Herodotus & the Baris Ship
A mere 2,469 years ago the infamous Greek historian, Herodotus, visited Egypt and wrote about the strangest ships he saw on his trip. He dedicated over twenty lines of Historia, one of the first narrative history books, to the description of these boats that he called ‘Bairs.’ But, until the 21st century, the existence of these strange ships was hotly disputed.
Strangely, Baris ships were constructed like, according to Herodotus, ‘brickwork’ that was then lined with papyrus with a rudder that went through a hole in the keel. Because of this construction, the boats can only sail if “there be a very fresh wind blowing, but are towed from the shore.” He continues and describes how the craft itself moves, “They have a door-shaped crate made of tamarisk wood and reed mats sewn together, and also a stone of about two talents weight bored with a hole.” As the crate floats in front of the boat, the stone grounds it from behind; together, these opposing forces keep the vessel moving swiftly on a straight course.”
It sounds a bit strange, doesn’t it? Why would the Egyptians build a ship that can only sail in very specific conditions and built in such a complicated way? So, you can see why historians went back and forth about this particular passage in Historia for centuries.
Enter Ship 17: Ship 17 was discovered by Franck Goddio and his team from the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology. The Institute came upon the ship during excavations in the Abū Qīr Bay near Alexandria, Egypt. Despite being underwater for over 2,000 years, it still holds enough of its structure (about 70%) to be analyzed. Although researchers hadn’t seen a ship like this before, it soon became clear that the strange Baris ship from Historia was...well, real.
According to the researchers, they believe that Ship 17 was a Baris ship, as described by Herodotus, and that it could even have been built in the same shipyard where he first witnessed them.
Why is this astonishing? Well, I think it just goes to show that no matter how long history holds onto secrets...eventually they will be discovered.
The above image shows a Dedication page for the Historiae by the Greek historian Herodotus, translated into Latin by Lorenzo Valla and edited by Antonio Mancinelli. Printed by Joannes and Gregorius de Gregoriis de Forlivio at Venice, 29 March 1494. Image courtesy of the General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.