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New evidence for Greek merchantmen
The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology (1996) 25.3 & 4: 262–264
Note
New evidence for Greek merchantmen For the Greek artist of the Geometric and Archaic periods, roughly 850 to 500 BC, the sleek war galleys of the age were the marine subject par excellence. Dozens of representations of them have survived. But he had scant interest in their homely sisters, the workaday sailing craft that carried cargo; up to now only two representations have been known: a vase-painting on a cup of the late 6th century BC in the British Museum[1] and a wall painting in an Etruscan tomb of the early 5th at Tarquinia[2]. As it happens, a third has long been available but has gone unnoticed, a fragment of an Attic blackfigure bowl, dated 530–520 BC, in the collection of the Archaeological Institute of Heidelberg University[3]. On it is a picture of a merchantman complete save for the sternmost area; it is a welcome addition to our scanty evidence. The picture occupies one portion of the exterior of the bowl. An adjacent portion is decorated with a marine fantasy not uncommon on vases of this period, a twoprowed war-galley, that is a galley that at each end, stern as well as bow, has a prow with a boar-headed ram[4]. Some artistic fantasy has crept into the rendition of the sailing ship as well. For one, although it is shown as if in the open sea, its sail is furled and lowered as if it were in a harbour. For another, its mast has been reduced to a mere matchstick in order to suit the scant horizontal space available. Aside from such easily discernible vagaries, the artist has portrayed a believable ship. More or less contemporary with the 1057–2414/96/030262+03 $25.00/0
two representations mentioned above, it shares their key characteristics: the hull, designed for carrying cargo, has the same chunky shape; the prow has the same distinct concave curve; and the mainsail is, as there, a broad squaresail fitted with brails. However, the picture offers, as well, some new features. The most striking is a figurehead: unlike the other two representations, in which the prow is plain, here it is adorned with the head of a bull. Figureheads representing animals have a long history: the lion’s head is attested on Egyptian war galleys; the bird’s head on ships from the Bronze Age onwards; and the horse’s head on Phoenician craft[5]. This is the first instance of the bull’s head[6]. A second unusual feature is that the vessel is portrayed with sail lowered: the sail, tightly furled in its brails, lies on the deck. The mast is bare, save for some lines running from the masthead, two forward and one aft. The two forward are probably halyards, double here as so often elsewhere[7]; the line aft may be the fall of the halyards gathered into one. War galleys, since their rig was made to be easily lowered or even stripped off as a necessary preliminary to going into battle[8], are not infrequently pictured with lowered sail[9]. Merchantmen, however, are generally shown with sail raised or, when in harbour, with sail furled to the yard[10]. The closest parallel is a representation, dating wellnigh a thousand years later, in which the yard with furled sail has been lowered halfway between mast-top and deck[11]. ? 1996 The Nautical Archaeology Society
NOTE
Figure 1. Sherd of an Attic black-figure bowl, 530–520 BC. (Photo: courtesy of the Antikenmuseum und Abguss-Sammlung, Archäologisches Institut der Universität Heidelberg)
A third unusual feature is the detailed portrayal of the crew. Four figures are shown naked; these are deckhands. Three are busy with the sail, while the fourth is gesticulating and calling to a fifth figure who, to judge from the fact that he wears a mantle, must be the skipper[12]. At the stern there doubtless would have been pictured a helmsman grasping the steering oars. The Kyrenia wreck, a small singlemasted freighter, had a crew of four[13]; the five figures portrayed here plus the lost
helmsman could well represent the actual number of men that manned this vessel. In short, the Heidelberg fragment is an invaluable addition to our evidence for Greek merchantmen at the beginning of the Classical Age. It furnishes welcome confirmation of key aspects already known as well as significant new information. Lionel Casson 100 Bleecker Street New York, N.Y.10012, U.S.A.
