16th International Symposium on Boat & Ship Archaeology

80 16 th International Symposium on Boat & Ship Archaeology Aleydis Van de Moortel University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA The Adoption of the sail in the Early Bronze Age Aegean (ca. 2500/2400 – 2200/2150 BCE) and its impact on later Minoan, Aeginetan and Mycenaean seafaring In this paper, the adoption of the sail in the Bronze Age Aegean will be considered within its broader historical context. It still is widely reported in the literature that the Minoans were the first people in the Aegean to adopt the sail, and that this happened towards the end of the Early Bronze Age. However, new evidence firmly places the appearance of the sail in this region several centuries earlier. Moreover, the earliest evidence for this new technology does not come from Crete but from islands in the Central Aegean, and there are strong indications that it was introduced by seafarers from the East Aegean. New studies also indicate that Minoan Crete adopted the sail later than previously thought. The earliest depictions of sailing technology on Crete date not to the Early Bronze Age but to an early phase of the Middle Bronze Age, ca. 1900 BCE. This paper will place the first adoption of the sail in the Aegean within the context of the expanding Anatolian Trade Network, which linked the Aegean with Mesopotamia and the East Mediterranean. It is proposed that this trade network may have brought sailing technology, and possibly new shipbuilding technology as well, first to the western Anatolian coast and its offshore islands, and then to other areas of the Aegean. These new maritime technologies would have a major impact on the history of the Aegean in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, as they facilitated the rise of Minoan, Aeginetan, and Mycenaean trade networks and control over the seas.