Naval War College Review Volume 69 Article 15 Number 4 Autumn 2016 From The edM to The orW ld Patrick Hunt Follow this and additional works at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review Recommended Citation Hunt, Patrick (2016) "From The eM d to The orldW ," Naval War College Review: Vol. 69 : No. 4 , Article 15. Available at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol69/iss4/15 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Naval War College Review by an authorized editor of U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Hunt: From The Med to The World BOOK REVIEWS FROM THE MED TO THE WORLD Seagoing Ships and Seamanship in the Bronze Age Levant, by Shelley Wachsmann. College Station: Texas A&M Univ. Press, 2008. 448 pages. $40. Homeric Seafaring, by Samuel Mark. College Station: Texas A&M Univ. Press, 2009. 272 pages. $60. Byzantine Warship vs Arab Warship, 7th–11th Centuries, by Angus Konstam. Oxford, U.K.: Osprey, 2015. 80 pages. $18.95. These three books reviewed together are is the maritime archaeologist—now not an obvious historical match for each a professor for the institute at Texas other as comparable scholarly studies; A&M—whose research on the “Sea the only chronological thread linking of Galilee boat” conducted for the them is their coverage of an era extend- Israel Department of Antiquities and ing from the Bronze Age to the medieval Museums produced his earlier popular period—a considerable portion of the book of that name (New York: Perseus, maritime past. Yet all do focus, mostly, 2000) on a single two-thousand-year- on the eastern Mediterranean. old landlocked freshwater find. The first book, Seagoing Ships and This comprehensive tome published Seamanship in the Bronze Age Levant, is under the auspices of the institute exam- a monograph of the Institute of Nautical ines a wide swath of past Mediterranean Archaeology at Texas A&M University. cultures whose maritime activities The institute, founded by George Bass in led to their evolution as Bronze Age 1973, is the flagship for underwater and powers. This book explores economic maritime archaeology programs in the development, by way of Mediterranean United States; its publications reflect that Sea trade; how seaworthy ships were fact, as does its extensive global outreach built, down to the smallest details; and resulting from its finds of shipwrecks what technological advances made and other items relating to maritime possible voyages longer than mere coast- history covering the past ten thousand hugging itineraries. It also addresses years. how ships and states dealt with piracy As a world pioneer in nautical archaeol- and—extrapolating from epigraphic ogy, Bass also wrote the foreword to evidence—what kind of agreements the book. Author Shelley Wachsmann constituted Bronze Age maritime law. Published by U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons, 2016 1 NWC_Autumn2016Review.indb 159 9/15/16 12:47 PM 160 NAVAL WAR COLLEGENaval REVIEW War College Review, Vol. 69 [2016], No. 4, Art. 15 Although such a broadly themed of Homer in his famous “Catalogue approach makes difficult any organiza- of Ships” in Iliad 2. Yet if it were tional scheme for demarcating possibly limited to that epic, the work would overlapping domains, this excellent not add much to existing philological book is divided into two main sections studies across centuries of painstaking over seventeen chapters: (1) “The Ships: analysis. Author Samuel Mark begins Review of the Evidence,” covering by pointing out (p. 11) that Homer can Egyptian to Cypriotic, Aegean, Minoan, be a frustrating “siren song,” one to Sea Peoples, and Homeric beaked ships, which archaeologists and historians, as well as extant shipwreck archaeology; trained in data-mining purviews very and (2) “Aspects of Maritime Activity,” different from those of philologists and ranging from ship construction to types literary scholars, will apply competing of anchors, methods of propulsion hermeneutics. But Mark reminds us (e.g., sails, oars, or both), navigation, (p. 15) that a skilled storyteller such as trade, and law. These are followed by Homer (whoever the author behind that conclusions, appendices, endnotes, name might have been) “was careful glossaries, bibliography, and index. The to make his characters and events as ample illustrations (at least 450) in this lifelike as possible,” despite whatever book are rich: very few pages are bereft chronologically diverse oral redactions of images, up to the conclusions of changed the text along the way. This chapter 17. They include archaeological book also begins where the pioneer fieldwork photos of sites and artifacts, maritime historian Lionel Casson left illustrations, maps, drawings, site off in attempting to reconcile the textual plans, and reconstructions. There are with the archaeological details, although also tables containing texts and their not always weighting them equally. translations. One of the best results of Some