This item has the following downloads:

V26_No1 ( PDF )

THE INA
QUARTERLY

Spring 1999 Volume 26 No. 1








The INA Quarterly


Spring 1999


3 Looking for Ships: The 1998 Central Azores
Shipwreck Survey
Kevin Crisman

10 The 1998 INA-Egypt Surveys
Douglas Haldane

12 Sailing a Paleolithic Raft
Robert G. Bednarik

19 Profile: Jerome L. Hall

20 Just Released: When Horses Walked on Water

21 Chinese export porcelain from the wreck of the
Sydney Cove (1797)
by Mark Staniforth and Mike Nash
Reviewed by Cheryl Ward

22 News and Notes

23 In Memoriam:
Billings Ruddock


MEMBERSHIP
Institute of Nautical Archaeology
P.O. Drawer HG
College Station, TX 77841-5137

Learn firsthand of the latest discov-
eries in nautical archaeology. Mem-
bers receive the INA Quarterly and
other benefits (see INA Quarterly
25.1, 27).

Researcher (students only) ..... $25
Seafarer ...............,. $40-99
Surveyor ..............$100-249
Diver .................. $250-499
Restorer .............. $500-999
Curator ........... $1,000-52,499
Excavator ........... $2,500-4,999
Archaeologist ...... $5,000-9,999
Navigator .......... $10,000-24,999
Anchor ..........$25,000 and over

Checks in U.S. currency should be made
payable to INA. The portion of any do-
nation in excess of $10.00 is a tax-de-
ductible, charitable contribution.


On the cover: Many ships were lost at Faial in the central Azores, where INA has been conducting archaeological
surveys. In this pencil sketch, "Going Ashore at Fayal, Azores" by S. Gough (M6740), North Star, a bark, is depicted
foundering in view of the town on 18th January 1858. Courtesy Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts.

April 1999 by the Institute of Nautical Archaeology. All rights reserved.

INAwelcomes requests to reprint INA Quarterly articles and illustrations. Please address all requests and submissions to the Editor,
INA Quarterly, P.O. Drawer HG, College Station, TX 77841-5137; tel (409) S45-6694, fax (409) 847-9260, e-rr.ail powlrye@texas.net
Article should be submitted in hard copy and on a 325 diskette (Macintosh, DOS, or Windows format acceptable) along with all artwork.

The Home Page for INA and the Texas A&M University Naut.cal Archaeology Program on the WbrdWideWeb is http://nautuch.tammuedu

The Institute of Nautical Archaeology is a non-profit scientific and educational organization, incorporated in 1972. Since 1976, INA
has been affiliated with Texas A&M University, where INA faculty teach in the Nautical Archaeology Program of the Department of
Anthropology. The opinions expressed in Quarterly articles are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the
Institute.

The editorship of the INA Quarterly is supported by the Anna C. & Oliver C. Colburn Fund.


The INA Quarterly was formerly the INA Newsletter (vols. 1-18).


Volume 26 No. 1


Editor: Christine A. Powell







Looking for Ships:

The 1998 Central Azores Shipwreck Survey

Kevin Crisman


A Reconnaissance of the Central Azores
In 1996 and 1997 the Institute of Nautical Archaeol-
ogy, in cooperation with Portuguese and Azorian archae-
ologists, conducted shipwreck surveys in Angra Bay on
the southern shore of Terceira in Portugal's Azores Islands
(see INA Quarterly 25:2). In 1998, at the suggestion of Dr.
Luiz Fagundes Duarte of the Azorian Government's Di-
recgo Regional da Cultura (DRC), our attention shifted
to three other islands in the Central Azores group, namely
Faial, Pico and Sao Jorge (fig. 1). We saw this as an oppor-
tunity to expand our shipwreck inventory to include archae-
ological sites elsewhere in the Azores and to broaden our
knowledge of the history and geology of the islands.
Faial, Pico, and Sao Jorge played a central role in
the maritime history of the Azores, particularly over the
last three hundred years. Pico was a major wine-produc-
ing island in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and
a 2,350-meter-high volcanic cone at the western end of the
island (the highest point in all the Azores) has long served
as a navigational landmark for ships approaching the archi-
pelago (fig. 2). The port of
Horta on Faial sold wine to
passing ships and was fa- North
vored by American whal- America
ing ships seeking to enlist
Azorian crewmen A great t North At
many shipwrecks are -
known to have occurred
around these islands, and -
include everything from N
seventeenth-centuryDutch
fluyts and Portuguese East
Indiaman, to nineteenth-
century American whaling
ships, to a German U-Boat
sunk by British depth
charges off Pico during
World War II. Shipping Faial
losses around Horta were
particularly heavy, since
this harbor was vulnerable
to storms from the south-
east until breakwater was
constructed in the late nine-
teenth century (fig. 3).
The 1998 survey
was scheduled to last for Map by K. Crisman
two and one-half weeks,
from August 1-19, and Fig. 1. The Islands ofFaial, Pico


was very much in the nature of a reconnaissance. The time
and resources at our disposal dictated the methods we em-
ployed. We planned to focus most of our efforts around
Horta, since this vicinity had by far the greatest numbers
of recorded shipwrecks; we also planned to undertake brief
inspections of selected harbors at Pico and Sao Jorge. His-
torical research by project member Paulo Monteiro pro-
vided us with a list of significant wrecks and their
approximate Locations.
The many wrecks lost in the Central Azores include
an early seventeenth-century Portuguese East Indiaman
that wrecked off the southeast corner of Faial on its return
voyage from the Far East; the American War of 1812 pri-
vateer General Armstrong, scuttled by its crew in Horta Har-
bor after defeating two British attacks in September of 1814;
the French frigate ttoile lost in the 1790s off the small port
of Sio Amaro on Pico; and the Royal Navy frigate Pallas,
scuttled by its crew in 1783 in the harbor of Calheta on Sao
Jorge.


, and Sio forge in the Central Azores.


INA Quarterly 26.1









Experience at Angra demonstrated that
sonar was likely to be the best tool for searching
large areas of sea bottom. We had at our disposal
a new Marine Sonic Technology, Ltd. 300 KHz Sea
Scan PC sonar donated by INA Director Martin
Wilcox, and INA research associate Brett Phaneuf
was able to alter his busy summer schedule in or-
der to join us for the second week of the project
and operate the sonar unit. Other elements of our
survey included diver inspections of selected ar-
eas of the sea bottom to collect information on
geology, sediment accumulations, and currents,
as well as interviews with local historians, fisher- ~ "-1
men, and divers.
Sponsors of the 1998 project included
INA, DRC, and the Centro Nacional de Arqueo-
logia N6utica e Subaquatica (CNANS) in Lisbon.
The Instituto Portugues de Arqueologia (IPA),
also in Lisbon, issued the permit for the survey. Fig. 2. The volcanic cone of Pico, seen from Horta.


I served as INA's project director, Paulo Mon-
teiro coordinated project logistics and the DRC-
CNANS team, and my longtime friend and colleague
Arthur Cohn of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum
supervised diving safety. Funding was provided by DRC
and by a generous grant to the Azores project provided by
Mrs. Sylvia Baird. Our research vessel in 1998 was a sea-
worthy World War II-era steel-hulled craft called Golfinho
Aforeano ("Azorian Dolphin"), leased by the DRC (fig. 4).


The 1998 Project
Only three weeks before the start of our project, Fa-
ial was shaken by a massive earthquake that flattened hous-


Photo by K


Fig. 3. The harbor of Horta, with Monte da Guta.


Photo by K. Crisman


es across the island and killed or injured many residents.
For a time we questioned whether it would be possible to
carry out the survey as planned, but Paulo Monteiro re-
ported that the effects of the quake were mostly concen-
trated in the northeastern part of the island, not in Horta,
and we therefore decided to go ahead with the project. The
INA team, consisting of Crisman, Cohn, and Nautical Ar-
chaeology Program student Erich Heinold, flew to Faial
on August 1, where we joined our six Portuguese col-
leagues, as well as the Golfinho AForeano with its crew of
two. Evidence of the earthquake was visible in cracked and
buckled walls around Horta, and when we checked into
our hotel workmen were busy plastering a mul-
titude of small cracks in the walls and ceilings.
Two small aftershocks shook the island during
the project, each time in the wee hours of the
morning; the Azorian members of our team were
all instantly awakened by the rumbling, but the
seismically-oblivious INA crew slept through
both events.
We formally began operations on August
3. The first week was devoted to diver surveys
of the sea bottom around the southeastern cor-
ner of Faial, particularly around Horta, the
smaller bay of Porto Pim, and the volcanic cone
of Monte da Guia (fig. 5). The first dive on the
first day, in the bay of Porto Pun, revealed the
shattered remains of an iron-hulled vessel ap-
proximately 100 meters in length. The wreck was
situated parallel to the shore, in about 8 meters
.Crisman of water, at the interface of the rocky slope of
Monte da Guia and the flat sand bottom of the
bay. It was in a badly broken-up condition, with


INA Quarterly 26.1










the sides fallen out and the bow, identifiable by
a large hawse hole, twisted out of the main axis
of the hull. According to local lore, the wreck
was an inter-island freighter lost in the first half
of the twentieth century.
The remains of two other late nineteenth-
or early twentieth-century iron-hulled vessels
were located during the diving surveys of the
first week. We were directed to the first of these,
located off Ponta da Greta on the eastern side of
Monte da Guia, by the staff of the Oceanogra-
phy Department of the University of the Azores.
The wreck lay in relatively deep water (33 m),
and consisted of a large section of hull with iron
plates, frames, and a stringer or keelson; a large
(ca. 2.5 m-long) anchor was found about 50
meters distant, although it was not possible to
determine if it was associated with the wreck-
age. Parts of a second iron-hulled wreck were
encountered in Bafa de Entre Montes, off the
northeastern side of Monte da Guia, in 18 meters
of water. This wreckage was surrounded by
many fragments of ceramic and glass.


rnoto oy N. _risman
1. The Golfinho Acoreano at the dock in Horta.


