughout the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, yet little about this ubiquitous vessel is known. This paper builds on previous research undertaken on hūrīs on the island of Socotra, Yemen, and looks at how these vessels can help in understanding the traditional and cultural changes hūrīs have brought to Socotra.

Recent scholarship has argued that the more southerly of the ancient ports of Egypt's Red Sea coast, such as Berenike and Myos Hormos, enjoyed inherent navigational advantages over those, such as Clysma, further north. That argument arises from the fact that ancient sailing rigs perform poorly when sailing to windward: by putting in to a more southerly port, the argument goes, vessels arriving at Egypt from the southern Red Sea could avoid a lengthy struggle against the northerly winds prevalent in the sea above 23ºN. Goods could instead be transferred by camel caravan to the Nile. This argument rests in part on the implicit assumption that the Nile represented a ready, easy and speedy alternative to the Red Sea. This paper argues that such an appreciation of the Nile as benign is misplaced. It draws upon meteorological and hydrological data – the latter from before the construction of the Aswan High Dam – together with traveller accounts from diverse periods, to present a more nuanced perspective of Nile navigation. It argues that movement on the river, particularly for cargo vessels, was highly seasonal, and that, moreover, this season did not quite mesh seamlessly with the sailing seasons of the Red Sea. It argues that movement on the river was often laborious and sometimes dangerous, with grounding a frequent occurrence and wrecking not uncommon. It argues that Nile travel was much slower than is apparent from such ancient authors as Herodotus. Using Nile travel times and desert crossing times between the river and the sea provided by past travellers, it provides an alternative perspective on the positioning of these ports, which implies no obvious advantage held by these southern locations. In sum, it argues that the advantage of Nile navigation over Red Sea sailing is not nearly as clear-cut as has been argued. Finally, this discussion has implications for our contextualisation of ancient ship technologies. While ancient and medieval vessels may have struggled to make progress to windward, such limitations clearly did not have a determinant effect on the location of ports. A look at the distribution of Egypt’s Red Sea ports over the longue durée shows no progression towards sites reflecting greater ‘ease’ of navigation. Moreover, their locations show that, whatever the limitations of ancient vessels, their navigators were well able to access all areas of the northern Red Sea.

In the year 24 BCE, Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus ordered the Prefect of Egypt the beginning of a military campaign to seize control of Arabia Felix rich and important trade routes is controlled. In this article we will discuss the circumstances surrounding this mission and its unexpected outcome, which from Rome conditioned not to think again the dominance of that region.

An expanded and extended dugout is still a very prominent vessel amongst traditional fisheries at the coast of Myanmar, whether as a small fishing boat or as underbody for larger ‘ships’. A description of this watercraft can be presented as a result of four research trips carried out between 2004 and 2011. The focus lies on the description of the expanded and extended dugout known as Hlei, especially the constructional changes and usage of this fishing vessel. Is it possible to show the transition from the ancient small fishing boat to a modern, very functionally designed wooden watercraft? Additionally, an overview
of the diversity of types within traditional boatbuilding at Myanmar’s coasts and – to a certain extent – rivers shall be provided.

Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 38 (2008): 283–288
The Indian ships at Moscha and the Indo-Arabian trading circuit

Summary
Periplus Maris Erythraei, the  first-century AD merchant’s guide written in Greek, mentions ships sailing from India calling at Moscha Limên, which is generally identi ed as Sumhuram/Khor Rori in modern Oman. These ships are said to have spent the winter at Moscha “because of the late season” (Periplus 32), and modern commentators have considered them to be Indian ships on their way home after trading voyages to Arabia. While this is probably true, it might not be the whole truth. There should be no need to spend two sailing seasons for a return trip from India to Arabia, and different passages in the Periplus and other classical literature, combined with later Arab and European experiences with Indian Ocean navigation, build a case for these ships being ready to set out on the last leg of a wider Indian Ocean circuit. This sheds new light on the maritime contacts of the Arabian Peninsula in antiquity and on the economy of the port of Moscha/Khor Rori.

