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from the sounds-like-an-Agatha-Christie-title dept.
Submitted via IRC for takyon
Shipwreck on Nile vindicates Greek historian's account after 2,500 years
Nearly 2,500 years ago, Herodotus described an unusual type of river boat he saw along the Nile while visiting Egypt. Many archaeologists doubted the veracity of the description, because there wasn't any evidence such a ship ever existed. But Herodotus is getting some posthumous revenge, as the discovery of just such a ship has vindicated his account. The details appear in a new published monograph, Ship 17: a Baris from Thonis-Heracleion, by archaeologist and shipwreck specialist Alexander Belov.
[...] "It wasn't until we discovered this wreck that we realized Herodotus was right," director of Oxford University's Centre for Maritime Archaeology Damian Robinson told the Guardian. "Herodotus describes the boats as having long internal ribs. Nobody really knew what that meant... That structure's never been seen archaeologically before. Then we discovered this form of construction on this particular boat and it absolutely is what Herodotus has been saying. Here we have a completely unique form of construction, which is not seen anywhere else."
DOI: International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 2013. 10.1111/1095-9270.12030
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday April 02 2019, @05:37PM
Is it really so hard to believe that an ancient king who build gigantic monuments to himself was a brutal dictator?