Other dives around Porto Pim Bay, Monte da Guia,
Entre Montes, and Horta Bay during the first week turned
up many scattered objects, including a cast iron cannon, (a
small piece, in the range of a 4- or 6-pounder), a large cop-
per cauldron, mill stones, and many unidentifiable bits of
iron wreckage. We were disappointed to discover that the
sea bottom immediately north of Baia de Entre Montes, a
prime location for shipwrecks according to Paulo Mon-
teiro's research, had been extensively scraped during re-
cent construction activity on Horta's breakwater and
harbor facilities.
One vessel that we specifically sought at Faial was
the American privateer brig General Armstrong, perhaps one
of the most famous vessels of the War of 1812 (fig. 6). Gen-
eral Armstrong was built at New York by the shipbuilding
brothers Adam and Noah Brown, who are justly famous
for their work of building the American naval squadrons
on Lakes Erie and Champlain during the war. Historical
sources are vague about Armstrong's dimensions and crew,
but she seems to have been about one hundred feet in
length and had a crew of approximately 120 sailors. The
privateer enjoyed a successful, profitable career in 1813 and
early 1814. She set out on her final cruise on September 9,
1814 under the command of Captain Samuel C. Reid. Arm-
strong anchored off Horta on the afternoon of September
26 with the intention of quickly taking on fresh water and
provisions and sailing again the next morning, but fate had
other plans for the brig. That evening three British war-
ships, a 74-gun ship, a 38-gun frigate, and an 18-gun brig,
entered the bay and blocked the privateer's exit.
Portugal was a neutral in the War of 1812, and Gen-
eral Armstrongshould have been immune from attack while
moored in the harbor, but Reid watched the British ships


INA Quarterly 26.1


Fig. 5. Southeastern Faial in the vicinity of Horta, the focus
of the 1998 survey.




















Fig. 6. The privateer General Arm-
strong. From: Some Famous Priva-
teers of New England by Ralph
Eastman (1928).


gather their small boats into a flotilla and had no doubt
that they intended to seize his vessel regardless of the port's
neutrality. He prepared to repel boarders by loading the
cannon, distributing small arms to the crew, and rigging
anti-boarding netting. Four boats made the first attack and
were easily thwarted; the second attack, made at midnight,
involved twelve boats and over 400 sailors and marines.
After forty minutes of desperate fighting at close quarters,
Reid and his crew drove off their attackers, who left be-
hind several boats filled with dead and wounded. The next
morning the British sent in one of their ships to bombard
General Armstrong, and Reid elected to scuttle the brig and
escape with his crew on shore. The British victory was pyr-
rhic: they reported 63 dead and 110 wounded, versus few-
er than a dozen killed or wounded on the American
privateer. In terms of human life, it was one of the most
expensive British naval actions of the entire war. Worse
still, from the British viewpoint, was the fact that the ships
that attacked General Armstrong were carrying troops for
the attack on New Orleans. The delay at Faial may have
given General Andrew Jackson the time he needed to pre-
pare for his stunning defeat of the British in early 1815.
Both because of its historical importance, and be-
cause no American War of 1812 privateer has ever under-
gone archaeological study, we hoped to find some evidence
of the brig. According to contemporary reports, Armstrong
was scuttled by its crew about 300 feet (91.4 m) offshore of
Forte S. Cruz in the center of Horta's harbor. We were dis-
tressed to discover that a large concrete dock was recently
built in front of the fort, and it is possible that this may


have destroyed or buried the schooner's remains. Never-
theless, we carried out a thorough visual inspection of the
waters off the dock during our project. The harbor bottom
was composed of a coarse, black volcanic sand; only mod-
em, very recent debris was visible on the surface, and it
was evident that any heavy objects that came to rest on
this sand would quickly sink out of sight. The divers saw
little of interest above the sand, little that is until Art Cohn
and Rui Texeira stumbled on a pile of live, modem can-
non shells lying immediately below the customs dock. The
harbor authorities were notified, the area was declared off
limits, and Portuguese Navy divers were called in to get
rid of the unwanted ordnance.
As for the General Armstrong, the mystery contin-
ues. Does it still exist? I suspect that it probably does, but
extensive test trenching may be necessary before we can
determine exactly where the brig sank.
Sonar operator Brett Phaneuf arrived at Faial on Au-
gust 8. Golfinho was rigged for sonar the next day and on
August 10 we began covering shallow, near-shore areas: the
portion of Horta Bay inside the breakwater, Porto Pim Bay,
and the coast of Faial west of Horta. The interior of Horta
Bay proved to be a flat, sandy bottom with few exposed fea-
tures. There are undoubtedly many wrecks in here, under
the sand, and many of them areno doubt in a well-preserved
state. Finding them will require either digging test pits or
trenches, or possibly sonaring after a winter storm has swept
sand out of the shallower areas. We surveyed extensive
stretches of Horta's outer bay on August 11, where the sonar
again revealed a flat, mostly featureless sand bottom.


INA Quarterly 26.1










During the remaining time of the project we con-
ducted a series of reconnaissance dives on the coasts of
Pico and Sao Jorge. On the north shore of Pico, at the small
port of Sao Amaro, we searched for the late eighteenth cen-
tury French frigate ttoilE, and at Velas, on the south coast
of Sao Jorge, we looked for a number of wrecks reported
in historic records. At both locations we were treated to
the sight of some spectacular geology: heaps of massive,
sea-rounded boulders, lava flows twisted into bizarre
shapes by sudden cooling in sea water, and vertical cliffs
that drop off abruptly into the immense depths between
Pico and Sao Jorge. These dives were a volcanologist's
dream, but proved frustrating for us archaeologists, since
finding wrecks in this rugged topography would require
much more diving time than we had available to us.
Our luck improved off the town of Calheta on Sao
Jorge's south coast. Here a local skin diver assisted us in lo-
cating the remains of a Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate, the 36-
gun Pallas. This 728-ton vessel had an interesting history and
demise. The frigate was launched in 1757at Deptford, England,
armed with 12-pounder cannon on the main deck and 6-
pounders on the quarter deck and forecastle, and manned
by a crew of about 240 sailors and officers. Pallas enjoyed a
career of 25 years, seeing action in both the Seven Years War
and the American Revolutionary War, and carrying out pa-
trols along the West African coast in the years between the
wars.


Early in 1783 Pallas was escorting a convoy from
Halifax, Nova Scotia to England when a storm separated
the ships and the frigate began to take on water at an alarm-
ing rate; guns and stores were jettisoned, and with eight
feet of water in the hold Pallas made a desperate run to the
Azores for repairs. Stormy weather prevented the vessel
from anchoring at Horta, but on February 12 the captain
and crew, exhausted by days of non-stop pumping, man-
aged to bring Pallas into Calheta. Here it was found that
the keel and garboards were so riddled and degraded by
teredo worms that they were nearly non-existent. The crew
unloaded some of the remaining stores and provisions, and
the ship was then set on fire. According to accounts in Azo-
rian history books, the good people of Calheta were not
pleased to have a large frigate blazing away next to their
town, but luckily the fire did not spread ashore.
The remains of Pallas lay in 3 meters of water in the
center of Calheta Harbor (fig. 7). Visible debris included
two cast-iron cannon (fig. 8), a row of rectangular cast iron
ballast pigs between the cannon, and a nearby mound of
iron ballast and shot. Fragments of copper sheathing and
ceramics were also observed around the site. It is likely that
more ballast, remnants of the wooden hull, and small arti-
facts are buried under the rocks and sand of the harbor
bottom. Paulo Monteiro and I spent a lengthy dive photo-
graphing the site, recording a simple site plan by triangu-
lating with tape measures, and recording the details of the


Ballast and Shot Concretion
- ..: ._ , . .. *


0. to 'C).


.. .---.


Ctast ron .Ballas ,


(C annn I


Royal Navy Frigate Pa lias
Sunk 1783, C.lheta Harbor, San Jor.r bland A.ores


METERS
Map: K. Crisman and P. Monteiro


Fig. 7. Preliminary site plan of the Royal Navy 36-gun frigate Pallas, sunk at Calheta, Sao forge in 1783.


INA Quarterly 26.1


C Cannon 2










I 1 ]' 25 50 7(

j-TX z^ ^^ ^ Iz^ ^ 1 [II Itl Fi I


As [cun J DctiPl, obscured
by concressions


Carmon I
ais 258 marn.










Cannon 2


Drawing: K. Crisman


Fig. 8. Two cast iron guns from the wreck of the Royal Navy Frigate Pallas, which sank in 1783 in Calheta's harbor,
Sdo Jorge, Azcres.


cannon. The site is worthy of further investigation in the
future.