Keywords: Indian Ocean, navigation, Khor Rori, monsoon trade, Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Arabia

Chapter Two in Globalization in prehistory : Contact, Exchange, and the "People Without History", ed.s Boivin N. & Frachetti M., Cambridge University Press. The chapter examines intensified communication during the 6th-5th millennia BC in the Middle East through the lens of globalisation, including a consideration of the role of watercraft in promoting a collapse of space and journey times, and the importance of a shared symbolic language of material culture across the region during the Ubaid Period. Particular attention is paid to interactions between the peoples of southern Mesopotamia and eastern Arabia.

James Hornell in his historic work 'The Origins and Ethnological Significance of Indian Boat Designs' (1920) mentioned about Rampon - the boat type that form the identity of Goan fishermen. According to him these boats are found on the southern region of Konkan and dominate on the Goan coast and are mostly employed for beach seining (Hornell 1920: 21). Nothing more is mentioned by him and not much is known about these regional boats which are still been used along the coast of Goa but at the verge of decline. There is no established antiquity for these boat types. How they originated in the subcontinent, how they are constructed, who construct them and how they are technologically different from other regional boat types of Goa and what makes them unique to serve as a Goan identity.

This article is, thus, an attempt to investigate these regional craft of Goa locally called as Ramponchem Vode and present the results of the survey and recording. Emphasis is on the technology and its construction method. Comparison of these boat type is also been made with other regional craft types of Goa and its distribution pattern. This study, thus, is a humble attempt to throw more light on the construction method, usage of these regional boat types and to find out how it’s different from other boat types of Goa and their vital role in Goan society and culture.

Industrialisation and as a result increasing need for raw material attracted
so-called western countries to wealthy regions in the Levant.
It became an obvious target for European states and merchants to
reach this wealth of the Orient. This rising need led to colonisation,
which was through the sea rather than the territory thought as a
short-cut and economic way. With the opening of the Suez Canal in
the 19th century, the Arab peninsula attached to the Mediterranean
Sea through territory, is also connected to the sea by means of this
opening. The road Mediterranean and Red Sea though it lost its importance
at one time, regained its animation as of 19th century with
the efforts of France and England. In this sense, Yemen constitutes
a central crossroad that was important on maritime merchant route
directly to India. Piracy in the sea specifically in this crossroad both in
the Mediterranean Sea and on the southern coast of its frontiers were
effective in policies followed by the Ottoman Empire. In the present
study, from the late 19th century to early 20th century, piracy or
maritime thuggery taking place in the sea off Yemen, a former town
of the Ottoman Empire, are to be examined based on the archival
documents.

In: Agius, DA, E Khalil, E Scerri and A Williams (Eds.), Human Interactions with the Environment in the Red Sea. 2017 ISBN: 978-90-04-32603-3. Brill, pp. 171–206.

Despite a great deal of research undertaken by historians, archaeologists and other maritime scholars, there remains a rather poor understanding of the design and construction of ships that sailed the Red Sea and Indian Ocean in antiquity. Similarly, there are few indications as to whether any unifying features existed that made them particularly suited to sailing in monsoonal conditions or within enclosed sea basins, or both. This kind of information is important to gain a deeper understanding of the types of boats used to carry cargo over long-distance trade routes in these pioneering times, early on in the shift to a globalised economy. It could also provide indirect evidence for port and harbour infrastructure available along these routes. This paper will evaluate the current state of knowledge concerning the types of vessels that plied the Red Sea and Indian Ocean trade routes from the Ptolemaic to the Roman period.

Abstract
India is the world’s largest democracy as well as the second largest populated country. As a democratic country, press played an important role to bring people’s voice in forefront. This is because only press can bring out people’s words from every corner of the country in a single platform. If we look at the colonial period, we will find that press played a strong role in social and political awakening. Newspapers like Amrit Bazaar Patrika, Hindustan Times, Kesari, Sanjivani played an important role in this regard. The press continued to uncover the real intentions of Britishers in India through a number of newspapers, journals in native languages as well as English. Following this, the Britishers tried to crush freedom of the press. As a repressive measure, they enacted strong laws against press like the Gagging Act and the Vernacular Press Act by which newspapers in native languages were declared illegal. As a result, hundreds of thousands of people had to give their life. They sacrificed because they knew that only press could unite people against British rule and attain freedom. Under this background, the present study has been undertaken. This paper is thus an attempt to understand the role of press in India’s freedom struggle. It will also focus on how the Britishers tried to curb the freedom of press through repressive acts and measures during colonial period.

