ANCIENT MARINERS
IT is not generally known how great were the voyages undertaken by people in ancient times, for the emphasis has been on voyages like those of Marco Polo and Columbus, which were comparatively late in the history of seafaring. In fact, mankind has been undertaking long hazardous voyages by sea for millennia, and travel by sea was for centuries the fastest way to travel.
The length of the voyages and the unknown hazards did not deter our ancestors from setting out into the great unknown. They were brave and adventurous to an extent which few people exhibit nowadays, and those who undertake such journeys still make the front page news, even though there are so few unexplored places left on this planet.
Ancient peoples settled in lands far away from their origins, covering distances which we should consider an undertaking even in this age of sophisticated transport by air, by sea and by land. A seven hour flight by jetliner to the United States, for instance, is still a big adventure for many, not to be undertaken lightly, or without a great deal of thought and preparation. Imagine what it was like for the Pilgrim Fathers, tossing on the vast Atlantic for months before they reached their promised land. Thousands of years ago, however, ancient peoples ventured in open boats to explore and colonise all around the Mediterranean and cast themselves upon the dangerous Atlantic ocean.
Britain has been a seafaring nation for centuries, but history is taught in such a way nowadays that we are given the impression that King Alfred was the first person to make us into a nation of mariners. True, he did organise the first navy in this country, but people had been coming to these islands for millennia, and as we are island dwellers, it is obvious that the early settlers had to come by sea. It is believed that the English Channel dates from 10,000 BC. The popular idea is that the early colonists only had coracles and frail boats, which is on a par with the “painted savages” story of the early Britons. These ideas are fallacies which are not backed up by historical records, or recent archaeological discoveries, and our race had ocean going ships from very early times.
A recent television programme, The Viking Saga, thoroughly explored the voyages of the Vikings, and the reconstruction of their ships, of which examples have been found in Scandinavian countries, and in Normandy, France. These voyages date from the middle of the first millennium AD, but the researchers are suitably impressed with the scope of the journeys and the sturdy construction of the ships, which held up to 100 men and horses, (presumably with large amounts of provisions for both). The researchers have found evidence for Atlantic voyages from Europe to Iceland, Greenland, Labrador and Newfoundland, and on the coasts of eastern Canada and America. They are very impressed with these facts, which prove to them that men were capable of navigating great distances in dangerous waters at a very early date; but the fact is that there is ample evidence for wide ranging exploration and trading by sea from a far earlier date than the centuries after Christ.
There is a wealth of historical material available on this subject, which cannot be covered comprehensively in a short space, but we hope to give enough examples to encourage interested readers to investigate further.
SEAFARING IN ANCIENT TIMES
Seafaring may be as ancient as 5,000 years old, for the Egyptians traded with other nations by sea, and all the nations of the “Fertile Crescent” area, which had outlets to the sea, certainly had ships which navigated around the shores of the Mediterranean at a very early date. It has even been suggested that ships sailed the Atlantic to the Americas from about 5,000 BC. This has been inferred from carbon datings of findings in Labrador and New England, which correspond with the archaeological remains of people in Norway of a similar date; thus mankind has cast himself upon the waters for many millennia. Certainly we know that the Shemitic people had ships and traded with places as far away as the British Isles from about 3,000 BC.
The eastern area bordering the Mediterranean Sea has been called the “cradle of civilisation”, and civilised societies grew up in the area of the “Fertile Crescent”, which corresponds to today’s Middle East. A recent television series postulated that until the Great Flood, caused by the meltdown of the last Ice Age, the present Black Sea was a large fertile valley, which became flooded when the Mediterranean broke through the present Dardanelles and flooded the valley civilisation. The people who survived moved to the higher ground around the shores of the Black Sea, and from thence they spread out into Europe, Asia Minor and Palestine, and that this coincided with the rise of civilisations in present day Iraq and Iran.
The Mediterranean is almost an inland sea, because it is only 8 miles wide at the Straits of Gibraltar, (known in ancient times as The Pillars of Hercules). The Mediterranean is no stranger to severe storms, in fact, an American circumnavigator said that the winter storms which he encountered between Crete and Malta were worse than anything he had seen in the Atlantic, Pacific or Indian oceans. Those who navigated its waters would have to be bold and adventurous as well as skilled. Such people would dare to venture through the Straits into the Atlantic. Not all would hug the coasts, for they struck out to discover the Canary Islands which they knew as the Fortunate Islands, and went northwards to Britain to trade in tin, which was necessary in the Bronze Age, bronze being an alloy of copper and tin. The ships necessary for such voyages were not cockleshells!