Conclusions
Between August 3 and 14 our team carried out a
total of 55 survey dives off Faial, Pico, and Sao Jorge, and
collected extensive sonar records of the sea floor off Horta
Bay and southeastern Faial. During this time four wrecks
were located and examined, three from the late nineteenth
or early twentieth centuries, and one, the Royal Navy frig-
ate Pallas, from the second half of the eighteenth century.
We also located and mapped a considerable number of
isolated finds, including anchors, a cannon, millstones, and
a copper cauldron. As a reconnaissance of an area that has
undergone no previous archaeological investigation, the
survey met all of its objectives. We now have a much bet-
ter idea of the history, geography, geology and sea condi-
tions to be found at Faial, Pico, and Sao Jorge, and we have
started the process of locating and inventorying the wrecks
that lie in the waters surrounding these islands.
Historical accounts tells us of many shipwrecks
around the Azores, particularly at places like Angra and
Horta, but finding them has thus far been a challenge (fig.
9). With three years of experience under our belts, and the
discovery of more than a dozen wrecks to date, the nature


of the challenge has become clearer. First, unlike the Turk-
ish coast, where generations of sponge divers have spent
untold thousands of hours combing the bottom, the Azores
have seen relatively modest numbers of divers and there
are consequently fewer "local informants" to point the way
to wrecks. Second, the geology of the sea bottom and sea
conditions around the islands have combined to hide some
wrecks from the electronic tools most commonly used for
shipwreck surveys. We found at Angra that background
magnetism in the volcanic rock overwhelmed INA's mag-
netometer. The Sea Scan PC sonar has provided excellent
images of the sea floor, but two types of bottom geology
encountered in the Azores have sometimes Limited its ef-
fectiveness. In places where the sea bottom is composed of
recent lava flows, the convoluted topography can mask
evidence of shipwrecks. The best harbors in the islands,
places like Angra and Horta, have coarse sand bottoms
that provide good holding for a ship's anchors. The sand
is highly mobile, however, and when a ship sinks into this
sand it is quickly swallowed up. Systematic test pitting in
Angra Bay by DRC/CNANS divers during a 1996 survey
for a proposed marina revealed two deeply-buried wrecks,
proof that the wrecks we are seeking exist. Both wrecks,
dating to the late sixteenth or seventeenth centuries, were
in an excellent state of preservation with large sections of


INA Quarterly 26.1










intact timber structure, as we would expect from wrecks sealed and pro-
tected beneath the sand. Finding wrecks like these will take persistence
and effort, but the reward will be really spectacular archaeological sites.
Because the sea floor surrounding the Azores is so variable in
its composition, no single tool or technique will provide the "magic
bullet" for finding wrecks around the islands. Future surveys will re-
quire a combination of the usual methods: historical research, inter-
views with local divers and fishermen, visual surveys by divers, jet
probing and test pitting beneath the sand, systematic sonar coverage,
and perhaps the use of more advanced magnetometers. These surveys
may be challenging, but with each year our knowledge of the mari-
time history of the Azores has expanded, and our list of known ship-
wreck sites has continued to grow.
Acknowledgments: The 1998 project was a joint production of INA,
DRC, CNANS, and IPA. Special thanks are due to Dr. Luiz Duarte of
DRC, Dr. Francisco Alves and Filipe Castro of CNANS, and Dr. Joao
Zilhao of IPA. Paulo Monteiro handled project logistics in the Azores,
and was the source of much historical shipwreck data. Art Cohn kept
the diving safe and provided good advice. The project had a fine crew,
consisting of Albano Pereira, Luis Gouveia, Rui Texeira, Miguel and
Madalena Correia, and Erich Heinold (fig.10). Nuno Salvador worked
through the project with one arm in a sling due to a dislocated shoul-
der, but he did a superb job of keeping everything running smoothly
on the boat and was a font of useful facts on Portuguese wines and
Azorian waterfowl. The crew of the Colfinho Agoreano, Manuel Reis
Borges Moniz and Francisco Ramalho, are thanked for their dedica-
tion and good humor. Brett Phaneuf demonstrated yet again his abili-
ty to improvise in setting up the DGPS and operating the sonar. Marty Fig. 9. Another Azoria
Wilcox is thanked for his donation of the sonar unit. Finally, I'd espe- Erich Heinold inspect t
cially like to thank INA member Sylvia Baird for her interest in our iron-hulled ship wreck
work and her support. a on the island of Sio M



















Photo: K. Crisman
Fig. 10. Part of the 1998 Central Azores Shipwreck Survey crew on the
waterfront at S;o Amaro, Pico. From left: Miguel Correia, Albano Pereira,
Rui Texeira, Art Cohn, Nuno Salvador, Erich Heinold, Paulo Monteiro.


ohoto: K. nrsman


n shipwreck: Art Cohn and
he boiler and engines of an
ed off the town of Povoapio
iguel.


INA Quarterly 26.1







The 1998 INA-Egypt Surveys

Douglas Haldane


The Institute of Nautical Archaeology conducts operations in many parts of the world, but in recent years has been partic-
ularly active in Turkey, Texas and Egypt. INA-Egypt Director Douglas Haldane reports here on recent activities there.


Hierakonpolis Expedition
From the 20th-31st of March, 1998, [NA-Egypt per-
formed a magnetometer survey in front of the early dynas-
tic funerary enclosure or "Fort" at Hierakonpolis, which was
Egypt's first capital, ancient Nekhen. The survey was part of
the 1998 season of the Hierakonpolis Expedition directed by
Dr. Ren&e Friedman from the University of California at Ber-
keley, supervised by the Egyptian Supreme Council of
Antiquities (SCA). The survey was made possible thanks
to funding by Clive Cussler.
The original impetus for the Hierakonpolis survey
came from the 1991 discovery of 12 boats, in parallel loz-
enge-shaped mudbrick structures in front of the Shunet ez
Zebib at Abydos. The Fort at Hierakonpolis and the Shu-
net ez Zebib are contemporaneous funerary structures built
by King Khasekhemwy (c. 2660-2649 BCE), the last pha-
raoh of the second dynasty. Khasekhemwy may have used
Hierakonpolis as his administrative center while Abydos
(the traditional burial place of Early Dynastic kings) func-
tioned as his religious center. Dr. Friedman invited INA-
Egypt to investigate the possibility of funerary boats at
Hierakonpolis on the strength of the Abydos discovery and
the role of Hierakonpolis as an important Pre-Dynastic
center.
Hierakonpolis is located 25 kilometers north of Idfu,
and approximately midway between Luxor and Aswan.
The Fort at Hierakonpolis, the world's oldest free-stand-
ing structure, survives to its original height in sections. It
stands in the Western Desert about 250 meters from the


. ._ ,
-- - -._-.. .
.-. r- ... 9' .- ' F. ""
I!' _


Fig. 1. 1998 INA-Egypt survey sites.


Nile cultivation zone on the western edge of the Wadi Abu
Suffyan, which divides the Hierakonpolis concession.
The magnetometer team, Douglas Haldane and Adel
Farouk of INA-Egypt and Dr. Tomasz Herbich, director of
the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology in Cairo,
investigated just over 3 hectares in front of the Fort. The
team used a Geoscan FM36 Fluxgate magnetometer to lo-
cate several significant features. These included a large,
keyhole-shaped anomaly, measuring c. 30 x 10 meters, at
the edge of an parallelogram-shaped enclosure (c. 60 x 45
meters) containing several roughly lozenge-shaped anom-
alies. This group of features starts approximately 60 meters
from the entrance of the Fort on the wadi (eastern) side.
The only visible remains are a section of a large mudbrick
wall that belongs to one end of the large anomaly; the re-
maining anomalies lie under the flat bed of the wadi.
Dr. Friedman plans to investigate these features
during his 1999 season at Hierakonpolis, thanks to contin-
ued funding pledged by Clive Cussler. INA-Egypt has
pledged to support Dr. Friedman in the conservation,
study, and publication of any boats discovered as part of
the Hierakonpolis Expedition.


]NA Quarterly 26.1


Fig. 2. The area of the anomalies (arrows) relative to the "Fort."









