Minoan Ship Reconstruction

Translation of a recent Greek newspaper article, provided by George Teriakidis.

Chania, Crete: After 3500 years, a Minoan ship will sail again in the Aegean and attempt to sail from Crete to Athens, recreating a classic journey of ancient times. The whole operation is undertaken with the co-operation of the Nautical Museum of Crete and a scientific team, which will study and recreate an authentic Minoan vessel, as it supposingly was at 1500 BC.

The announcement was made on Saturday, 3rd of February, the president of the Nautical Museum of Crete, retired admiral (NT excuse the titles I am not good at them!!!) Konstantinos Manioudakis and the head of the research team, captain Apostolos Kourtis.

The particular type of vessel is of great interest since it represents an excellent example of the construction method which is known as "islandic naval architecture school" (NT Naval Design School/Method of the Islands) which could be found in Bronze Age.The particular type of vessel became the basic tool for the expansion of the Minoan civilisation throughout the Mediterranean.

It is the second time that internationally such a project is undertaken, as fifteen years ago the Cyrenia Boat, was constructed (...)

Page created: 5 February 2001