THE EGYPTIANS
As has been mentioned before, the Egyptians, whose civilisation dates from before 3,000 BC., had ships with which they traded with neighbouring nations; they paddled their ships facing forward, and may have invented the sail, because the prevailing winds on the Nile blow in the opposite direction to the current, enabling them to sail up and down the river with far less effort. They had only one sail and it was square, rigged at right angles to the hull. The ships were steered by a large oar near the stern. An innovation was seating the rowers with oars facing the stern, whereas the men who used paddles faced the prow. The Egyptians may not have confined their voyages to coast hugging trading expeditions, but in the earliest times this was probably the case. In later years they may have joined with the Phoenicians and Israelites who were the great traders of the BC era.
THE MINOANS
The Minoans of Crete, whose civilisation is almost as old as the Egyptian, also had seagoing vessels and conducted a busy trade with the Aegean islands and Egypt. In Crete, at the wonderful palace of Minos at Knossos, there is a landing jetty incorporated into the fabric of the palace. Obviously, in those days, Knossos was nearer to the coast than it is nowadays.
These ancient mariners navigated by the sun and stars, and by dead reckoning, which gave a rough estimate of the vessel’s speed, course and drift. It is amazing how much they achieved without all our modern aids to navigation and our extensive charts and maps.
The Bible mentions settlements in Javan (the Aegean) early on in Genesis:
“And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.” – Genesis 10:4-5
THE PHOENICIANS
Over 2,500 years ago the Phoenicians sailed the Mediterranean and southwestern European ports. They were the foremost among the ancient merchants. They were Semitic, or Shemitic people, that is, they claimed descent from Shem. Although they later became very mixed with the descendants of Ham, such as the Canaanites, they had a high proportion of fair skinned, fair haired Shemitic peoples, from whom Abraham and his family came. When Israel later settled in the Promised Land, many Israelites, mostly from the tribes of Dan and Zebulon, joined with them in their seafaring enterprises. In this way the forerunners of the later Israelitish migrations reached the British Isles, and they had settlements in Spain and Portugal.
The people who built the megaliths across Europe and into the British Isles left gold necklaces wherever they went. They also had amber cups with handles. One beautiful example was found at Hove in Sussex, and another at Clandon in Dorset. These were products of the Baltic-Irish trade.
By 1,000 BC the Phoenicians had become the master mariners of the ancient world. They built sophisticated ships with sternpost and ribs that reinforced the planks of the hull. The planks were fitted edge to edge, that is, they were not clinker built, and closely resembled modern construction, employing mortise and tenon joints.
Homer, who dated from the sixth or seventh century BC, wrote of Odysseus (Ulysses) building a boat by boring the timbers with an auger and fastening them with wooden dowels. From this it may be seen that boat building was well advanced prior to the AD era. Indeed, Noah had to have extensive boat building skills to construct the Ark, which some authorities have calculated to have been of similar size to a modern ocean going ship.
TARSHISH
By the eighth century BC the trade with Britain and Spain and Portugal was well established. The Bible refers to the “ships of Tarshish”:
I Kings 10:21-22 – “… in the days of Solomon………For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy of Hiram: once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.”
I Kings 22:48 – “Jehoshaphat made ships of Tharshish to go to Ophir for gold: but they went not; for the ships were broken at Eziongeber.”
This port has been excavated, as the Tell-el- Kheleifeh. A flourishing copper mine was discovered, and the town appears to have been highly industrialised, as a blast furnace was discovered. From here the copper would have been exported, and the bronze which was so important in that time.
Jeremiah 10:9 – “Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of cunning men.”
Ezekiel 27:12 – “Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs.”
Ezekiel 27:25 – “The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market: and thou wast replenished, and made very glorious in the midst of the seas.”
Ezekiel 38:13 – “Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?”
Jonah 1:3 – “But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.”
Colonists from the areas now known as Palestine and Syria had settled near the mouth of the Guadalquivir in south western Spain, in what is now Andalusia. Their trade was in metals which the natives mined. (They were probably the ancestors of the Basques). During this time the Celts were also pushing into Spain, overrunning them by 500 BC. They were relatives of the former colonists, but this fact was not necessarily realised by them. A city was built, called Tartessos, in Greek. The script of their inscriptions, known as Tartessian, was very close to Phoenician.