The Nile and Beyond: the Birth of Navigation in Egypt

The boat is one of the most common elements of the Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt (ca. 4500-2700 BC). Whether real boats or miniature models (made in clay, ivory and wood), representation used as potters marks, painted on vases or engraved in rock, the thematic of navigation holds a privileged place in the Predynastic documentation. Areas to which it refers are multiple: expression of power, politics and economics (trade and foreign contacts), funerary practices and daily life (hunting, communication, transport).

This presentation will try to show that navigation, by papyrus raft first and, shortly after, by big wooden boat, was instrumental in developing the predynastic society and the Pharaonic state. Its almost ubiquitous presence reflects the strategic importance acquired by the Nile, but also by the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, as Egypt starts to take part into exchange networks outside the Valley and comes into contact with the Near East (evidenced by the presence in Egypt of lapis-lazuli, cylinder seals and Near-Eastern’s contributions in the architectural, artistic and intellectual domains). Navigation not only allowed the circulation of some goods and ideas across borders but, because not limited to Egypt, it was itself an “international” concept.

The port site of Berenike Troglodytica - located on the Egyptian Red Sea coast - served the spice and incense routes that linked the Mediterranean World (specifically the Roman Empire) to India, Southern Arabia and East Africa. In the Greco-Roman period the site was at the cutting edge of what was then the embryonic global economy, ideally situated as a key node connecting Indian Ocean and Mediterranean trade for almost 800 years. It is now located in an arid, marginal, hostile environment but the situation must have been very different 2300 years ago, at the time of its founding. At the time of elephant-hunting trips during the Hellenistic period before the inception of its important role in the global markets of the day in the Roman period Berenike would have to have looked much different to what we can now imagine. What was it like then, when the first prospectors visited this location at the time of Ptolemy II? Why this particular place, and this particular landscape setting seemed such a propitious location for the siting of an important new harbour?

Given the importance of the port over almost a millennium it is perhaps surprising that very little is known about the different factors impacting on the foundation, evolution, heyday and subsequent decline of the city; or the size, shape, and capacity of its harbour. The intention of this research is to address this shortfall in our knowledge, to examine the drivers behind the rise and fall of this port city, and to explore the extent to which the dynamics of the physical landscape were integral to this story. Using an innovative Earth Science approach, changes in the archaeological 'coastscape' have been reconstructed and correlated with periods of occupation and abandonment of the port, shedding light on the nature, degree and directionality of human-environment interactions at the site. This work has revealed profound changes in the configuration of the coastal landscape and environment (including the sea level) during the lifespan of Berenike, highlighting the ability of people to exploit changes in their immediate environment, and demonstrating that, ultimately, the decline of the port was partly due to these landscape dynamics.

To further explore these themes the landscape reconstructions have been supplemented by semi-quantitative analyses of a suite of variables likely to influence the initial siting of new ports of trade. These have shown that although the site of Berenike was ideal in terms of its coastal landscape potential, possessing a natural sheltered bay and lagoon system, the choice of location was not solely influenced by its environmental conditions. Additionally, a detailed review of vessels that plied Red Sea and Indian Ocean routes is presented here in order to better understand the design and functioning of Berenike’s harbour. This serves the purpose of identifying unifying features that provide more detail about the size and draught of vessels and the potential capacity of the harbour basin.

By using this multi-scalar approach it has been possible to reconstruct the 'coastscape' of the site through the key periods of its occupancy and those phases immediately before and after its operation. This has wide-ranging implications for researchers studying ancient ports along this trade network as a larger database will tease out more details about how influential the landscape was in the initial siting of the port and its subsequent use and decline.

