Boats, horses, and moorings: maritime activities at al-Balīd in the medieval period
Keywords:
al-Balīd, Medieval maritime trade, Indian Ocean watercraft, Maritime activities, Horse tradeAbstract
The importance of the medieval city of al-Balīd and its harbour was mentioned in many different sources, and mirrored by a large number of finds and pottery that confirm a primary role of the port as a pivotal hub in Indian Ocean trade during the pre-modern Islamic period (tenth–fifteenth century AD). This paper will examine maritime activities at al-Balīd from a different perspective, combining recent data from the study of ship timbers discovered at the site with the archaeological record, along with evidence of possible harbour facilities.
The study of the ship timbers has provided invaluable information about the technology, size, material, type, and function of the watercraft involved in the trade at al-Balīd. The reuse of these timbers in a terrestrial context also alludes to a variety of activities carried out at the site, such as boatbuilding, maintenance, repair, and salvaging. Collectively, this data yields useful insights into the relationship between the different vessels operating at al-Balīd and the structure of the site itself, mainly in connection with one of the most lucrative commercial activities at the port city — the trade of Arabian horses.
References
Agius D.A. 2002. In the wake of the dhow: The Arabian Gulf and Oman. (Second edition). Reading: Ithaca Press.
Agius D.A. 2007. Classic ships of Islam – From Mesopotamia to the Indian Ocean. Leiden/Boston: Brill.
Agius D.A. 2013. Ships that sailed the Red Sea in medieval and early modern Islam: Perception and reception. Pages 84–95 in V. Porter & L. Saif (eds), The Hajj: Collected essays. London: The British Museum.
Albuquerque A.D. 1875. The Commentaries of the Great Afonso Dalbuquerque, second Viceroy of India. London: Printed for the Hakluyt Society.
Alian M.A. 2006. In Memory of the Sambuq – Record of a way of life. Muscat: Muscat Printing Press.
Barker R. 1999. A pre-history of the dry-dock. The gates at Portsmouth, 1496. Archaeonautica 14: 317–322.
Belfioretti L. & Vosmer T. 2010. Al-Balīd ship timbers: Preliminary overview and comparisons. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 40: 111–118.
Blue L.K. 2006. Sewn boat timbers from the medieval Islamic port of Quseir al-Qadim on the Red Sea coast of Egypt. Pages 598–610 in L.K. Blue, F.M. Hocker & A. Englert (eds), Connected by the sea: Proceedings of the Tenth International Symposium on boat and ship archaeology, Roskilde. Oxford: Oxbow Books.
Blue L.K., Whitewright J. & Thomas R. 2011. Ships and ships’ fittings. Pages 179–209 in L.K. Blue & D. Peacock (eds), Myos Hormos-Quseir al-Qadim, Roman and Islamic ports on the Red Sea. ii. Finds from the excavation 1999–2003. (University of Southampton Series in Archaeology). (British Archaeological Reports S2286). Oxford: Archaeopress.
Bowen R.L.B. 1952. Primitive watercraft of Arabia. The American Neptune 12: 186–221.
Carter R. 2012. Watercraft. Pages 347–372 in D.T. Potts (ed.), A Companion to the archaeology of the ancient Near East. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.
Chittick N. 1980. Sewn boats in the western Indian Ocean, and a survival in Somalia. The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 9/4: 297–309.
Cooper J.P., Ghidoni A., Zazzaro C. & Ombrato L. 2020. Sewn boats in the Qatar Museums collection, Doha: Baggāras and kettuvallams as records of a western Indian Ocean technological tradition. The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 44/3: 371–405.
Cortesão A. 1944. The Suma Oriental of Tomé Pires and the Book of Francisco Rodrigues. ii. London: Hakluyt Society.
Deloche J. 2009. Stable-ships of Tiruppudaimarudur and Tirukkurunkudi (South India). Indian Journal of History of Science 44/4: 551–567.
Facey W. 2005. Oman, a seafaring nation. (3rd edition). Sultanate of Oman: Ministry of National Heritage and Culture.
First Regional Office of Fine Arts. 2016. Study of the Phanom-Surin shipwreck. Ratchaburi: Fine Arts Department, Thailand.
Flecker M. 2000. A 9th‐century Arab or Indian shipwreck in Indonesian waters. The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 29/2: 199–217.
