The Ma'agan Michael Ship: The Recovery of a 2400-Year-Old Merchantman, vol. 1.

• Author: Monroe, Christopher
• Position: Book review

The Ma'agan Michael Ship: The Recovery of a 2400-Year-Old Merchantman. Final Report, vol. I. By ELISHA LINDER, YAACOV KAHANOV, ET AL. Jerusalem: ISRAEL EXPLORATION SOCIETY, 2003. Pp. xii + 256, illus. $72.

In the 1980s two sensational underwater finds were made in Israel: a small fishing boat in Lake Kinneret nicknamed "the Jesus Boat," and a bronze-encased warship's ram found in the surf near Athlit. Less attention was paid to the 1985 discovery of a small (13.5 meters long) merchant vessel that carried rocks from Greece to the Levant around 400 B.C.E., but its significance to nautical archaeology may surpass more heralded discoveries. The presence in Eastern Mediterranean waters of a hull built using laced cordage as well as mortise-and-tenon joints is a pivotal datum in maritime history. Individually authored chapters treating this discovery fall into six sections: discovery and excavation; a "landscape" section on geological, geographical, and historical context; the ship; ship's contents; laboratory analyses of organic matter; and conclusions and epilogue. Helpful glossaries abound, and only the laboratory analyses seem too jargon-filled for non-specialists. A clumsy citation format of endnotes and chapter-specific bibliographies is a minor annoyance. Pull-out site plans at the end let the reader check locations of various finds described in individual chapters.

Breitstein (pp. 8-23) describes the Haifa University team's excavation, which was hampered by rough surf on the shallow (2.5 meters) site. Uncovering a broad exposure proved impossible and forced adoption of a "focal plane" method to uncover, map, and remove the wreck in manageable sections. To do this, some of the unusually well preserved timbers were sawn (and unfortunately broken) apart. The over 8-meter-long keel, however, was removed intact in a custom-built container. With notable improvisation the site was completely excavated in 135 days during summer campaigns in 1987-90. As in other chapters, the color photography, illustration, and tables are engaging and instructive.

Mart and Friedman's sediment analysis (pp. 27-36) puts the wreck site in geological context, and Raban (pp. 37-44) shows through historical and archaeological analogies that most ancient ships were lost by running aground, explaining the ship's orientation perpendicular to shore. Linder (pp. 45-50) compiles ancient textual references to maritime matters, but mostly from periods anteceding the wreck by...