Notes [1] Frequently published, for example, Morrison and Williams, 1968: pl. 19; Casson, 1991: pl. 24; 1994: pls 36–37; 1995: pls 81–82. [2] Casson, 1991: pl 27; 1994: pl 38; 1995: pl. 97. [3] I am indebted to George Bass for bringing the fragment to my attention. Along with other ceramics of the museum it had been published in the Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum (Deutschland Band 263
NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 25.3 & 4
[4] [5] [6]
[7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
31=Heidelberg Band 4, ed. H. Gropengiesser [Munich 1970] 44–45 and pl. 162. 10–11), but it blushed unseen there until he, during a recent visit to the museum, spotted the piece on display. Immediately aware of its importance, he wrote me about it and urged me to write it up. See, for example, Morrison and Williams, 1968: pl. 16a. Lion’s head: Casson, 1995: pl. 61. Bird’s head: Casson, 1995: pl. 61; Basch, 1987: 142, fig. 295; full discussion in Wachsmann 1996. Horse’s head: Casson, 1995: pl. 92 and cf. p. 66. Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Tauroeis, cites a passage from the Greek geographer Artemidorus (c. 100 BC) to the effect that the colonists of Tauroeis (a town near Marseilles) gave their new settlement that name because the ship that brought them there was taurophoros, in other words, had the figurehead of a bull (tauros). For the text of the passage see Torr, 1964: 65, note 148 (where, in one of his rare errors, Torr gives Stephanus’ source as ‘Apollodoros’). Though the statement is a fanciful bit of folk-etymology, it may well reflect the fact that ships with such a figurehead did exist. See, for example, Morrison and Williams, 1968: pls 10d, 15a–b, 16d, 17a,c,e, 18a,d. Cf. Casson, 1995: 235–36. See, e.g., Basch, 1987: 120 pls 234–35, 448 pl. 984, 484 pl. 1098. Sail raised: Casson, 1995: pls. 142–45, 147, 149, 154, 156. Furled to yard, pls 144 (ship to right), 148, 150. Basch, 1987: 482,. pl. 1094. Greek and Roman sailors commonly were naked and the officers clothed; see Casson, 1995: 320–21. In an Egyptian tomb-painting of c. 1400 BC that pictures a Levantine merchantman, the deckhands wear loin cloths while the skipper has a full-length robe; see Casson, 1994: pl. 31. Cf. Parker, 1992: 232.
References Basch, L., 1987, Le Musée Imaginaire de la Marine Antique. Athens. Casson, L., 1991, The Ancient Mariners. 2nd edition, Princeton. Casson, L., 1994, Ships and Seafaring in Ancient Times. London. Casson, L., 1995, Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World. 3rd edition, Baltimore. Morrison, J. and Williams, R., 1968, Greek Oared Ships 900–322 BC. Cambridge. Parker, A., 1992, Ancient Shipwrecks of the Mediterranean & the Roman Provinces. BAR Int Ser 580. Oxford. Torr., C., 1964, Ancient Ships. 2nd edition, Chicago. [1st edition, Cambridge, 1895] Wachsmann, S. 1996, Bird-head devices on Mediterranean ships. In Tzalas H. (Ed.), Tropis IV, 4th International Symposium on Ship Construction in Antiquity, Proceedings, Athens 1991: 539–572. Athens.
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Note
New evidence for Greek merchantmen For the Greek artist of the Geometric and Archaic periods, roughly 850 to 500 BC, the sleek war galleys of the age were the marine subject par excellence. Dozens of representations of them have survived. But he had scant interest in their homely sisters, the workaday sailing craft that carried cargo; up to now only two representations have been known: a vase-painting on a cup of the late 6th century BC in the British Museum[1] and a wall painting in an Etruscan tomb of the early 5th at Tarquinia[2]. As it happens, a third has long been available but has gone unnoticed, a fragment of an Attic blackfigure bowl, dated 530–520 BC, in the collection of the Archaeological Institute of Heidelberg University[3]. On it is a picture of a merchantman complete save for the sternmost area; it is a welcome addition to our scanty evidence. The picture occupies one portion of the exterior of the bowl. An adjacent portion is decorated with a marine fantasy not uncommon on vases of this period, a twoprowed war-galley, that is a galley that at each end, stern as well as bow, has a prow with a boar-headed ram[4]. Some artistic fantasy has crept into the rendition of the sailing ship as well. For one, although it is shown as if in the open sea, its sail is furled and lowered as if it were in a harbour. For another, its mast has been reduced to a mere matchstick in order to suit the scant horizontal space available. Aside from such easily discernible vagaries, the artist has portrayed a believable ship. More or less contemporary with the 1057–2414/96/030262+03 $25.00/0
two representations mentioned above, it shares their key characteristics: the hull, designed for carrying cargo, has the same chunky shape; the prow has the same distinct concave curve; and the mainsail is, as there, a broad squaresail fitted with brails. However, the picture offers, as well, some new features. The most striking is a figurehead: unlike the other two representations, in which the prow is plain, here it is adorned with the head of a bull. Figureheads representing animals have a long history: the lion’s head is attested on Egyptian war galleys; the bird’s head on ships from the Bronze Age onwards; and the horse’s head on Phoenician craft[5]. This is the first instance of the bull’s head[6]. A second unusual feature is that the vessel is portrayed with sail lowered: the sail, tightly furled in its brails, lies on the deck. The mast is bare, save for some lines running from the masthead, two forward and one aft. The two forward are probably halyards, double here as so often elsewhere[7]; the line aft may be the fall of the halyards gathered into one. War galleys, since their rig was made to be easily lowered or even stripped off as a necessary preliminary to going into battle[8], are not infrequently pictured with lowered sail[9]. Merchantmen, however, are generally shown with sail raised or, when in harbour, with sail furled to the yard[10]. The closest parallel is a representation, dating wellnigh a thousand years later, in which the yard with furled sail has been lowered halfway between mast-top and deck[11]. ? 1996 The Nautical Archaeology Society
NOTE
Figure 1. Sherd of an Attic black-figure bowl, 530–520 BC. (Photo: courtesy of the Antikenmuseum und Abguss-Sammlung, Archäologisches Institut der Universität Heidelberg)
A third unusual feature is the detailed portrayal of the crew. Four figures are shown naked; these are deckhands. Three are busy with the sail, while the fourth is gesticulating and calling to a fifth figure who, to judge from the fact that he wears a mantle, must be the skipper[12]. At the stern there doubtless would have been pictured a helmsman grasping the steering oars. The Kyrenia wreck, a small singlemasted freighter, had a crew of four[13]; the five figures portrayed here plus the lost
helmsman could well represent the actual number of men that manned this vessel. In short, the Heidelberg fragment is an invaluable addition to our evidence for Greek merchantmen at the beginning of the Classical Age. It furnishes welcome confirmation of key aspects already known as well as significant new information. Lionel Casson 100 Bleecker Street New York, N.Y.10012, U.S.A.