Northwest Shipwreck Expedition
In April, 1998, INA-Egypt conducted a
shipwreck survey at the harbor of Marsa Umm
al-Rakham, 10 kilometers west of Marsa Matrouh
on Egypt's northwest coast. Survey objectives in-
cluded the continued training of Egyptian archae-
ologists and SCA inspectors in nautical
archaeological exploration, recording, and field
conservation techniques.
Zawiet Umm al-Rakham, opposite the
harbor, is the site of a border temple-fortress con-
structed by Rameses 11 (1304-1237 BCE) on the
ancient border with Libya. Excavations by
Steven Snape of the University of Liverpool have
uncovered over twenty Bronze Age Canaanite
amphoras, pilgrim flasks, and Cypriote ware in
addition to local Egyptian pottery. A submerged
reef extends from Umm al-Rakham across the
bay to Marsa Matrouh and breaches the surface Fig. 3. Th
in several areas. Swimmers reported "many am-
phoras" in the waters off Umm al-Rakham.
INA-Egypt's 1998 Northwest survey was the sec-
ond shipwreck survey ever conducted in the Egyptian
Mediterranean outside Alexandria. It was part of INA-
Egypt's ongoing exploration of Egypt's heritage underwa-
ter along this coast, and followed on the March 1996 survey
that INA-Egypt conducted from Ras Hawala, east of Mar-
sa Matrouh, to Sidi Abd al-Rahman, west of Alamein.
This time, we located remains of several shipwrecks
dating from the fourth century BCE to the seventh century
CE. However, over the centuries waves had scattered the
shipwreck remains lying in the shallow water behind the
Umm-al Rakham reef. Sea grass grows on and covers any
stationary object in these waters, further obscuring the is-
sue. It may be more fruitful to move into deeper areas, since
the seabed of those waters is largely terra incognita.
Based on the experience gained in 1996 and this year,
we plan to return to Marsa Matrouh in 1999 and survey
the area with towed divers at a depth between 20 and 30


e Egyptian Nortdwest Mediteranean coastline near Marsa Matruh.

meters. Here, the waves do not disturb the seabed and the
sea grass does not grow so thick. Investigations of cliff bases
and reefs will be made using four underwater scooters
pledged by Scubapro. We will be able to explore the ex-
tent of the shipwreck remains we find, thanks to an under-
water magnetometer donated by Mr. Stephen Lowder. In
the future, we plan to pursue the information gained in
the 20-30 meter range with a series of side-scan sonar sur-
veys out to 50 meters depth.
The 1998 survey team was directed by Douglas
Haldane, and included INA-Egypt staff Emad Khalil and
Adel Farouk, inspectors Sameh Ramses, Mustafa Desouki,
and Magdi Ghazzala from the SCA Underwater Antiquities
Section, Usama Sallam from the Marsa Matrouh inspectorate,
and archaeology students Saad Ahmed and Sherif Abdou
from the University of Alexandria. Lieutenant Ahmed Samir
represented the Egyptian Navy. The survey was made pos-
sible thanks to donations from The Amoco Foundation, Oras-
corn, British Gas-Egypt, and private donors. ,s


Suggested Reading
Kemp, B. J.
1963 "Excavations at Hierakonpolis Fort 1905: A Preliminary Note." Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 49: 24-28.

Lansing, A.
1935 "The Museum's Excavations at Hierakonpolis." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 30: 37-45.

O'Connor, D.
1995 "The Earliest Royal Boat Graves." Ancient Egypt:Bulletin of the Egyptian Exloration Society, 6: 3-7.

O'Connor, D.
1989 "New Funerary Enclosures (Talbezirke) of the Early Dynastic Period at Abydos." Journal of the American Re-
search Center in Egypt, 26: 51-86.


INA Quarterly 26.1







Sailing a Paleolithic Raft

Robert G. Bednarik


The Nale Tasih 2 project involved designing and
building a raft using Paleolithic technology, and field-test-
ing the raft on the open sea. This illustrates how nautical
archaeology can contribute to our knowledge of the past
in ways significantly beyond the more customary concerns
of this specialist discipline. Such work can decisively af-
fect even the most profound and far-reaching aspects of
archaeology and the study of prehistory.
The maritime capabilities of Pleistocene humans has
been greatly neglected until now. Whereas replication ex-
periments of seafaring exploits of the last two or three mil-
lennia have been conducted for much of the twentieth
century, Pleistocene seafaring has until recently attracted
no sustained research effort. However, ideas about the
cognitive and technological evolution of humans can be
affected significantly by the findings of archaeological work
in combination with replicative sea journeys. The evidence
indicates that seafaring began at least 800 ka (thousand
years) ago. Homo erectus had the ability to reach and colo-
nize several islands of Indonesia. The remarkable expan-
sion of this species apparently had no precedent in hominid
history, which suggests the involvement of a new adap-
tive tool, an ability not available to earlier hominids. Colo-
nization by navigation virtually presupposes
purpose-specific communication and symboling abilities
in the population concerned.
Eventually, the long development of hominid navi-
gational capabilities led to the settlement of distant lands
in the Late Pleistocene, including the continent of Austra-
lia and numerous islands in the general region. These des-
tinations remained invisible for much of the journeys
required to reach them. We have evidence of Pleistocene
navigation in two world regions, in the Mediterranean and
from east Asia to Australia.
Middle Pleistocene stone tools at Sa Coa de sa Mul-
ta, Sardinia, provide the earliest known secure indication
of seafaring in the Mediterranean, at perhaps 300 ka ago.
Mousterian tools have been found on Kefallinia near
Greece, and human skeletal remains from Crete combin-
ing both modern and Neanderthaloid features, about 50
ka old, indicate considerable seafaring ability in the late
Middle Paleolithic period. A 20-ka-old human finger bone
in Corbeddu Cave, Sardinia, and the discovery of obsid-
ian from Melos, about 11 ka old, on the Greek mainland
indicate Upper Paleolithic navigation. Similarly, obsidian
from Kozushima on the main island of Japan reveals sea
crossings in both directions by about 30 ka ago. Another
and more distant Japanese island, Okinawa, has yielded
skeletal human remains that are around 18 ka old. It has
beeri considered from time to time that the Strait of Gibral-


tar may have been crossed by hominids, but the evidence
remains circumstantial. Nevertheless, in view of the evi-
dence of an initial crossing of the Wallace Line at Bali at
least 800 ka ago, the possible crossing of the Strait of Gibral-
tar in Acheulian times needs to be reviewed.
However, the most astonishing seafaring feats of the
Paleolithic were those in the vicinity (mostly to the north) of
Australia. Prehistoric navigators settled many islands across
up to 180 km of sea, and in most cases without being able to
see the target shore at commencement of the journey. These
maritime exploits suggest that the Middle Paleolithic sailors
in the general region near Australia conducted relatively fre-
quent ocean journeys with considerable confidence.
This extensive maritime navigation evidence, com-
mencing in the final Early Pleistocene and leading through
to the end of the Pleistocene, is based entirely on one fac-
tor: the appearance of colonizing humans on land masses
that were not connected to any others for the entire dura-
tion of the Pleistocene. There is not a single scrap of direct,
physical evidence of navigation available from the entire
Pleistocene. The oldest such evidence, in the form of pad-
dles, boat components, and (later) whole boats begins about
10,500 to 9,500 years ago. Recognizable rock art images of
water craft are much younger still. The rising sea levels at
the beginning of the Holocene have destroyed all earlier
shorelines, and with them the evidence not only of navi-
gation equipment and seaside settlements, but of Pleis-
tocene marine economies generally. Many archaeologists
do not appreciate that our evidence of the Ice Age isheavi-
ly distorted, as it is entirely of inland economies. The coastal
economies of the Pleistocene are simply unknown to us.

Replication studies
Possibly the safest method of establishing the maxi-
mum capability of human populations or cultures of the dis-
tant past is to consider specifically maritime colonization.
Pioneering sea journeys can be assumed to have been mat-
ters of survival, of life and death, and thus very close to what
was technically possible at a particular point in history. In
the known early colonization we can discern a pattern, ac-
cording to which decreasing age of evidence seems to corre-
spond with increasing mobility, ability to cross greater
distances, or mastery of navigation. Clearly, sea travel capa-
bility improved gradually over time. It seems reasonable to
assume that each first crossing succeeded fairly shortly after
its distance and difficulty fell within the range of technolog-
ical ability. Therefore, if we can establish how sophisticated
maritime technology had to be in order to succeed with a
given crossing, we would have a fairly accurate measure of
technological capability at the time in question.


INA Quarterly 26.1










This procedure is similar to estimating the former
size of an ocean gap in the distant past by determining the
types of animal species that managed to cross it. Many land
mammals cross seawater, but only up to a given distance
(conditions other than distance may also affect this). For
instance, pigs and deer are good swimmers and travel in
herds, which is important in the case of establishing a new
population. They might swim up to 10, perhaps even 15
km. Hippos can swim farther, but no land mammal comes
anywhere near elephants, which manage 50 km sea dis-
tance. In the case of Lombok Strait, between Bali and Lom-
bok (Wallace's Line), elephants were the only large land
mammals to cross, which tells us that the distance was
probably never less than 25 km.
Perhaps one of the best ways to determine the tech-
nological capability of a culture is to measure, somehow,
the geographical distances it w as capable of spaning. What
renders this method particularly robust and reliable is that
maritime colonization may well be the only major archae-
ological phenomenon over which taphonomy (the deteri-
oration and destruction of archaeological evidence over
time) has only limited influence. Although it is true that
the occupation evidence in any region is itself subject to
normal taphonomy, and must be subjected to taphonomic
logic. Stone tools have a very short taphonomic lag time,
they establish human presence on an island, and as a work-
ing hypothesis we can assume that archaeologists would
sooner or later detect this presence.
There is, however, one problem with this method:
our knowledge of primitive watercraft and their perfor-
mance, and of the many other factors determining human
ability to cross the sea, is severely limited. No comprehen-
sive experiments have ever taken place to determine the
best vessel design, materials, and size, or any other opti-
mal conditions for sea crossings on Paleolithic vessels.
Without acquiring this knowledge in a systematic fashion,
any effort to determine maximum technological capacities
by these means would be futile. In 1996, therefore, I decid-
ed to secure such data by starting a project to investigate
Pleistocene navigation.We would build a series of individ-
ually designed rafts with stone tools, test them, and sail
them across specific sea barriers (see INA Quarterly 25.3,
pp. 7-15).
The first two rafts were built as Middle Paleolithic
vessels, using Middle Paleolithic stone tool replicas, with
the purpose of determining whether the rafts would be
capable of reaching Australia from Indonesia. Nale Tasih 1
was a 15-tonne, 23-m vessel built near the southern tip of
Rote, a small island southwest of Timor. This vessel was
taken for sea trials in March 1998, with a crew of eleven. A
number of design shortcomings and material defects be-
came apparent. Unfavourable winds and conditions,
caused by the El Nifio phenomenon, led to the abandon-
ment of the attempt to sail the raft to Australia.