Flecker M. 2010. A Ninth-century Arab shipwreck in Indonesia. Pages 101–119 in R. Krahl, J. Guy, J. Raby & J.K. Wilson (eds), Shipwrecked. Tang treasures and Monsoon winds. Washington, DC: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.
Ghidoni A. 2019. Building Pâris’ Beden Seyad: A replica of the Omani 19th‐century sewn fishing vessel. The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 48/2: 360–376.
Ghidoni A. 2021. Sewn-plank construction techniques in the western Indian Ocean: Evidence from the timbers of Al Baleed, Oman. Pages 225–231 in G. Boetto, P. Pomey & P. Poveda (eds), Open sea, closed sea: Local and inter-regional traditions in shipbuilding. Proceeding of the Fifteenth International Symposium on boat and ship archaeology, Marseilles. Paris: CNRS Editions.
Hornell J. 1941. The Sea-going mtepe and dáu of the Lamu archipelago. The Mariner’s Mirror 27/1: 54–68.
Hornell J. 1942. A tentative classification of Arab sea-craft. The Mariner’s Mirror 28/1: 11–40.
Hornell J. 1943. The Fishing and coastal craft of Ceylon. The Mariner’s Mirror 29/1: 40–53.
Ibn Baṭṭūṭa/trans. and selected H.A.R. Gibb. 1929. Travels in Asia and Africa 1325–1354. London: George Routledge & Sons Limited.
Ibn Baṭṭūṭa/trans. H.A.R. Gibb. 1962. (with revision and notes based on the Arabic text edition of C. Defrémery & B.R. Sanguinetti). The Travels of Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, A.D. 1325–1354. ii. Cambridge: Published for the Hakluyt Society at the University Press.
Jansen M. 2015 (ed.). The Archaeological park of Al-Baleed, Sultanate of Oman. Site atlas along with selected technical reports 1995–2001. Muscat: Office of the Adviser to His Majesty the Sultan for Cultural Affairs.
Jewell J.H.A. 1976. Dhows at Mombasa. Nairobi: East African Publishing House.
Jumprom J. 2014. The Phanom Surin shipwreck: New discovery of an Arab-style shipwreck in central Thailand. Pages 1–14 in P. Thammapreechakorn (ed.), Southeast Asian Ceramics Museum Newsletter 8.
Jumprom J. 2019. Recovery of a lost Arab-styled ship at Phanom-Surin, the wetland excavation on site in central Thailand. Pages 226–247 in S.A & W. Giessler (eds), Ancient maritime cross-cultural exchanges. Bangkok: Fine Arts Department.
Kapitän G. 1994. Stone-shank anchors of the Arab-Indian trade period. Were they mooring anchors? The Bulletin of the Australian Institute for Maritime Archaeology 18/2: 1–6.
Kentley E. 1985. Some aspects of the Masula surf boat. Pages 303–318 in S. McGrail & E. Kentley (eds), Sewn plank boats: Archaeological and ethnographic papers based on those presented to a conference at Greenwich in November, 1984. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports Series 276.
Kentley E. 2003. The Madel Paruwa of Sri Lanka – A sewn boat with chine strakes. Pages 167–183 in S. McGrail (ed.), Boats of South Asia. New York: Routledge-Curzon.
Kentley E. & Gunaratne R. 1987. The Madel Paruwa – a sewn boat with chine strakes. The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 16/1: 35–48.
Lewis A. 1973. Maritime skills in the Indian Ocean 1368–1500. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 16: 238–264.
Li G-Q. 1989. Archaeological evidence for the use ‘Chu-nam’ on the 13th century Quanzhou ship, Fujian Province, China. The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 18/4: 277–283.
Lydekker C.J. 1919. The ‘mtepe’ dhau of the Bajun Islands. Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 19: 88–92.
Manguin P-Y. 2012. Asian ship-building traditions in the Indian Ocean at the dawn of European expansion. Pages 597–629 in O. Prakash (ed.), The Trading world of the Indian Ocean, 1500–1800. Delhi: Pearson Education and Center for Studies in Civilizations.
Moreland W.H. 1939. The Ships of the Arabian Sea about A.D. 1500. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 1: 63–74, 173–192.
Newton L. & Zarins J. 2010. Preliminary results of the Dhofar archaeological survey. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 40: 247–265.
