Researchers Recreate 8,000-Year-Old Reed Boat to Test Neolithic-Era Sailing Off Israel's Coast

Researchers at the University of Haifa have built and sailed a full-size reed boat using only materials and techniques available roughly 8,000 years ago, testing it off Israel's Carmel coast. The 4-metre vessel, built from about 1,600 reeds, was launched at Neve Yam beach, opposite the submerged remains of a Neolithic settlement from roughly the same era.

Over the past four decades, archaeologists led by Prof. Ehud Galili of the University of Haifa have found dozens of Neolithic settlement sites along the Carmel coast, dating from roughly 10,000 to 7,000 years ago and now lying 2 to 12 metres below sea level, submerged as sea levels rose after the last Ice Age. Fishhooks, fishing-net weights and fish bones found there show people sailed into deeper waters to fish, said Prof. David Friesem of the university's School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures; some even reached and settled Cyprus. No Neolithic watercraft remains have ever been found anywhere in the eastern Mediterranean.

To work out what vessel coastal communities could have built, master's student Shay Niv studied evidence of early watercraft from across the Old World, including literary descriptions, reliefs, paintings and clay models. The team reconstructed the ancient Carmel coastline and compared it with traditional societies in similar coastal environments, pointing to a reed boat as the most plausible craft available.

Before building the full-size vessel, the team tested a smaller model for buoyancy and sailing capability, led by Prof. Deborah Cvikel, since researchers do not know whether sail technology was already in use in the region then. The reeds were harvested, dried, cleaned and bound into bundles tied in intersecting patterns, using diagonal tension for stability.

The reed boat remained stable during its launch and carried Niv and his equipment, demonstrating it could function as a seaworthy vessel. Friesem said the successful test does not prove Neolithic watercraft looked exactly like the reconstruction, but shows a reed boat represents an optimal use of the natural resources available in the coastal environment.