Ship Timber as Symbol? Dendro-provenancing & Contextualizing Ancient Cedar Ship Remains in the Eastern Mediterranean.

This research follows a distinct path to the determination and contextualization of ship timber provenance, namely the path of a piece of cedar wood from the forest to the ship, to the archaeological record, and its provenance back to the original forest. It is often assumed that cedar wood originated in the Lebanon, but these results demonstrate that 1) cedar (Cedrus sp.) forests in Cyprus and Syria were also accessed for shipbuilding, and 2) in two of the three ships examined here, selection of wood from certain forests had religious implications, suggesting that cedar ship timbers may have symbolized certain deities or sacred concepts. Strontium isotopic analyses (86Sr/87Sr) complement historical data to determine the source origins for archaeological cedar wood samples from Egyptian Pharaoh Senwosret III's buried Carnegie boat, hull wood from the famous Uluburun shipwreck (Turkey), and the ramming timber of the Athlit Ram from a wrecked trireme (Israel). Non-nautical wood has also been examined, including timbers from the ziggurat of Nabonidus in Ur (Iraq), beams from Al-Aqsa Mosque (Israel), and a Saite period sarcophagus from the Nicholson Museum in Sydney (Australia), and these are included in an appendix. Provenances were determined by creating a data set of strontium isotopic ratios for living cedar forests in the Eastern Mediterranean, then matching the measured values of archaeological wood ( unknowns ) to those from the modern forests ( knowns ). In addition to determining provenance using geochemical methods, conclusions are also reliant upon the numerous historical records relating to cedar use in antiquity that serve to elucidate the numerical values and to contextualize them according to time period and culture. The findings presented here are extremely important to the future of archaeological science, and they are also relevant for redefining the ancient timber trade and shipbuilding processes. The results have demonstrated that strontium isotopes can be used to provenance archaeological cedar wood, which was used liberally in elite constructions throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East. One of the other most intriguing discoveries presented here is that the provenance of ancient ship wood during the Bronze Age is directly related to how the ancients perceived cedar forests and ships made from them as sacred. Other studies have discussed the role of religion in ancient seafaring, but this is the first to explore the role of religion in shipbuilding. By contextualizing the numerical values within the realms of history, mythology and ritual, this dissertation also attempts to confront the disparity between studies of science and those of religion.CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Provenancing and Interpreting Ancient Cedar Ships & Wood 1 CHAPTER 2: THE TREES Cedar Forests & Timber, Ancient Usage & Significance 13 Introduction: Egypt & the Hunger for Everlasting Life 13 The Levant: The Canaanites, Their Contemporaries & Their Sacred Cedars 23 Anatolia: From Gilgameš to Cleopatra 42 Cyprus: Outpost of the Ancient World 53 Conclusions: The Venerated & Vendible “Pure Mountain” 59 CHAPTER 3: THE SHIPS Cedar Ships as Symbols: Mortuary, Mercantile, Military (& Ministerial?) Introduction: Wind, Waves & Whimsy 63 Egyptian Mortuary Barques: Birth, Death, Dismemberment & Rebirth 65 Predynastic 65 Early Dynastic & Old Kingdom 68 Middle Kingdom 73 Egyptian Ships as Symbols 77 Conclusions: Senwosret III & the Subjugation of Set 82 Canaanite & Alašiyan Merchantmen: “Coupling” onboard Seaborne Sanctuaries 85 Canaanite-Phoenician Seafaring & Shipbuilding Mythology 85 The Gelidonya 90 The Uluburun 95 Conclusions: Putting the “Ax” back in Axis Mundi 100 Ptolemaic-era Warships: Parasemon, Pilei & Prophecy 102 Archaeological Evidence for Warships 102 Symbols on the Ram 105 Conclusions on the Athlit Ram & Its Symbols 109 Conclusions: The Sacred Art of Shipbuilding 110 iv CHAPTER 4: WOOD & STONE Getting Down to the Roots, Literally: Provenancing Cedar Wood with Strontium Isotopic Analysis 113 Background on Provenance: Relevance and Techniques 113 Cedar Forests: Geology & Geography 121 The Levant 121 Turkey 124 Cyprus 126 From Field to Lab: Data Collection and Tree-Ring & 87Sr/86Sr Analyses 130 87Sr/86Sr Results for the Forests 135 Forest Wood Summary 150 Using 87Sr/86Sr Ratios to Provenance Timbers from Three Ancient Cedar Ships 152 The Carnegie Boat 152 The Uluburun 154 The Athlit Ram 156 Ancient Cedar Ship Timber Results Summary 159 CHAPTER 5: THE CONTEXTUALIZATION Cedar Ship Timbers as Symbols? 161 Introduction: From Tree to Ship and back to Wood 161 Senwosret III's “Carnegie” Boat (Egypt) & Horsh-Ehden 164 The Uluburun (Coastal Turkey) & Syrian Coastal Range 169 The Athlit Ram (Coastal Israel) & Troodos 174 Conclusions: Practical and Religious Considerations in Building an Ancient Cedar Ship 178 IN SUMMARY 181 APPENDIX 87Sr/86Sr Results of Cedar Wood Samples from a Non-Nautical Context 187 Al-Aqsa Mosque (Jerusalem, Israel) 187 Ziggurat of Nabonidus (Ur, Iraq) 191 Saite Period Sarcophagus (Saqqara, Egypt) 193 REFERENCES CITED 197 Classical & Biblical Sources Cited 219nrpages: 232status: publishe