Newton L. & Zarins J. 2017. Dhofar through the Ages: An ecological, archaeological and historical landscape. Sultanate of Oman: Ministry of Heritage and Culture.
Pâris E-F. 1843. Essai sur la construction navale des peuples extra-européens ou collection des navires et pirogues. Paris: Arthus Bertrand.
Pavan A. 2021. Al-Balīd nel periodo pre-abbaside: La fondazione e le più antiche evidenze archeologiche. Paper presented at the Round-Table ‘Il sito di al-Balīd (Dhofar, Oman). Le indagini archeologiche tra passato e futuro’. Online event, 18th June 2018. [Unpublished paper.]
Pavan A., Fusaro A., Visconti C., Ghidoni A. & Annucci A. 2018. Archaeological works at the fortified castle of Al Baleed (Husn Al Baleed), southern Oman: Preliminary results from the fieldwork and the study of the materials. EVO 41: 211–234.
Pavan A., Fusaro A., Visconti C., Ghidoni A. & Annucci A. 2020. New researches at the port of Al Balid and its castle (Husn): Interim report (2016–2018). The Journal of Oman Studies 21: 172–199.
Prados E. 1996. Traditional fishing craft of the Tihamah and southwestern Arabian Coast. The American Neptune 56/2: 89–115.
Prins A.H.J. 1982. The Mtepe of Lamu, Mombasa and the Zanzibar Sea. Paideuma 28: 85–100.
Prins A.H.J. 1986. A Handbook of sewn boats. Greenwich, London: Trustees of the National Maritime Museum.
Ravenstein E.G. (ed.). 1898. A Journal of the first voyage of Vasco da Gama, 1497–1499. London: Hakluyt Society.
Shaikh Z.A., Tripati S. & Shinde V. 2012. A Study of the sewn-plank boats of Goa, India. The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 41/1: 148–157.
Smith G.R. 1985. Ibn Al-Mujāwir on Dhofar and Socotra. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 15: 79–92.
Stanley H.E.J. (trans.). 1869. The Three voyages of Vasco da Gama, and his Viceroyalty. From the Lendas da India of Gaspar Correa. London: Hakluyt Society.
Staples E. 2013. An experiment in Arab navigation: The Jewel of Muscat passage. Pages 47–60 in A.R. Constable (ed.), The Principles of Arab navigation. London: Arabian Publishing.
Staples E. 2019. Sewn‐plank reconstructions of Oman: Construction and documentation. The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 48/2: 314–334.
Varadarajan L. 1998. Sewn boats of Lakshadweep. Singapore: National Institute of Oceanography.
Vosmer T. 1997. Indigenous fishing craft of Oman. The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 26/3: 217–235.
Vosmer T. 1999. Indo-Arabian stone anchors in the western Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 10: 248–263.
Vosmer T. 2007. The Development of maritime technology in the Arabian Gulf and western Indian Ocean, with special reference to Oman. PhD thesis, Curtin University of Technology. [Unpublished.]
Vosmer T. 2010. The Jewel of Muscat. Reconstructing a ninth-century sewn-plank boat. Pages 120–135 in
R. Krahl, J. Guy, J. Raby & J.K. Wilson (eds), Shipwrecked. Tang treasures and Monsoon winds. Washington, DC: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institute.
Vosmer T. 2017. The Development of boatbuilding technologies and typologies. Pages 183–220 in A. Al-Salimi & E. Staples (eds), Oman: A maritime history. Hildesheim/New York: Georg Olms.
Vosmer T. 2019. Sewn boats in Oman and the Indian Ocean. The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 48/2: 302–313.
Vosmer T., Staples E., Belfioretti L. & Ghidoni A. 2011. The Jewel of Muscat Project: Reconstructing an early ninth-century CE shipwreck. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 41: 411–424.
Weismann N., Dziamski P. & Haar L. 2019. The Kambārī in the Museum of the Frankincense Land, Salalah, Oman. The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 48/2: 342–359.
Yule H. 1871. The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian: Concerning the kingdoms and marvels of the East. London: John Murray.
Zarins J. & Newton L. 2017. Northern Indian Ocean Islamic seaports and the interior of the Arabian Peninsula. Pages 57–88 in A. Al-Salimi & E. Staples (eds), The Ports of Oman. Studies on Ibadism and Oman. Hildesheim/New York: Georg Olms.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Archaeopress Publishing, Oxford, UK
