1,300-year-old boat sheds light on Holy Land's maritime history
The boat, discovered near Haifa, could help scholars understand trading patterns in the region in the early 8th century.
By The Associated PressA boat that plied the coast of the Holy Land 1,300 years ago carrying fish, carobs and olives is helping researchers better understand a little-known period in the region's history.
The boat, discovered in a coastal lagoon near the northern city of Haifa this week, dates from the early 8th century, not long after the rise of Islam and the Arab conquest of the Middle East.
Marine archaeologists studying the craft say it is the only one from this period discovered in the Mediterranean, and could help scholars understand how the arrival of new rulers from the Arabian desert changed life and trading patterns in the Holy Land.
The boat, the archaeologists think, sailed up and down the coast with a crew of four or five, fishing and stopping to trade at ports along the way. On one of its journeys, it went down in shallow water for reasons unknown.
This 45-foot-long craft was first discovered by researchers from Haifa University's Institute for Maritime Studies and Texas A&M University 10 years ago, in a lagoon home to some 25 other sunken craft dating as far back as 2,000 years ago. They only released their findings now, following the latest excavation season.
Much of the still-submerged ship is uniquely intact, with the stump of a mast still visible. On board, the archaeologists found 30 clay pots originating in Egypt and containing the remains of fish. They also found ropes, a wooden spoon and well-preserved 1,300-year-old olives and carobs.
Yaacov Kahanov, the Haifa University scholar leading the excavation, said the find was important both because of the boat's rare state of preservation and because the craft dates from a period about which historians know little.
Kahanov said the find also showed there was a settlement, previously unknown, in the early Arab period on the beach near where the boat was found. The sailors brought the boat into the lagoon deliberately, to meet someone, to sell or buy, meaning there was some kind of port nearby, Kahanov said.
More important, the boat could help to paint a picture of economic life in the Holy Land under Arab rule. Hailing from the desert, the new rulers had no seagoing tradition, and scholars are divided on whether trading patterns that existed before they arrived were preserved afterwards.
According to Joseph Drori, an expert on the Islamic period at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv, the boat could offer an indication that sea trade continued uninterrupted.
If the age of the boat is right, then this is a very important find, Drori said.
When the boat went down in the lagoon, the Holy Land was an administrative backwater ruled from Damascus by the caliphs of the Umayyad dynasty, who had just built the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. The Muslim population was still small, and most people were Christian, Jewish and Hellenist. The sailors were unlikely to have been Arabs, Drori said.
The Arabs came with no knowledge of the sea, and drafted craftsmen, sailors and shipbuilders from the local population, Drori said.
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" Even the word Captain comes from the Arabic "Qubtan" -- the principal man in a ship. ". You are wrong. Captain comes from latin word capitaneus (from caput = head), i.e. the man who is at the head of the ship crew.
let the speak...this article just blew a huge chunk out of the fundamental elements of zionism. I.E. Arabs replaced the indigenous population - yes Arabs were seafarers - arabia is a pennisula after all so I find that point petty and comical - but in the attempt to belittle arabs, the author prooved that Palestinians (hellenists, christians, and jews) predated Arabs. When a drop of blood falls to the soil - it binds it... -Blinky The Fish...
Finally..................finally....Israelis are beginning to speak the truth. For how could sea trade occur if the arabs had annihilated the previous population and replaced them.... Palestinian blood is just as deeply rooted in the wholly land as Jewish blood. And now you have the proof. So I say...Amin
"Also, to say that Arabs have no sea-faring tradition 'because they all come from the desert' is a laughable notion, and attests to the ignorance of the writer. Even the word Captain comes from the Arabic 'Qubtan' -- the principal man in a ship." According to etymonline.com, "captain" comes from the Latin word for "head." But the Arabic term could also derive from the Latin, as many terms in Arabic seem to.
Many governments have come and gone in the "Holy Land"; many religons have also been in vogue and out of vogue. Although the "indigenous" palestinian population dates back for thousands of years, the Jews population of the Diaspora are no less descendants of the same ancient Palestinian population. Goggle "y-chromosome palestinian jew" and you will find that 50% of Palestinian Muslim males and 70% of Jewish males of the Diaspora have the same chromosome with a separation of 2000 years (children of Judea and Benjamin--southern tribes of Israel) while an additional 30% of Palestinian Muslim males have a y-chromosome separation of 2500 years (northern tribes of Israel). Give it a break: both Palestinians and Jews are descendants of the ancient Isralites predating the Roman Diaspora: the Palestinians are indigenous and the Jews are returning. Genetics don't lie.
...after the jews from europe fled europe as some zionazis like to think. And yes Arabs are indegenous to the whole area even before Islam and they outnumbered jews, I mean the true jews, the one who look and has alsmost the same traditions as Arabs, not the pseudo-jews of europe.
"the Holy Land was an administrative backwater ruled from Damascus by the caliphs of the Umayyad dynasty" while the article could be better worded...I believe they are referring to these partticular Arabs from Damascus....(e.g. not the Persian Gulf or North Africans) who clearly have had a long sea-going past.
To speak of an Arab conquest of the region overlooks the fact that the Arabs are indiginous to the area. The conquest that actually took place was that of the Arab and Islamic civilisation being adopted by the local people. Also, to say that Arabs have no sea-faring tradition "because they all come from the desert" is a laughable notion, and attests to the ignorance of the writer. Even the word Captain comes from the Arabic "Qubtan" -- the principal man in a ship. If the Arabs have no sea-faring tradition, then how does this ignoramus of a writer explain the spread of Islam to places as far as China, Malaysia, India etc???? Was it spread via the internet? Why must you guys politicise everything, even at the expense of the obvious truth?
Why must everything be politised? Indigenous, when it comes to human populations, is a concept relative to time. E.g most European populations are not indigenous to Europe, they wandered accross in the late roman early middle age. But now they consider themselves indigenous. In the same way the Arabs are also ingigenous to the area located in the roman province of Palestine, North Africa etc. Keep some perspective.
the Arabs are "indigenous" to every part of this region, as one can hear the immams preach in the mosques, the major source of information of Muslim Arabs. Perhaps Hannah, the "lover of Zion" can help us understand this phenomenon.