IRON AGE BOATS
Moderated by
Jeff Bennett
Our current history leads us to believe that the combatants of the Peloponnesian Wars arrived on their fighting decked ships with inborn genetic knowledge of shipbuilding. But there were millenniums of water craft development prior to the ìancientî ships we read about.
Most ancient, European ships of the Iron Age were designed for war. Those state of the art ships were the result of a long complicated development. They had one sail, banks of oars, iron rivets, upraised bows and sterns and, sometimes, battering rams. Some of those ancient ships are described in the following hyperlinks.
Celts (ref. 'The Gaullic War')
Phoenicians (ref. The 'Phoenicians'
With the exception of the Chinese Junk, these fighting ships appear to be simmilar. The relative nearness of the sailing cultures enabled the spread of innovative ideas. Warfate tested those ideas.
