Towards a hermeneutics of Aegean Bronze Age ship imagery

`Writing the early history of shipbuilding in the Aegean area is primarily an exercise in creating a narrative from pictorial evidence'. Evidence for Bronze Age shipping rarely comes from actual wrecks and, although a small number have been uncovered, these are typically incomplete and difficult to interpret in general terms. Therefore we rely on piecing together information from other, primarily pictorial wall paintings, vases, sherds, sealstones and finger rings and ship models. This book not only contains a catalogue of 370 representations believed by various scholars to be ships, but includes a theoretical and interpretive analysis of this evidence and what it infers about the design and use of ships; the design of the bow and stern; modes of propulsion; hull morphology; bow-projections and warships; cult and ritual significance. Examples are taken from Crete, the Cycladic islands, the Peloponnese, the southern mainland and the Ionian islands.