Notes [1] Frequently published, for example, Morrison and Williams, 1968: pl. 19; Casson, 1991: pl. 24; 1994: pls 36–37; 1995: pls 81–82. [2] Casson, 1991: pl 27; 1994: pl 38; 1995: pl. 97. [3] I am indebted to George Bass for bringing the fragment to my attention. Along with other ceramics of the museum it had been published in the Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum (Deutschland Band 263
NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 25.3 & 4
[4] [5] [6]
[7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
31=Heidelberg Band 4, ed. H. Gropengiesser [Munich 1970] 44–45 and pl. 162. 10–11), but it blushed unseen there until he, during a recent visit to the museum, spotted the piece on display. Immediately aware of its importance, he wrote me about it and urged me to write it up. See, for example, Morrison and Williams, 1968: pl. 16a. Lion’s head: Casson, 1995: pl. 61. Bird’s head: Casson, 1995: pl. 61; Basch, 1987: 142, fig. 295; full discussion in Wachsmann 1996. Horse’s head: Casson, 1995: pl. 92 and cf. p. 66. Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Tauroeis, cites a passage from the Greek geographer Artemidorus (c. 100 BC) to the effect that the colonists of Tauroeis (a town near Marseilles) gave their new settlement that name because the ship that brought them there was taurophoros, in other words, had the figurehead of a bull (tauros). For the text of the passage see Torr, 1964: 65, note 148 (where, in one of his rare errors, Torr gives Stephanus’ source as ‘Apollodoros’). Though the statement is a fanciful bit of folk-etymology, it may well reflect the fact that ships with such a figurehead did exist. See, for example, Morrison and Williams, 1968: pls 10d, 15a–b, 16d, 17a,c,e, 18a,d. Cf. Casson, 1995: 235–36. See, e.g., Basch, 1987: 120 pls 234–35, 448 pl. 984, 484 pl. 1098. Sail raised: Casson, 1995: pls. 142–45, 147, 149, 154, 156. Furled to yard, pls 144 (ship to right), 148, 150. Basch, 1987: 482,. pl. 1094. Greek and Roman sailors commonly were naked and the officers clothed; see Casson, 1995: 320–21. In an Egyptian tomb-painting of c. 1400 BC that pictures a Levantine merchantman, the deckhands wear loin cloths while the skipper has a full-length robe; see Casson, 1994: pl. 31. Cf. Parker, 1992: 232.
References Basch, L., 1987, Le Musée Imaginaire de la Marine Antique. Athens. Casson, L., 1991, The Ancient Mariners. 2nd edition, Princeton. Casson, L., 1994, Ships and Seafaring in Ancient Times. London. Casson, L., 1995, Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World. 3rd edition, Baltimore. Morrison, J. and Williams, R., 1968, Greek Oared Ships 900–322 BC. Cambridge. Parker, A., 1992, Ancient Shipwrecks of the Mediterranean & the Roman Provinces. BAR Int Ser 580. Oxford. Torr., C., 1964, Ancient Ships. 2nd edition, Chicago. [1st edition, Cambridge, 1895] Wachsmann, S. 1996, Bird-head devices on Mediterranean ships. In Tzalas H. (Ed.), Tropis IV, 4th International Symposium on Ship Construction in Antiquity, Proceedings, Athens 1991: 539–572. Athens.
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