On the basis of these findings and the experience
gained from the experiment, a radically different, simpler
design was adopted for Nale Tasih 2, an 18-m bamboo raft
of only 2.8 tonnes, exclusive of equipment and supplies.
In contrast to Nale Tasih 1, whose design was based on the
recommendations of leading marine architects, the second
raft reflected the experience of indigenous and traditional
boat builders in Indonesia. In its simpler design, the sepa-
ration of structural from buoyancy components was elim-
inated, and the two problems of raising the deck sufficiently
above the water and of meeting the impact of waves arriv-
ing from the beam were solved by curving the sides of the
raft upwards (fig. 1). Apart from this one factor, Nale Tasih
2 was as basic as a bamboo raft could possibly be: 87 bam-
boo stalks arranged in three layers were held in place by
eight cross timbers made from naturally curved tree trunks.


c 2-


-t


Drawing: R. G. Bednarik I
Fig. 1. Exploded view of t1w bamboo raft Nale Tasih 2, showing
the arrangements of raft structure (A), deck (B) and superstruc-
tures (C).


INA Quarterly 26.1


5..," .




























Fig. 2 (left). The two hollow mangrove trunks containing drinking wa-
ter. A lowered steering board is visible in the background, and the dug-
out is on the right.

Fig. 3 (above). The A-frame mast with the square sail ofNale Tasih 2
(consisting of woven palm leaf fibers). The rigging is offorest vines.


Construction of Nale Tasih 2 began in August 1998 near Kupang,
West Timor, and involved the work of eight boat builders for three months.
The primitive raft was launched in mid-November and left Kupang har-
bor with a crew of five on 17 December. It was constructed entirely from
materials available in Indonesia to Middle Paleolithic people, but in con-
trast to Nale Tasih 1, critical rope bindings consisted of full rattan vines. In
particular, most mast guy ropes were rattan, and the individually lashed
bamboo lengths were collectively tied to the thwart timbers by rattan
forest vines. These are more difficult to terminate than ropes, but they are
of extraordinary tensile strength.
On board were two mangrove logs, hollowed out by termites and
sealed off with wood, beeswax, bark, and tree resin, and containing 350
liters of drinking water (fig. 2). The one A-frame mast bore a 24-square
meter sail woven from palm leaf (fig. 3). A single steering oar on the stem
was effective at reasonable velocity, augmented by six steering boards.
The latter were not found to improve steering ability greatly. Nale Tasih 2
was well equipped with spare parts, including two sails, a steering oar,
vines, ropes and other cordage. To effect repairs at sea it carried 65 stone
artefacts, replicas of Middle Paleolithic types made from black sedimen-
tary silica stone. A large stone mortar and pestle were used in food prepara-
tion. Awooden anchor, weighted down with a limestone block, was onboard,
along with a fire box, a quantity of firewood and coconut husks used as fuel
and tinder. Finally, the raft carried an old dugout of 4.77 m length strapped
across the stem, for the purpose of permitting the cameraman to film the
vessel from some distance during the journey. It was only used on one occa-
sion, as it would have been unsuitable under rough conditions.
Food provisions included 30 coconuts, several bundles of banan-
as, a basket of mangoes, some melons and cassava, salted meat, a basket
of native millet, about seven litres of palm sugar, some salt, and a few


Photos: R. G. Bednarik


) .


--


Fig. 4. Om Mberu (left) and If? gutting a 5-ft do-
rado with stone knives on Nale Tasih 2.


INA Quarterly 26.1










limes, carrots, and cucumbers. However, these were sup-
plementary supplies, as it was intended to derive most food
from the sea. For this purpose the raft was equipped with
several harpoons and fish spears. Utensils were made from
coconut shells, and buckets from folded lontar palm leaves.
Food was cooked in such containers.
Fish up to 1.5 m length were harpooned or speared
on the journey, including dorado, yellow fin tuna, and an-
gel fish. They were immediately gutted and filleted with
stone knives (which were found to be as effective as steel
knives; see fig. 4) and roasted on the fire. Sharks followed
the raft persistently but their hard skin proved a gdod de-
fence against harpoons. A sea turtle tried to board Nale
Tasih 2 but was not killed for food. Two poisonous sea
snakes were encountered, and various marine birds were
sighted daily, as well as butterflies.
Nale Tasih 2 travelled without an escort boat, and
the crew's only contact with the outside world was via a
satellite telephone, reporting its position twice a day to a
contact in Darwin. With the exception of this item and
equipment for navigation, recording, and scientific pur-
poses, all equipment on the vessel would presumably have
been available to sailors 50-60 ka ago.
The experimental raft reached the continental shelf of
Australia, which formed the continent's shore during most
of the Late Pleistocene, on the sixth day of the voyage. It thus


completed its primary objective. To gain more knowledge
in the handling of the craft, the crew continued on towards
Darwin (fig. 5). On the eleventh day, the seas became rough
and the raft was sailed under extreme conditions for two
days. The steering oar broke, a yard broke in two, and at one
stage, all forward guy ropes of the mast snapped in unison.
However, all repairs were effected successfully in heavy seas.
On the thirteenth day, waves of 4-5 m forced the raft towards
Melville Island, north of Darwin, the coast of which is heavi-
ly populated by saltwater crocodiles. The Australian coast-
guard insisted that, as a precaution, the crew be taken from
board three hours before the raft was to reach the shore. The
crew of Nale Tasih 2 transferred to the oil tender Pacific Spear
on the evening of 29 December 1998. Three days later, the
raft was recovered in calmer seas from where it was beached
on the south coast of Melville Island, and towed to Darwin.
It had survived without significant structural damage and
was in fact in better condition than when it left Timor, hav-
ing been improved at sea. After fumigation by Australian
quarantine, it was released for public exhibition.
In the next experiment we will attempt to cross Lom-
bok Strait on an even more primitive raft. We hope to de-
termine the minimum requirements necessary for the
presumably first sea crossing in human history, which oc-
curred more than 800 ka ago. At the time of writing, prep-
arations for this expedition are well advanced.


Fig. 5. The route taken by Nale Tasih 2,from the southernmost tip of Timor to the southern coast of Melville Island.
The numbers refer to the days of December 1998, 08.00 a.m. of each day; the broken line crossed on 22 December is the
edge of the Sahul (Australian) continental shelf, the continent's former coast line.


INA Quarterly 26.1


00








0 --- 20 km N










Introducing taphonomic logic
The project is not expected to be complete for an-
other three years. It would be premature to present any
concluding observations here, and that is not my inten-
tion. However, even the preliminary findings could have
profound effects on our ideas about human evolution. For
the past decades there has been an increasing acceptance
of the "African Eve" model by paleoanthropologists, par-
ticularly those in the English-speaking countries. Some
advocates of that model claim that there must have been
an abrupt qualitative change in the level of cultural, tech-
nological and social sophistication with the appearance of
morphologically modern humans. Where evidence exists
of similar sophistication among earlier hominids, it has
often been explained away or dismissed as an exception to
the rule.
The evidence of widespread seafaring by pre-mod-
ern humans is too solid to regard as a mere anomaly. In
the author's opinion, the Nale Tisih 2 project shows that
the knowledge and technological skills required to sail the
open sea are far in excess of the capabilities conceded to
early hominids by these paleoanthropologists. Therefore, the
evidence squarely refutes their model of human evolution.
The contradiction has less to do with seafaring itself, than
with the preconditions for successful maritime colonization.


-- "*
M^B A'



a^ ^^ m L .?* *,


^" ^- T"'-k
ife'=?:-l ^Q- *f ^1

c iJSig


To bring to a distant shore a group of males and
females large enough to succeed in founding a new popu-
lation involves the construction of watercraft large enough
to carry these people and their supplies. Such a vessel can
take months to build, and involves the organized labor of
several people for an abstract goal. It obviously involves
complex and effective communication, most probably ver-
bal communication (language or speech). But more impor-
tantly, it involves literally hundreds of culturally
transferred skills. Until I tried to build and sail such a ves-
sel, I had no idea of the complexity of such a project, and
the cultural infrastructure necessary for it. The knowledge
we gained from local boatbuilders about selecting materi-
als with appropriate properties, and finding, acquiring, har-
vesting, transporting, treating, processing, curating, curing,
storing, using, working, and preserving these materials was
entirely cultural; none was passed on genetically. Con-
structing such sea craft required the abilities to make in-
formed decisions, to anticipate future events and
contingencies, and to convey these matters to a group, to
motivate such a group, and to steer such a complex project
to a successful completion. These are all ample evidence
that earlier hominids, back to a million years ago, possessed
many of the same capabilities as anatomically modem hu-
mans.


INA Quarterly 26.1


Fig. 6. Stone artefacts of the final Early Pleistocene of Flores, believed to be in the order of 750 or 800 ka old, from Mata Menge (a-
e, g) and Boa Leza (f, h).