The present paper is an attempt to study the traditional method of boat manufacturing techniques in Varanasi and to study the socio-economic condition of the boatman community in Banaras residing on the ghats from an ethno-archaeological approach. Varanasi is also known as Benaras, Banaras and Kashi. The city of Banaras now developed as a major pilgrimage centre of Hindus and a key destination for foreigners to search for the true soul of Indian culture. However, Banaras is incomplete without focusing the role of boatman, boat manufacturing technique and their cultural context. Boatman of Banaras plays an important role in introducing the city to its visitors. Although, traditionally the boatman community belongs to “Mallah” caste group, but this features is now diminishing, as different caste groups entering into this profession day by day. In this perspective, this paper ethno - archaeologically describes the traditional method of boat manufacturing techniques by the boatman at the ghats of Varanasi, their social structure, material culture and other aspects of boatman community. The major source of data for this paper has come from the fieldwork through personal interaction with the boat makers in Banaras by the authors and other sources like academic journals, books, research articles etc. The study concludes that despite their significant role in continuing the charm of Banaras, their livelihood is in poor state and need special care from government and private sectors.

The present paper summarises the question of the use of wood in boatbuilding in the Red Sea from classical antiquity until present times. It draws on primary sources and archaeological evidence from the Greco-Roman era and the mediaeval Islamic period. In doing so, the paper sheds the light on timber trade and exploitation processes of the past, and how these interlinked with the geopolitics and socio-economics of the time. The Red Sea regions are portrayed not only as wood importers from the Mediterranean, East Africa and South Asia but also as beneficiaries of local wood resources for their boatbuilding needs. Similarly, the paper stresses that little attention has been given to the exploitation of local wood in favour of Indian timber, especially teak. Thus it suggests the need to consider other timber species that were equally suitable for boatbuilding, as well as other western Indian Ocean wood providers.
This study also draws on ethnographic research in Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The ethnographic enquiry focused on vernacular names of timbers, timber exploitation processes and the variables involved in the metamorphosis of a tree into a boat part. Finally, by interlinking diverse pathways of enquiry – i.e., by drawing on primary sources, archaeology and ethnography – the paper aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of wooden boatbuilding in the Red Sea.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-SLWGsVxMCtXT2vR-Nmv7w
Here is a selection of videos showing traditional boatbuilding in Myanmar. These videos are complementary to my book: Pohl, H. (2019). Change in boatbuilding traditions along Myanmar´s coast - a short overview.

The present paper summarizes the question of the use of wood in boatbuilding in Saudi Arabia from classical  antiquity until present times. It draws on primary sources and archaeological evidence from the Graeco-Roman period and the medieval Islamic period. In doing so, it sheds the light on the timber trade and the timber exploitation processes in the past; and how these were interlinked with the geopolitics and socio-economics of the time. Not only did Saudi Arabia import wood from the Mediterranean, East Africa, and South Asia; but it also benefited  from its local wood resources for boatbuilding.

This paper stresses that little attention has been given to the exploitation of local woods in favour of a greater reliance on Indian timber, especially teak. Thus, it suggests the need to consider other timber species which were equally suitable for shipwrightry, as well as other western Indian Ocean wood providers.

This study has also drawn on ethnographic research in Jizan and the Farasan Archipelago in Saudi Arabia. The ethnographic enquiry focused on vernacular names of timbers, the timber exploitation processes, and the variables that come at play in the metamorphosis of a tree into a boat part. Finally, by interlinking diverse pathways of enquiry drawing on primary sources, archaeology and ethnography, this paper aims to contribute to the field of maritime culture and maritime archaeology a deeper understanding of wooden boatbuilding in the Red Sea.

This paper presents details of a new category of archaeological site which occurs in the intertidal zone on the island of Marawah. Three examples of these sites were recently discovered by Nasser Al-Shaiba during his duties on Marawah for the Marine Environmental Research Centre (MERC), part of the Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency (ERWDA) in Abu Dhabi. Subsequently two further visits were paid to the sites by both authors to record their location and to take measurements and photographs of them.