In recent years there have been a number of extraordinary discoveries of ships from the ancient world. In this fascinating programme, we investigate the techniques used in their construction, revealing what these finds say about the societies which created them.

One of the most stunning examples of an ancient ship is one discovered in Egypt in 1954. Found in a burial pit next to the tomb of King Khufu, it became known as the ‘Khufu Boat’. Buried in 2551 BC to help the great Pharaoh on his journey into the afterlife, it was forty three metres long and six metres wide.

Scholars were surprised by the quality of the preservation of the boat; the vessel served as a stunning example of ancient ship-building techniques. Its deck featured an enclosed cabin, a central canopy with five ceremonial oars on either side and a foredeck canopy. Amazingly, not one metal nail was used on the boat – its construction was based around sewing all the timbers together using fibre thread. When the craft entered the water, the planks would swell and the fibre ropes would tighten making it watertight. It was a superb piece of engineering.

The Egyptian Pharaohs buried many artefacts in their ceremonial chambers. In a rare find in Abydos in the desert near the Nile, fourteen large sailing vessels have been identified in a grave. Dating from 3000 B.C. and estimated to be between sixty and eighty feet long, portions of the boat’s hull revealed thick wooden planks, lashed together by rope fed through mortises. The seams between the planks were filled with bundles of reeds, while additional reeds carpeted the floor of the boat. Small traces of yellow paint have been found indicating these were probably Royal ships.

The ancient warship evolved from Greek fighting ships, which were initially fast-moving craft with banks of oarsmen. As the scale of sea battles increased, the ancient ship builders began building ‘super galleys’, which were constructed around multiple banks of oarsmen. The first of these ships appeared during the reign of Dionysus I of Sicily, and sources reveal that even siege engines were constructed on these super structures.

The largest oar-powered ships ever were built appeared during the reign of Ptolemy IV of Egypt in the second century BC. These super ships had a catamaran hull, with two hulls full of rowers and a large deck extending over both hulls like a modern aircraft carrier’s deck. The writer Athenaeus reports this ship was 420 feet long and 57 feet wide. The third level oars were 57 feet long. It carried 4000 rowers, 400 other crewmen, and 2850 marines. It was the largest warship the world would see until the twentieth century. Ancient Superships reveals more of the amazing ship-building techniques from Antiquity.