The Bible tells us that the ships of Tarshish were the largest in the then known world, and they became synonymous with the idea of sea power. Coastal vessels were unable to cope with the sometimes fierce conditions of the open sea. In Bronze Age times sailors feared the east wind, in case it should blow them out into the Mediterranean, so they admired those whose ships were sturdy enough to venture even further afield to the famous “Tin Islands”. Besides the Biblical references to this ancient trade, there are several classical authorities who mention it.
The merchants of Tarshish were considered to be very rich, and to have acquired their wealth by trade with the products of Andalusia, for the Andalusians mined silver. Spanish archaeologists have studied the remains of the Tartessian culture. They consider that it was dominant in southern Spain. This means that there are few traces of the La Tene culture compared with the rest of Europe.
Tartessian inscriptions have been found in America, in New England. The most important was found at Mount Hope Bay, Bristol, Rhode Island. It depicted a Tartessian ship without sails, but with a steering oar, and the translation is believed to mean “Mariners of Tarshish this rock proclaims “. It cannot be accurately dated, but is believed to be from about 700 or 600 BC. Another inscription, this time in Ogham script has been found at Monhegan Island (off the coast of Maine). There is a flat topped islet which could have been used for loading and unloading ships. The inscription is in the ancient Goidelic language (Celtic or Gaelic). Thus it would appear that trade was extensively carried on in the late Bronze Age to an extent which only recently is becoming realised. An inscription in Phoenician has also been found in Brazil. The ancient mariners certainly travelled far and wide.
Correspondence has been found which was from King Hiram of Tyre (who supplied materials for Solomon’s Temple) to a king of Lavinia, which was Tuscany. The Etruscan script is decipherable by a knowledge of Phoenician, so it would appear that Etruria was another colony of these Phoenician/ Israelitish adventurers. The document deals with a shipment from Tyre to Italy.
There also exists a shipping contract between a Greek merchant, Makarios, and a skipper of Cadiz. Cadiz, originally Gades, was founded in about 1100 BC, and was an important port in the east-west trade. It is possible, once again, that Hebrews founded the city for one of the tribes of Israel was Gad.
The ancient Greeks recorded that the Phoenicians had closely guarded secrets of the source of their supplies of tin and amber, so it was obvious that they carried on a flourishing trade with the British Isles from very early times.
The same trade products appeared simultaneously in the Aegean, Moravia, Hungary, Spain, Brittany, Holland and Britain from about 1600 BC. Amber products were found in all these places, and as the source was the Baltic, it seems that it was traded from the ports as well as being brought by an overland route to the shores of the Mediterranean. Irish jewellery has been found at Gaza, (mentioned by Sir Flinders Petrie), and beads found in Egyptian and Aegean tombs, dating from 1400 BC; others found at Lachish, dating from 1200 BC, are exactly similar to beads found in Wiltshire.
The fall of Knossos, Crete was about 1400 BC. After this, the Mycenaean civilisation became dominant in the area. It had originally been an offshoot of the Minoan from Crete. It became the foremost civilisation of the Bronze Age. It was about this time that Israel left Egypt, and contact between Egypt and Crete ceased during the time of Amenhotep III. The story of Theseus and the Minotaur tells how the Mycenaeans overthrew the Minoans, so yet again legend proves to have a basis in fact. Gold mounted amber discs have been found in the late Minoan tomb of the Double Axes at Knossos, and these are also like those found in graves in Wessex. The double axe symbol is also found in Ireland, so we can tell from these finds how far afield the traders sailed.
The Palestinian ports traded with the Aegean (Javan) and Cyprus (Chittim). Deborah’s rebuke to Dan (Judges 5) dates to approximately 1300 BC. This information is given in C.F.C. Hawkes’ book The Prehistoric Foundations of Europe to the Mycenaean Age (Methuen & Co., London, 1940).
Before 530 BC the Greeks had made an exploratory voyage from their colony in the south of present day France. It was known as Massilia in those days, and is now still the thriving port of Marseilles. The expedition visited Tartessos, with which town they had exchanged trade since about 630 BC. There are fragments of an ancient manuscript known as the Massiliote Periplus which were quoted in a poem by Festus Avienus in the 4th century AD. It tells that the Tartessians went far north for their trade, perhaps as far as modern Brittany, and to two large islands even further north, known as Ierne (Ireland) and Albion (Britain). Some authorities think that the Phoenicians had discovered the south west of Britain long before, because of the importance of the import of tin. They had the secrets of the production of bronze, and they also imported amber, which came from the Baltic regions. Strabo, an ancient geographer of the first century AD wrote that the Phoenicians were very careful to guard their secrets, and even ran their vessels ashore if they suspected that they were being tailed by Roman ships.
