Sailing- How many people traveled in the past
Welcome, dear friend,
I would like to take back in time, looking at one of the oldest ways of traveling ( if you leave walking out), how people from many parts of the globe started traveling, creating their own great histories, and lastly history at large as we know it today.
Two of the oldest depictions of ships found in Egypt are estimated to be around 7000 years old. One was found in today’s Hierankonpolis, ancient Nekhen, a ship made from papyrus, with an elevated stern and a cabin-like construction on top.
The other one was found on an urn in Luxor displaying a ship with sails!
About 3300 BC people who lived there started to use floating boats and were adjusting to life by the river.
Old documents tell about the trade they did with the city Byblos in Lebanon about 4000 B.C. which proves they were already able back then to sail the ocean.
Talking about trade with Lebanon brings us to the ancient civilization of Phoenicia, consisting of Lebanon, Syria, and northern Israel, back in the day.
The Phoenicians are believed to have been active seafarers about 1500 B.C.
They were excellent sailors and builders of ships, allowing them to build a trading network from the Mediterranean to the eastern coast of Africa.
By using solar calendars and the development of an alphabet they made big contributions to the navigation of the sea.
Being this close to the Mediterranean we have to take a look at Greece, having been home to many great seafaring nations in the past.
The Greeks had established a network of city-states along the Aegean and Ionian seas. Seafaring was the best way to commerce and communication.
The Minoans were said to be the first Greeks to sail the sea at least around 1600 B.C.
Since the Greeks were not only good tradesmen, also enjoyed some good warfare and by doing so they made a massive contribution to navigation on the water, with the invention of the stern rudder allowing them better maneuverability. They would clash with the Romans one day….
The Roman’s seafaring capabilities were built on their engineering skills and military prowess. The beginning dated back to 509 – 27 B.C they started moving professionally on the water, controlling the waters of their territories stretching from Britain’s Atlantic coast to the north of Africa, from Mesopotamia in the east to Spain in the West.
The Romans expanded far eastwards, but not yet so far to our next Giant using the sail… Russia.
Russia’s seafaring history dates back to the early medieval period.
During the 9th to 12h century a federation in the north formed due to cultural developments, the Novgorod Republic
It did trade with Byzantine Empire and with the Baltic states.
The positioning at the crossroads of trade made it one of the most important states in northern Europe.
For now, our last stop will be at a great seafaring culture, having set sail back 2000 years BCE.doing their first migrations, none other than the Polynesians.
They were the first people to cross the vast pacific Ocean with their deep knowledge of the winds, the stars, and the currents.
Since their seafaring developed over centuries, they made a massive contribution to canoe-building and navigational tools.
They were able to travel thousands of miles, read the sun, and the stars, and watch and interpret birds correctly which makes them highly skilled people of the sea.
I was inspired to write about these people and cultures from ancient times, yet all still in some way present, due to their knowledge and skills about sailing, and their courage making them the ultimate travelers.
It is not for no reason, that so many old stories and myths center around seafaring, from Homer who presumably wrote about the Odysee until the present time “Pirates of the Caribbean”.