Passage I

The Min: A Ship from the Desert

[1]

In 2004, a team of archaeologists discovered the remains of an ancient shipyard. In a series of caves at a site named Wadi Gawasis in the Egypt’s desert. The team found a wealth of well-preserved planks, anchors, oars, and other sailing equipment. [A] These objects were determined to be approximately four thousand years old.

[2]

We have long known that ancient Egyptians sailed the freshwater Nile River. However, until Wadi Gawasis was excavated, there had been little evidence that we had also sailed the ocean. [B] Hieroglyphic inscriptions suggested that some of the excavated objects had been used in an expedition to the ancient Red Sea port of Punt, about one thousand miles from Wadi Gawasis. Planks pocked with holes bored by shipworms, creatures that live only in salt water, supported the hypothesis that ancient Egyptians had ventured into the ocean.

[3]

Florida State University professor Cheryl Ward, a maritime archaeologist, drew up plans for building a ship like those the ancient Egyptians had sailed. The completed ship, sixty-six feet long and sixteen feet wide, would be named Min of the Desert in honor of the Egyptian god who’s likeness adorned many Wadi Gawasis artifacts.

[4]

Four shipbuilders constructed the Min by using many of the same tools, materials, and techniques, that the shipbuilders of Wadi Gawasis had used. [C] Like the ancient Egyptians, the modern builders used mortise-and-tenon joints, when the end of one plank is fitted into a slot in the adjoining plank. Ward compared building the Min to putting together a jigsaw puzzle because the two processes are analogous.

[5]

In December 2008, an international crew of twenty-four people made a weeklong ocean voyage in the Min to test: the ship’s seaworthiness. [D] During the voyage, the Min was able to sail roughly seven miles per hour, about twice as fast as Ward had expected.Though it was not always smooth sailing, Ward recalls almost colliding with a reef the Min was found to be more than adequate for a voyage to Punt.