PYTHEAS
A Greek mathematician, Pytheas (350-320 BC) undertook a long sea voyage to test his theory about the measurements of the earth. He set sail from Massilia and went through the Pillars of Hercules (The Straits of Gibraltar), following the Atlantic coast northwards to Brittany. He said that he crossed the Channel and landed in Britain, which he called the Pretanic Islands. He is then supposed to have sailed round the north of Scotland, and to have landed at the mouth of the Elbe. He found civilised people, engaged in farming, tin mining and fishing. His account was considered too fantastic to credit, but he has since been proved correct. He described the tides of the Pentland Firth, which are particularly high in springtime, and how the natives did their threshing in barns because of the dampness of the climate. Although his contemporaries and later scholars have dismissed his writings as imaginary, it is difficult to see how he could have given such accurate descriptions of the conditions in those northern areas if he had not been there. He was ridiculed, because most people believed that no one could go beyond the then known limits of the earth. Although his voyage was much later than that of the early Celt-Iberians, he proved that such voyages could have taken place in ancient times, and, indeed, must have done so, otherwise he would not have found inhabitants in his “Ultima Thule”. His original records have been lost, but fragments were quoted by other writers in order to ridicule his findings.
CARTHAGE
Carthage was a colony of Phoenicia, founded by Queen Dido, who brought many settlers with her from Tyre. Strabo, the Greek geographer and historian who was born about 63 BC, said that the enterprise prospered and that people went on to colonise Iberia (present day Spain and Portugal), making their settlements and city a rival to Rome. They fought three wars with the Romans, but they were defeated in the last one by Scipio Aemilianus, whose army wiped out the proud city. Another “Phoenician” was Cadmus, who, according to legend, founded Thebes in Egypt.
DAN
The popular belief is that all Phoenicians were Canaanites, but just because they lived in Canaan does not automatically mean that they were of the Canaanitish race. In fact, the area was originally settled by Shemites, the Amorites or “Westerners”, who were of the same race as Abraham. The Bible tells us that the Israelitish tribes who lived in juxtaposition with the Phoenicians had joined them in their seafaring enterprises. The prophetess, Deborah, castigated the tribe of Dan for “abiding in ships”, and the tribe of Zebulun were also known as seafarers. The Phoenicians should therefore be considered as two peoples who co-operated in trade. In Solomon’s time the Israelitish ships were considered to be equal with those of Tyre and Sidon, and there is no doubt that Israelites lived in those cities.
Gladstone wrote a book called Juventus Mundi (The Youth of the World), and he traced the origin of the name of the Danaoi of Greece to 200 years before the Trojan war, or about 1300 BC. He postulated that the original tribe of Danaans may have been of Egyptian origin, stemming from Danaos. It would therefore seem that the tribe of Dan had set off on its seafaring whilst Israel was still in Egypt.
We may guess that Israelitish pioneers, wearying of the oppression of their race after a “Pharaoh arose who knew not Joseph”, had set sail to establish colonies in the Greek Islands and the Greek mainland. Members of the tribe of Dan must have been prominent amongst these adventurers, because the names “Danoi” and “Danaan” are significant. Moses’ blessing to Dan mentioned that he would “leap from Bashan”, which was in the north of Palestine, where Dan had territory allocated. Dan was the largest of the tribes to enter Israel, and they overflowed their territory early on. Their outlet to the sea was at Joppa (now Jaffa), and this port handled trade from Tarshish.
DANITE SETTLERS IN GREECE
Hecaetus, an ancient Greek writer is said to have written that the Egyptians expelled aliens from their country when they began to be troubled by plagues, and that amongst these people who took to their ships were the leaders, Danaus and Cadmus, who took their people to settle in Greece. Ancient Greek legends told that Greece was colonised from the south and east. Diodorus of Sicily (c. 50 BC) said that those who left Egypt with Danaus settled in Argos, and that Athens was colonised from Egypt. Herodotus stated that Cadmus came from Tyre, which was close to northern Dan. Asher, Zebulun and Dan, had ports between Tyre and Ascalon. Dan appears as a root of many names of the ancient Greeks and their leaders, for instance, Danaus, Danae, Danaans, Danoi and Danaids. The name also appears in Irish traditions as Tuatha de Danaan.
Rameses III recorded that a collection of marauding peoples, including the Danauna and Pulesti (Philistines) attacked Egypt in about 1200 BC, which was in the time of Joshua and the Judges.