S_









Fig. 7. The principles of taphonomic logic,
showing the predicted survival characteristics
of a cumulatively increasing corpus of mate-
rial evidence of a specific phenomenon catego-
ry: A = present time, B = historical
commencement of the activity thought to re-
sult in the find category in question, D =
taphonomic threshold, a = produced instanc-
es offind category, 3 = surviving instances of
find category as determined by taphonomicfac-
tors. The area below a thus represents the to-
tal quantity offind category produced, the area
below P the total quantity of surviving speci-
mens. To understand the principles it is es-
sential to appreciate why P curve behaves
relative to as depicted in time.


There are other relevant points to consider. There is
now clear evidence that the Middle Pleistocene hominids
in Timor cooked Stegodont (an ancient elephant). The fre-
quent discoveries of stone tools in situ with Stegodont re-
mains in Flores, now at six sites (Koba Tuwa, Mata Menge,
Boa Leza, Ngamapa, Kopo Watu, Pauphadhi), suggests
that this animal was a major food source. At around 700 or
800 ka, this is among the world's earliest evidence of ele-
phant killing by hominids. Moreover, the stone tools found
in Flores, Timor, and Roti are among the most advanced
Lower Paleolithic stone tools in the world (fig. 6). Subse-
quent Lower Paleolithic hominids in Europe, notably in
Germany, also provide a great deal of evidence of their
cultural and technological sophistication. They, too, hunt-
ed elephants (e.g. at Lehringen) and rhinos (at Bilzingsle-
ben) successfully and probably frequently, and they
produced engraved art. Yet for many years, some advo-
cates of the African Eve model have rejected any evidence
of hunting in the Lower Paleolithic, defining these homi-
nids as subhuman carrion eaters. It will be interesting to
see how they will account for the maritime navigation
prowess of Homo erectus and later archaic Homo sapiens.
Part of the problem probably lies in inadequate the-
ory regarding the preservation of archaeological evidence.
To explain, let us briefly consider the taphonomy of sea-
faring evidence. We have absolutely no direct physical ev-
idence of navigation older than 9500 years, but we do have
indirect evidence (human tools on the far side of the treach-
erous Lombok Strait) that navigation must be much more
than 800 ka old. So the taphonomic threshold (the point at
which evidence first occurs and can be dated) of the evi-
dence of the phenomenon is demonstrated to occur at 9500
years before present. The taphonomic lag time (the gap
between the first occurrence of the phenomenon and the


first datable archaeological evidence of it) is about 99 per-
cent of the phenomenon's historical duration.
All types of archaeological evidence are subject to
taphonomic logic, according to which there must be a point
in time when theoretically all (in practice nearly all) in-
stances of the specific phenomenon had been eliminated
from the record (fig. 7). Without understanding the tapho-
nomic lag, it is entirely impossible to understand the sig-
nificance of quantitative aspects of Pleistocene archaeology,
and even its qualitative aspects. Interpretation of archaeo-
logical finds of the Pleistocene is not just difficult without
this understanding, it is impossible.
Taphonomic logic explains why we have no physi-
cal evidence of Pleistocene seafaring, when the archaeo-
logically demonstrated occupation evidence on many
islands and in Australia indicates clearly that humans
reached them during Pleistocene times. It also shows us
that the archaeological record must be expected to be sig-
nificantly distorted, and distorted in systematic ways. The
older the evidence, the greater the systematic distortion,
until a point in time is reached, when quantitative, some-
times even qualitative, information loses all relevance. It
is, for example, totally irrelevant how many garments we
have recovered from the Mousterian. Even if not a single
one has been found, this cannot be submitted as proof that
these people went naked. Absence of evidence is not evi-
dence of absence. Similarly, it is illogical to claim, as some
archaeologists have done until now, that the evidence of
symbolism before the Upper Paleolithic is numerically in-
adequate to indicate the capacity for symbolic thinking.
Such claims are also taphonomically unsound. In the au-
thor's experience, the complexity of seafaring as a group
activity requires the use of language, which is a form of
symbolism: vocal sounds stand as symbols of concepts.


INA Quarterly 26.1










Conclusion
All of this shows the importance of learning about
the circumstances under which Pleistocene navigation oc-
curred. Such knowledge can help us establish realistic up-
per limits of what humans were capable of, technologically,
culturally, cognitively and intellectually, at a given point in
time. It may well be a more reliable measure of sophistication
than any other to which archaeology has access. This source
of information tells us that hominids were vastly more so-
phisticated than some advocates of orthodox archaeology
would have us believe.


Due to the taphonomic lag, the traditional reliance
on preserved artifacts can only measure the minimum ca-
pabilities of a culture, not its actual achievements. Repli-
cative experiments have demonstrated beyond reasonable
doubt that hominids had minimum capabilities very sig-
nificantly in excess of what many authorities have con-
ceded. Specifically, "primitive" humans possessed the
considerable skills necessary to build the functional equiv-
alent of Nale Tasih 2.


Acknowledgments: The most important data collected on the Nale Tasih 2 expedition were only made possible by the
courage of the crew, and their willingness to risk life and limb in the process. For this, I thank Bob, Peter, IfO and Om
Mberu from the bottom of my heart. I regard them as heroes of science. I owe special gratitude to Peter Rogers, for his
heroic act, and to Bob Hobman, whose sheer persistence and dedication made this work possible. Finally, I thank Silvia
Schliekelmann, without whom the Nale Tasih expeditions would not have been.
Robert G. Bednarik, who is the Director, International Institute of Replicative Archaeology can be reached at: P.O. Box 216,
Caulfield South, Vic. 3162, Australia, e-mail aurawww@sunrise.sli.unimelb.edu.au a~

Suggested Readings

Bednarik, Robert G.
1994 "A taphonomy of palaeoart." Antiquity 68, 68-74.

1997a "The initial peopling of Wallacea and Sahul." Anthropos 92, 355-367.

1997b "The origins of navigation and language." The Artefact 20, 16-56.

1998 "An experiment in Pleistocene seafaring." International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 27(2).

Sondaar, P. Y., G. D. van den Bergh, B. Mubroto, F. Aziz, J. de Vos and U. L. Batu
1994 "Middle Pleistocene faunal turnover and colonization of Flores (Indonesia) by Homo erectus." Comptes Rendus
de l'Academie des Sciences, Paris 319, 1255-1262.

Sondaar, P. Y., R. Elburg, G. Klein Hofmeijer, F. Martini, M. Sanges, A. Spaan and H. de Visser
1995 "The human colonization of Sardinia: a Late-Pleistocene human fossil from Corbeddu Cave." Comptes Rendus
de I'Acadimie des Sciences, Paris 320, 145-150.




New Exhibit Honors Turkish History


The Commander Tower (Komutan Kulesi) at Bodrum
Castle, Turkey, will be the home of a new exhibit of the
Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology opening in
August, 1999. The tower has been restored to its condition
during the First World War, when it housed Lt. Ibrahim
Nezihi. Documents and photographs donated by Nezihi's
daughter and stepson or provided by the Turkish General
Staff illustrate the critical period in Turkish history from
1914 to 1922 through his career and those of several of his
compatriots who served at Bodrum Castle.


The new exhibit celebrates the many heroes who
led Turkey to emerge from its Ottoman past as a modem
state. On 26 May, 1915, Ibrahim Nezihi and fifty soldiers
armed only with swords and rifles defeated a far superior
French force from the cruiser Dupleix (accompanied by a
British warship), which was attempting to attack boats
that had taken shelter in Bodrum Harbor. In 1922, Nezihi
fell during the struggles that led to the liberation of his
homeland from foreign occupation and the proclamation
of the Turkish Republic. a


INA Quarterly 26.1








Profile

Jerome L. Hall
Executive Director of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology


Dr. Jerome Lynn Hall was born near the sea at La Jol-
la, California, but he received his undergraduate education
well inland, at Abilene Christian University m Texas. He soon
returned to his maritime roots, however, as a marine biolo-
gy laboratory instructor and divemaster during six summers
in Sonora, Mexico. Jerome earned an MS in Ocean Sciences
at Nova-Southeastern University while teaching marine bi-
ology and related courses in the Dade County Public Schools
of Florida.
Jerome began
his association with
INAin 1987,whenas a
graduate assistant in
the Texas A&M Uni-
versity Nautical Ar-
chaeology Program he
helped conserve arti-
facts from the Molasses
Reef Shipwreck exca-
vated by INA in the
Turks and Caicos Is-
lands. Since then hehas
had unprecedented "
experience on INA :-.'..
projects, having work-
ed on the Bronze Age
shipwreck excavation
at Uluburun in Tur-
key, the Columbus
Caravels Project at St. Jerome Hall is flanked by Raynette Bo
Ann's Bay in Jamaica, spect an INA project in Turkey.
and both the Tantura
Lagoon Shipwreck Project and the Ashkelon Harbor Survey
ui Israel, serving as assistant director for the last two.
He often combined academic and administrative
roles. While still a student, Jerome founded and served terms
as president and treasurer of the nonprofit Pan-American
Institute of Maritime Archaeology (PIMA) in order to un-
dertake the excavation of the Monte Cristi "Pipe Wreck" in
the Dominican Republic, on which he wrote his Texas A&M
doctoral dissertation. Later, being fluent in Spanish, he later
both taught at the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras
and was Director of the Office of the Council of Underwater
Archaeology for Puerto Rico. And more recently Jerome was
Director of the Kinneret Boat Hull Study, a joint project of
the Israeli Antiquities Commission and INA. In that capaci-
ty, he was responsible for the final documentation of the first-
century fishing boat found in the Sea of Galilee and excavated
by Dr. Shelley Wachsmann. Before coming back to College
Station, Jerome taught at the University of San Diego.