of the perhaps surprising this monograph is the consideration of conclusions Mark contributes to the nearly every kind of possible historical available literature include that seafaring evidence for Bronze Age seafaring. For was a very common activity even in example, nearly every known Minoan agronomy-based societies, and that coast seal or ceramic shard with a ship image hugging can be more treacherous than is examined closely for information. open-sea sailing because of rocks, shoals, The same is true for the Medinet Habu and currents. (Think Strabo’s warning Sea Peoples reliefs in Egypt and the in Geography 8.6.20 about rounding exhaustive analyses of excavated ship Cape Malea off the Peloponnesus: anchors. Thus the book is a huge asset “When you double Cape Malea, forget for anyone studying maritime history of your home.”) Mark also concludes that the Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean. sea battles were more common than The second book, titled Homeric prior opinion allowed; that Homeric Seafaring, also published by the Institute ships were more for sailing than for of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M, rowing; and that the helmsman was a is much more specific to a defined time sailor’s best hope for a safe return. and place. The work is much indebted The alphabetic Greek glossary is very to a poetic yet historically rich body of useful, as is the textual index of all epic literary references, especially that passages on seafaring from at least https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol69/iss4/15 2 NWC_Autumn2016Review.indb 160 9/15/16 12:47 PM Hunt: From The Med to The World BOOK REVIEWS 161 thirty-five classical author sources Greek Taktika and the Naumachika in addition to Homer. This is even of Emperor Leo VI [r. AD 886–912] an enjoyable read for anyone ready or the Arabic Al-Adilla al-rasmiyya) for a different and fresh approach are covered here, from grappling with to traversing Homer’s “wine-dark grapnels, to boarding, to hand-to-hand seas” and other Greek epics as well combat, as well as the maneuverability as encounters with Herodotus and of both ships by sails, rudders, or oars. encyclopedists such as Theophrastus Very specific types of weaponry are and Pliny. It is well to remember that annotated: bows, cheirotoxobolistrae or rarely in ancient Greece could you be tzangrae (crossbows), catapults, ballista more than fifty miles from the sea. bolts, caltrops, pikes, corseques (trident The third and last book is Angus stave weapons), and—the most feared Konstam’s Byzantine Warship vs Arab of all—the unquenchable flaming oil Warship, 7th–11th Centuries. Osprey known as “Greek fire.” (Any of several Publishing in Oxford is the prime book Greek phrases [e.g., pyr thalassion, “sea source of past military histories. Lavish fire,” and pyr kolletikon, “sticky fire”] color illustrations are a constant in could convey the incendiary nature Osprey books (of which this reviewer of this substance forcefully expelled owns more than a dozen) and concise, from deck-mounted siphons.) clear texts are to be expected—and are Ultimately, both opposing forces used found here. Angus Konstam is a prolific nearly the same weaponry. Konstam author, with scores of published books, consulted artifactual material, historical mainly for Osprey, comparable to this documents, and extant manuscripts one. He is a former naval officer who is revealing many technical specifications also familiar with museum collections as for outfitting both Greek and Arab a curator, so his publishing template and ships, including design features, how understanding of resources for historical the combatants fought, and specific naval warfare are well established. battle outcomes for this fascinating This book is part of the Osprey Duel: single-subject book. We also should Engage the Enemy series, in which two credit Arab navigators who used the competing systems, generally enemy measured night stars, hundreds of which forces, are compared across multiple still retain names derived from Arabic. parameters. In the medieval Mediter- One quirky legacy of the Arabic side of ranean chronology of the post–late naval warfare comes to us in our English antique world, in which Rome is no word admiral, meaning sea commander, longer viable and Constantinople has from the later Moorish Arabic term replaced it, the two main fighting amir al-rahl, meaning something akin vessels under consideration are the to “ruler of outfitted [ships],” since Byzantine dromon and the Arab the word amir or emir already meant shalandi, which made up the bulk of the a type of leader or ruler functioning official navies of the opposing powers. as war commander. Our word admiral Shared or copied methods and tactics thus derives from this seminal time of naval engagement (according to when the Arabic naval command first contemporary treatises such as the came to be seen as distinct from a land general’s command during the rapid Published by U.S.