The legend of Heracles has parallels with the story of Samson. Historians, with their inverted reasoning, would probably surmise that the Israelites had copied the tale from the Greeks, just as they maintain that the Flood story is a corruption of the Babylonian myth of Gilgamesh, but we prefer to believe that the Babylonian tradition is a corruption of the true Flood story handed down through the Shemitic race.
A Phoenician historian, Sanchoniathon, who was said to have lived before the Trojan War, suggested that the Greek and Phoenician gods were based on ancestor worship and were of Hebrew origin. He said that Kronos (Saturn) had a son Ieoud, which is very similar to Judah. This would make Kronos the equivalent of Jacob/Israel. This is feasible as the Northern tribes of Israel were renowned as seafarers. (Judges 5)
The Dorians, the early colonisers of the Greek mainland, arrived by sea at about the time when the tribe of Dan and other Israelites were feeling territorial constriction. The Dorians were, according to Herodotus, descended from Dorus, the son of Hellen (hence the Hellenes), and the Lacedaemonians claimed descent from them. They were the Spartans, who claimed that their laws were brought from Crete by Lycurgus. Their seals carried the eagle and the serpent, which were Danite emblems. These are described as appearing over the armies at the siege of Troy. Much later in history in Maccabaean times (between the Old and New Testaments), Josephus reports that the Lacedaemonians wrote to the Jews and claimed descent from Israel, affixing the seal with the emblems to their letter.
The Minoans and early Greeks worshipped bulls (emblem of Ephraim), and this goes back to the early days in the Wilderness, while Moses was in the Mount receiving the Commandments. They set up a golden calf to worship, much to Moses’ anger on his return. The Israelites who went off colonising did not have Moses to keep them on the straight and narrow path of Jehovah worship. It was always a failing of the Northern House of Israel to slip easily into idolatry and heathenism.
AMERICAN SETTLEMENTS
Egyptian hieroglyphs have been found in America, notably in New England, which would be the first landfall of mariners who dared to cross the Atlantic; similarly Iberian-Punic inscriptions, (Punic = Phoenician) and Celtic Ogam and Libyan writing has been discovered. The ancient mariners of Shem were further ranging than historians have previously imagined. Basque script has also been found in New England, and the Ogam inscriptions have been deciphered by scholars with a knowledge of ancient Irish! Names in North East American Indian languages translate into ancient Irish, both in similarity of pronunciation and meaning. All these discoveries are exciting in that they extend our knowledge of the people of Shem, whose mission to colonise the world was ordained by God.
THE GATHERING AND SETTLEMENT OF THE DISPERSED PEOPLE
However, Israel sinned and had to be banished and fragmented during God’s Seven Times punishment. This lasted for 2,520 years; but God had not cast off the Northern House of Israel for ever, for there are many prophecies concerning the restoration and reuniting with the remnant of Judah in the Latter days. One of these prophecies is to be found in the prophet Hosea:
Hosea 1:9-10 – “Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.
Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.”
God had appointed a gathering place for all the people who had been taken into captivity, and then escaped to trek across Europe. He made a surprising promise to King David; at the time that it was given, Israel was settled and united in Palestine. God, however, knew how the tribes would split into two separate nations, the Northern and Southern Houses. They were both taken into captivity as a punishment for apostasy and idolatry.
The Southern House later returned in a much depleted state, to rebuild the land and Jerusalem, and to prepare for the coming of the Lord Jesus. This remnant became the Jews, but the bulk of Israel lost their name and spread out into Asia Minor and Europe, eventually settling in the British isles and the coastlands of western Europe, as God had promised David:
2 Samuel 7:10 – “Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime.”
From there they went out to the four corners of the earth, just as had been prophesied, taking the Gospel with them.
God promised to Abraham that his descendants would colonise large areas of the world:
Genesis 28:14 – “And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”
This promise has only been fulfilled by the descendants of Shem, and in particular, those of the line of Abraham, variously known as Hebrews, Israelites, Cymry, Celts, Britons, Angles, Saxons, Normans and all the other names under which they colonised and opened up the world so that the Gospel of the Kingdom could be taken to the uttermost parts of the earth. They have done this in blindness, not knowing their origins, and losing their name of Israel, as was prophesied by St Paul in Romans 11:25 –
“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.”
We eagerly await further researches by historians and archaeologists, for all the facts unearthed lead us to a greater knowledge of Bible history and confirm its accuracy. The researchers do not necessarily come to the correct conclusions about the meanings of their researches, and some of their conjectures seem very wide of the mark to those who believe that the Bible is a true record of history. It is the mission of all who have the key to understanding the Scriptures to collate their research and put it in its proper perspective, to the greater glory of God and for the instruction of His People Israel.
