On my field trip away from Ashkelon I visited a museum that has an ancient fishing boat. The boat is over 2000 years old! I was lucky enough to get to talk with the archaeologist, Jerome Hall, who has been studying the boat and restoring it. Jerome is a marine/underwater archaeologist and when I saw him he was looking at how the boat was made so that he can share what he knows with other archaeologists. Here is a video of him talking about the 2000 year old fishing boat.
The metal you see around the boat is not part of the original boat. This was created to display the boat in the museum. It makes it so all sides of the boat can be seen, even though people can't get too close to it.
Junior Archaeologist Assignment
Archaeologist Jerome said he is looking at mortise and tenon joints. In particular he is looking at the pegs that hold the joints together. Here is a picture of a mortar and tenon joint:
The skinner piece of wood is pushed through the opening and a wooden peg is pushed through the hole to hold the 2 pieces together. Can you look at objects in your house, like furniture and drawers, to see if you see any mortise and tenon joins? Does anything have wooden nails? If you have a boat at your home, look at how it is held together. Do you see wooden nails or mortise and tenon joints? Take pictures of what you see and I can post them on the blog (e-mail me at nmoos@cps.edu).
Question of the Day
Do you think if this boat were put on water now it would float? Why/why not?