A 60-foot-long reproduction of a Bronze Age boat—of a type that was in use more than 4,000 years ago—has successfully set sail.
The replica vessel departed from the coast of Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), covering a distance of 50 nautical miles in the Persian Gulf. With a crew of 20 people on board, it passed a number of rigorous tests over two days, reaching speeds of up to 5.6 knots.
The reconstructed “Magan” boat was designed and constructed by a multidisciplinary team of experts—including archaeologists and engineers—as part of a project led by Abu Dhabi’s planned Zayed National Museum, in collaboration with Zayed University and New York University Abu Dhabi.
The goal of the experimental archaeology initiative, launched in 2021, is to shed light on how people in the region lived more than 4,000 years ago while also preserving the UAE’s maritime heritage.
© Zayed National Museum
The boat was built with raw materials described on an ancient clay tablet, while experts employed construction techniques dating back more than 4,000 years. The vessel’s design was based on ancient models, with a naval engineer determining an appropriate length, width and depth for the boat to ensure it would float while carrying cargo and crew.
“The smooth sailing of this reproduction of a 4,000-year-old Magan boat in the Arabian Gulf using materials known from ancient texts and archaeological evidence is a major milestone in the research program of Zayed National Museum,” Peter Magee, director of the museum, told Newsweek.
“It is the culmination of years of research and collaboration with our partners, Zayed University and New York University Abu Dhabi, which will create new knowledge of maritime navigation and ancient trade routes. It’s an incredibly proud moment for us,” he said.
“We designed the ship using a combination of textual, iconographic and archaeological evidence from the region,” Magee continued. “This includes an ancient clay tablet from Iraq listing a large quantity of materials, likely used as a shopping list for an active shipyard building. The shape of the vessel is based on ancient clay models found in Iraq.”
Shipbuilders specializing in historical replicas worked closely with researchers to construct the boat using traditional hand tools and the raw materials described in the ancient clay tablet—which dates back to 2100 B.C.—such as goat hair for the sail and palm reeds for the outer hull.
“The clay tablet was discovered in the ancient site of Tello, southern Iraq,” Magee said. “Written in Sumerian, one of the earliest known written languages, it depicts a shopping list of materials including four different types of wood, palm reeds, hides, goat hair, fish oil and bitumen.”
The team used 15 tons of locally sourced reeds to fashion the outer hull of the boat. These reeds were soaked, stripped of their leaves, crushed and tied into long bundles using date palm fiber rope.
The reed bundles were attached to an internal structure of wooden frames and coated in bitumen, a black solid or viscous liquid derived from crude oil. This waterproofing technique was used in the region in ancient times.
The latest reconstruction is the largest of its kind ever attempted, according to the project. In ancient texts, these types of vessels were known as Magan boats, which was also the name for an ancient region that now encompasses the UAE and a part of Oman. Magan boats were renowned for their design and maritime capabilities, enabling trade with locations as far away as Mesopotamia (an ancient region centered on modern-day Iraq) and South Asia.
The reconstructed boat is based on a type of vessel used during the Umm an-Nar period, a Bronze Age culture that existed around 2600 to 2000 B.C. in Magan, according to Magee.
“Ships of this size and strength revolutionized trade between Magan and communities in Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley, allowing the passage of goods such as copper, semiprecious stones and textiles,” Magee said.
The boat is safely stored in a purpose-built hangar. Visitors will have the opportunity to see it on display when the Zayed National Museum opens on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi.
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