Reed boats andrafts, along withdugout canoes and otherrafts, are among the oldest known types ofboats. Often used astraditional fishing boats, they are still used in a few places around the world, though they have generally been replaced withplanked boats. Reed boats can be distinguished from reed rafts, since reed boats are usually waterproofed with some form of tar.[1] As well as boats andrafts, smallfloating islands have also been constructed from reeds.
The earliest discovered remains from a reed boat are 7000 years old, found inKuwait. Reed boats are depicted in earlypetroglyphs and were common in ancient Egypt. A well-known example from theBook of Exodus is theark of bulrushes in which the babyMoses was set afloat. They were also constructed from early times inPeru andBolivia, and boats with remarkably similar design have been found inEaster Island and alsoNew Zealand where they were made by indigenousMāori.[2] Reed boats are still used in Peru, Bolivia,Ethiopia, and until recently inCorfu. The explorations and investigations of the Norwegian ethnographer and adventurerThor Heyerdahl have resulted in a better understanding of the construction and capabilities of reed boats.
The image on the right showspetroglyphs of a reed boat and men. The reed boat is similar to those depicted in cave paintings in Scandinavia, something that led Thor Heyerdahl to theorise that the Scandinavians came from the area that today isAzerbaijan. In theGobustan Petroglyph Reserve there are more than 6,000 petroglyphs carved by thehunter-gatherers that lived in these caves 12,000 years ago. At that time the Caspian Sea was much higher and washed against the lower rocks of the hill.
Another site isWadi Hammamat inQift, Egypt, where there are drawings of Egyptian reed boats dated to 4000 BC[3]
The oldest known remnants of a boat made with reeds (and tar) are from a 7000-year-old seagoing boat found at the archaeological site ofH3, Kuwait.[4]
The ancient Egyptians built boats frompapyrus reeds, which were widely cultivated along the Nile River and Delta. This reed was also used for many other purposes, especially for providing papyrus writing parchments.[5] Other reeds of the genusCyperus may have been used as well.[5]Theophrastus in hisHistory of Plants[6] states that the rigging on King Antigonus' fleet, used to fasten the doors when Ulysses slew the suitors in his hall,[7] was made from papyrus reed.[5] Lightskiffs suitable for the navigation of the Nile were constructed with stems cut from papyrus reed, as shown bybas-reliefs from thefourth dynasty where men cut papyrus, and use it to makecordage andsails and to build a reed boat.[5]
According to theBible, when thePharaoh issued a decree to kill all the Israelite males, thebaby Moses was saved by his mother, who set him adrift on the Nile in anark of bulrushes.[8] The bulrushes this small boat or basket was built with may have been papyrus.[5] The prophetIsaiah refers to Ethiopian vessels of reed inIsaiah 18:2.
In more recent years, the explorations and investigations of the Norwegian ethnographer and adventurerThor Heyerdahl, 1914–2002, have resulted in a better appreciation of the construction and capabilities of reed boats.
Heyerdahl wanted to demonstrate that ancient Mediterranean or African people could have crossed theAtlantic and reached the Americas by sailing with theCanary Current. In 1969, Heyerdahl constructed his first reed boat, theRa, named afterRa, the Egyptian sun god. Its design was based on ancient Egyptian models and drawings. The boat was built by boatmen fromLake Chad in theRepublic of Chad withpapyrus reeds fromLake Tana inEthiopia. It was launched off the coast ofMorocco, and set sail in an attempt to cross the Atlantic. After several weeks, its crew modified the vessel in a manner that causedRa to sag and take on water. EventuallyRa broke apart and was abandoned.
The following year, Heyerdahl organized the building of another similar boat, theRa II. Boat builders fromLake Titicaca built this inBolivia. Again, the vessel set sail from Morocco, succeeding this time and reachingBarbados.[9]
In 1978, Heyerdahl constructed a third reed boat, theTigris, named for theTigris River, which defines the eastern boundary of Mesopotamia. The purpose of building this vessel was to demonstrate thatMesopotamia could have been linked through trade and migration to theIndus Valley civilization, now modern-day Pakistan.Tigris was constructed in Iraq and sailed along thePersian Gulf, then to Pakistan, finally entering theRed Sea. She remained at sea in a seaworthy manner for five months. Then inDjibouti,Tigris was burnt deliberately in protest at the wars that were then raging everywhere around theRed Sea and theHorn of Africa.
Totora reeds grow inSouth America, particularly aroundLake Titicaca, and also onEaster Island. These reeds have been used by variouspre-ColumbianSouth American civilizations to build reed boats. The boats, calledbalsa, vary in size from small fishing canoes to thirty metres long. They are still used onLake Titicaca, located on the border ofPeru andBolivia, 3810 m above sea level.[10]
TheUros are an indigenous people pre-dating theIncas. They live, still today, on man-madefloating islands scattered acrossLake Titicaca. These islands are also constructed from totora reeds.[11] Each floating island supports between three and ten houses, also built of reeds.[10] The Uros still build totora reed boats, which they use for fishing and hunting seabirds.[11]
Reed boat craftsmen from Suriqui, a town on the Bolivian side of lake Titicaca, helpedThor Heyerdahl constructRa II andTigris.[12] Thor Heyerdahl attempted to prove that the reed boats of Lake Titicaca derived from the papyrus boats of Egypt.
Near the south-eastern shore of Lake Titicaca lie the ruins of the ancient city state ofTiwanaku. Tiwanaku contains monumental architecture characterized by large stones of exceptional workmanship.[13] Greenandesite stones, that were used to create elaborate carvings and monoliths, originated from the Copacabana peninsula, located across Lake Titicaca.[14] One theory is that these giant andesite stones, which weigh over 40 tons were transported some 90 kilometres across Lake Titicaca on reed boats.[15]
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Reed boats were also constructed using totora reeds onEaster Island. Intriguingly, the design of these boats closely matches the design used in Peru.[16]
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