1S


In the field, Jerome's sense of humor and his ability
to see the best side of every situation and person has often
been the catalyst for bringing people together into cohesive
units. Besides his work for INA, Dr. Hall has plenty to keep
his weekends busy! Jerome is a board member of MERI,
Marine Environmental Research Institute, a society that stud-
ies and reports on the current status of coral reefs. He is co-
ordinating the final publication of the Sea of Galilee boat,
and is writing both
scholarly and popu-
lar books on the Mon-
te Cristi shipwreck.
Dr. Hall has been
granted familial per-
mission to write a bi-
ography of the late
Peter Throckmorton,
who introduced him
(and, many years ear-
lier, INA Founder
George Bass) to the im-
portance of underwa-
ter archaeology. It is
fitting, then, thatsome-
one in INA wte about
Throckmorton who, in
Sa sense, was the
S"grandfather" of INA.
As the new Ex-
hell (1eft) and Jean Kelley as they in- ecutive Director of the
Institute of Nautical
Archaeology, Jer-
ome's time is primarily occupied with his administrative re-
sponsibilities. However, he refuses to allow this to interfere
with his many plans for INA's work in the new millennium.
Not surprisingly, given his background, the Executive Di-
rector dreams of making the Institute a major presence again
in Caribbean and Latin American archaeology, where it was
an early pioneer. At the "high tech" end of the spectrum,
Jerome is moving forward on locating a research vessel and
on working with the Texas A&M Engineering Department
to develop a new generation of technology. The goal is to
extend the work of INA into deeper waters without com-
promising the high standards that George Bass developed
for underwater archaeology. At the "low tech" end, Jerome
hopes to incorporate pinnipeds (seals and sea lions) into INA
surveys and excavations. His enthusiasm and ideas should
sweep INA to new heights (or is it depths?) that only the
future can reveal. s'


INA Quarterly 26.1








Just Released

by Christine Powell

When Horses Walked on Water
by Kevin J. Crisman and Arthur B. Cohn
Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998
ISN 1-56098-843-6, 292 + xviii pages, 24 b&w photos, 38 line
drawings, 4 maps, bibliography, index, cloth.
Price: $37.50 (INA members $26.25 plus shipping and tax, where
applicable)

Most of us have regarded sail, oar, and engine power as the
only viable forms of marine propulsion. Prof. Kevin Crisman of INA
and the Nautical Archaeology Program at Texas A&M University
and Arthur B. Cohn of INA and the Lake Champlain Maritime Mu-
seum have devoted a fascinating book to a fourth altemative-ani-
mal power. Please note that the focus here is not on external power
sources such as horses walking on a towpath or pulling a cable ferry,
but on vessels with an on-board equine powerplant. For some appli-
cations, particularly low-volume river and lake ferries, horses pro-
vided a cheaper and more efficient source of power than steam.
Teamboats, as these horse-driven vessels were known, were finally
put out of business by railroads, bridges, and internal combustion
engines, not by competition from steamboats. Horsepower was also
safer than steam. Indeed, the fact that horseboat disasters rarely oc-
curred kept the boats out of the newspapers at the time, and out of
textbooks today. When Horses Walked on Water is an effort to restore the horseboats to their proper place in history.
Crisman and Cohn divide their book into two parts. The first 149 pages tell the history of animal power from Roman
times until the last horse ferry (across the Cumberland River at Rome, Tennessee) retired in the late 1920s. Horsepower was
never seriously exploited in Europe, because most rivers were spanned by bridges and the remaining crossings had been
served by other means for centuries. With steam on the horizon, horses seemed to be a dead end development that did not
inspire much interest by engineers and inventors. In America, there were very few bridges over the numerous rivers, lakes
and bays, and cheap human power was unavailable. The "land" journey from Philadelphia to New York City, for example,
required five ferry crossings, some of considerable length in poorly-protected waters. Efficient ferryboats were essential if
America was to develop its road network and the areas that could only be reached by road. This economic situation created
a niche for horseboats that lasted almost a century. As early as 1807-08, a teamboat made the journey upriver from New
Orleans to Louisville. However, steam quickly replaced animal power on long hauls, because horses did not have the
endurance to survive such grueling voyages. Short trips were another story.
The first commercially successful horseboats began service between New York and Brooklyn in 1814. They capital-
ized on the improvements in paddlewheel technology inspired by the early steamboats to allow a crossing by up to 300
persons in seven minutes. A horseboat for the route cost about $12,000 (including spare horses and stables on shore) white
a steamboat would have cost $30,000 to provide no faster service. Horse ferries to Hoboken and Williamsburgh, Long
Island, followed within months. By 1820, teamboats were operating on many routes in North America.
The earliest boats had a capstan-like device (a "whim") turned by horses walking in a tight circle. Obviously, this
dizzying work was rough on the horses, and wasted a large circle of deck space. The whim was soon superceded by the
treadwheel, a horizontal turntable under the deck that the horses turned while remaining yoked in place. This took less
cargo space, and was simple enough to be installed and maintained by simple mechanics. Two-, four-, and six-horse models
were popular from the 1820s until the 1840s. After that time, most horseboats used treadmills as the power-collection
mechanism, as these occupied even less deck space. Some of these vessels were efficient enough to be used as general-
purpose workboats on lakes and other quiet waters. The horseboats retained a market niche until the invention of the
automobile made cheap internal-combustion engines widely available after the turn of the present century.
The second part of When Horses Walked on Water is devoted to the study of a particular boat. In 1984, Kevin Crisman
and Art Cohn were surveying Burlington Bay, Vermont, with side-scanning sonar. They found the remains of a horse ferry
Continued on page 21


INA Quarterly 26.1







Review

by Cheryl Ward

Chinese export porcelain from the wreck of the Sydney Cove (1797)
by Mark Staniforth and Mike Nash

The Australian Institute for Maritime Archaeology, Special
Publication No. 12 (1998)
ISBN: 1 875 495 24 X, 46 pages + viii, 16 color plates and 39
figures, references, bibliography, paper.

Price: AUS $20 (plus postage) US $20 (inc. postage) available
from: Australian Institute for Maritime Archaeology, c/o Tim
Smith, Secretary, Heritage Office, Locked Bag 5020, Parramat-
ta NSW 2124 Australia.

This excellent report on Chinese export porcelain artifacts from
the Sydney Cove is exciting because it also looks at porcelain as an exam-
ple of the use of material goods by Australian colonists to distinguish
their civilized selves from aboriginal"others." This is not the only place
and time in the world that luxury imports functioned in the same way,
but few archaeological reports deal with this issue so explicitly. In
addition to providing an outstanding artifact catalog, Staniforth and
Nash give readers an integrated approach to understanding the sig-
nificance of export porcelain in the colonial environment.
In 1797, Sydney Cove wrecked off the northeastern Tasmanian
coast with a cargo of alcohol, food, textiles, porcelain and tea. Partially salvaged after being run aground, the ship was
abandoned. Relocated in 1977 only 4-6 m beneath the surface, the site's systematic evaluation and excavation between 1977
and 1993 produced about a quarter ton of Chinese export porcelain of both underglaze blue and enameledfamiIle rose wares.
A few pieces were intact, but most were shattered.
Staniforth and Nash review the production process and provide readers withasetof plates which beautifully illustrates
most stages in porcelain manufacture and decoration. Their interesting review of differences in decoration and quality supple-
ments general coverage of trade in porcelain between Europe, North America, the Philippines and China as well as Australia.
Agency house documents, newspaper advertisements, and records of prices, combined with historical archaeology
of early settlement sites in Australia and shipwreck sites around the world, allowed the authors to create this detailed
analysis. Sydney Cove is one of only a handful of porcelain carriers to be carefully excavated and published, so the report is
particularly valuable.
As Staniforth and Nash point out, much can be learned about people's lives by taking what we learn from detailed
artifact studies and understanding what the measurements and descriptions tell us about cultural attitudes toward con-
sumption, colonization, dining, tea drinking, and personal hygiene. a,



Just Released, continued from page 20
roughly two kilometers northwest of the city of Burlington. This 19-meter-long craft was built in the late 1820s or early
1830s and remained in service for ten to twenty years. This ferry has still not been identified, although many treadwheel
ferries operated on the lake between 1826 and 1860. The boat was surveyed in 1989, and studied further in 1990-92 by the
Lake Champlain Maritime Museum and INA. As a result, this book contains the first detailed description of a horse-
propelled vessel that is based on scientific observation. It would not be possible to give justice to the details of this section in
the brief scope of this note. However, anyone with an interest in "Yankee ingenuity" would enjoy learning how worlanen
using relatively simple tools could design and build such a highly efficient mechanism.
Both parts of When Horses Walked on Water provide the reader with valuable insight into this fascinating chapter in
American maritime history. Without the work of Crisman and Cohn, this once-important technology would probably have
remained in obscurity. a,


INA Quarterly 26.1








News & Notes

SHA Honors George Bass
On Friday evening January 8S, 1999, the Society for Historical Archaeology presented its highest award, the
J.C. Harrington Medal, to George F. Bass. The Harrington Medal is given for a lifetime of scholarly and related contri-
butions to the field of historical archaeology. Bass was selected, not for his outstanding fieldwork, which has concen-
trated on ancient shipwrecks in the Mediterranean, but rather for the fact that he more than any other individual
helped to create and build the discipline of Nautical Archaeology. In his pioneering efforts he always took into consid-
eration the full historic range of nautical subjects, be they ancient, medieval, or modern.
His general publications, the Nautical Archaeology Program at Texas A&M, and INA itself, as well as his work
in preservation law, have always given equal attention to sites and wrecks dating after 1400 CE into the twentieth
century. Kevin J. Crisman, Bass' colleague at Texas A&M, gave a slide-
illustrated survey of these many accomplishments at the annual ban-
quet and awards ceremony in Salt Lake City. Then Pamela J. Cressey,
SHA President, presented the medal to Bass. Toni L. Carrell, Chair of
the Advisory Council for Underwater Archaeology, also spoke at the
ceremony. The large audience contained many of the medalist's former
students, friends, and colleagues. a,
SDr. Robert D. Ballard guest lectures at A&M
On April 28, 1999, Dr. Robert Ballard, President, Institute for
Exploration and Scientist Emeritus, Woods Hole Oceanographic Insti-
tution (left), was the final speaker in the Texas A&M University Dis-
tinguished Lecture Series. His presentation "Deep Sea Exploration"
covered the span of his thirty-year career in the underwater world,
from his early studies exploring the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, to his discov-
erles of RMS Titanic, the German battleship Bismark, and the US air-
craft carrier Yorktown, and finally his new field of research, deep-water
marine archaeology.
It was with a view to his current research that he visited the
Institute of Nautical Archaeology on April 27, 1999. Dr. Ballard met
with faculty, students and staff to discuss plans for this summer and
the joint project off the Turkish coast at Sinop. INA and the Institute
for Exploration will be cooperating in this venture.
Dr. Ballard also gave a presentation on his research to the Nauti-
cal Archaeology class, "Old World, New World, Real World." He later
Photo: C. A. Powell spoke to students regarding their own projects and aspirations. w


Hamilton and Smith Awarded Patent
Associate Professor Donny Hamilton (right) and Assis-
tant Professor Wayne Smith (left) of the Nautical Archaeology
Program at Texas A&M University (together with Jerome M.
Klosowski of Dow Corning Co.) were recently awarded a U.S.
patent for a process for preserving organic materials with poly-
ethylene glycol, resins, silicone oils, and other chemical com-
pounds. Although this is the one-thousandth patent for the
Texas A&M University System, it is the first ever awarded to
the A&M College of Liberal Arts. The new process promises to
revolutionize several areas of artifact conservation in archaeol-
ogy, and may also have important applications for the treat-
ment of other materials. The work of the Conservation Research
Laboratory and the Archaeological Preservation Research Lab-
oratory will be featured in a forthcoming issue of the INA Quar-
terly. 'a Photo: C. A. Powell


INA Quarterly 26.1













IN MEMORIAL

Billings Ruddock




Anyone who met Billings Rud-
dock when he attended the opening of
the Bodrum headquarters in 1995 or at
the annual meeting in January, 1996, will
remember his excitement at being part
of the INA family and his great warmth
and charm. I first met Billings while lec-
turing on a tour tracing the footsteps of
St. Paul, and we spent hours in conver-
sation, ranging from nautical archaeolo-
gy to contemporary art and lunch with
Joe Kennedy. Billings stayed in contact
with me, and was a continual support
as I sought funds to develop INA's
branch in Egypt. He not only encouraged
me, but also provided the funds that al-
lowed us to operate our office in Alex-
andria for a year. Then, when the crunch
came before the first excavation season
at Sadana Island in 1995, he made it pos-
sible for us to build storage tanks at the
Alexandria Conservation Laboratory, a
critical step in demonstrating our seri-
ousness of intent to the Egyptian antiq-
uities authority.
Billings was an adventurer. De-
spite some physical difficulty, he and I
climbed up more than one hill crowned
by a Greek temple, and he had just re-
turned from a trip to Bali in the weeks
before his unexpected death in March.
One of my favorite memories from
Sadana Island will always be walking
across the starfish-covered reef with Bill
out to the diving platform where he saw, firsthand, exactly what was going on with the archaeologists and
support crew out there. His delight in camping out with us for a few days at Sadana Island brought us all
tremendous joy. Morale shot through the roof while he was with us. I have never known anyone whose
pleasure in discovery exceeded Bill's, and his unending exploration of new places, new ideas, and new aes-
thetics will always inspire me. aW
Cheryl Ward


INA Quarterly 26.1









INSTITUTE OF NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY


George F Bass, Founder and
Archaeological Director
Jerome L. Hall, Executive Director

William L. Allen
John H. Baird
George F Bass
Edward O. Boshell, Jr.,
Vice Chairman and Treasurer
Ray M. Bowen
John A. Brock
Elizabeth L. Bruni
Gregory M. Cook, Chairman
Harlan Crow
Frank Darden
John De Lapa



Allan Campbell, M.D.


OFFICERS ADMINISTRATION
Donald A. Frey, Vice President
Cemal M. Pulak, Vice President

BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Claude Duthuit
Daniel Fallon
Danielle I. Feeney
Donald G. Geddes III (Emeritus)
Woodrow Jones, Jr.
Harry C. Kahn I (Ementus)
Michael L. Katzev
Jack W. Kelley
Mustafa Ko(
Sally R. Lancaster
Robert E. Lorton
Frederick IR Mayer

ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS
Bill Klein, M.D. Dana F. McGinnis


James A. Goold, Secretary and Counsel
Claudia LeDoux, Assistant Secretary


Wilham A. McKenzie
Alex G. Nason
George E. Robb, Jr.
L. Francis Rooney
Ayhan Sicimoglu
Ray H. Siegfried II
William T. Sturgis
Robert L. Walker
Lew O. Ward
Peter M. Way
Garry A. Weber
George O. Yamini


Murad Sunalp, M.D.


FACULTY
George F Bass
George T & Gladys H. Abell Professor of Nautical Archaeology/ George O. Yamini Family Professor of Liberal Arts
Kevin I. Crisman, Nautical Archaeology Faculty Fellow
Donny L. Hamilton, Fredenck R. Mayer Faculty Fellow
Frederick M. Hocker, Sara W. & George O. Yamini Associate Professor
Cemal M. Pulak, Frederick R- Mayer Faculty Fellow of Nautical Archaeology
C. Wayne Smith, Assistant Professor/Director of the Archaeological Preservation Research Laboratory
J. Richard Steffy, Sara W. & George O. Yamiru Professor of Nautical Archaeology, Emeritus
Frederick H. van Doorninck, Jr., Frederick R. Mayer Professor of Nautical Archaeology, Emeritus
Shelley Wachsmann, Meadows Assistant Professor of Biblical Archaeology
Cheryl Ward, Assistant Professor


I. Barto Arnold, M.A., Texas Operations


STAFF
Selma Agar
Birgul Akbiiliit
Esra Altmanit Gtksu
Mustafa Babacik
William H. Charlton, Jr., M.A.
Michelle Chmelar
Marion Feildel
Tuba Ekmekli
Adei Farouk
Jana Gober
Jane Haldane
Kathy Hall
Emad Khalil
Sheila D. Matthews, M.A.
G6khan Ozagach, Ph.D.
Robin C.M. Piercy
Candace D. Pierson
Sema Pulak, M.A.
Patncia M. Sibella, Ph.D.
Gulser Sinaci
Murat Tilev
Ginej Yaqar


AREA DIRECTORS
Douglas Haldane, M.A., INA Egypt

RESEARCH ASSOCIATES
Dan Davis
Jeremy Green
Margaret E. Leshikar-Denton, Ph.D.
Robert S. Neyland, Ph.D.
Ralph K. Pedersen, M.A.
Brett A. Phaneuf
Donald Rosencrantz

ADJUNCT PROFESSORS
Arthur Cohn, J.D.
David Gibbins, Ph.D.
Faith D. Hentschel, Ph.D.
Frednk T. Hiebert, Ph.D.
Carolyn C. Koehler, Ph.D.
William M. Murray, Ph.D.
David I. Owen, Ph D.
Gordon P. Watts, Jr, M.A.
GRADUATE FELLOWS
Mr. and Mrs. Ray H. Siegfried I
Graduate Fellow: Matthew Harpster
Marion M. Cook Graduate Fellow
Oscar Blasingame and Erich Heinhold


Tulan U. Turank, Turkish Headquarters

SUPPORTING INSTITUTIONS
Australian Institute of Maritime Archaeology
Boston University
Brown University
Bryn Mawr College
University of California, Berkeley
University of Cincinnati
Cornell University
Coming Museum of Glass
Department de ArqueolOgia Subacuatica de
la I.N.A.H., Mexico
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
New York University, Institute of Fine Arts
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Partners for Livable Places
University Museum, University of Pennsylvania
Texas A&M Research Foundation
Texas A&M University
University of Texas at Austin


QUARTERLY EDITOR
Christine A. Powell