56
3 The Oceanographic Context
Islanders to become international maritime traders at a time before Phoenician and
Indian maritime traders had taken control of the coastal sea route from the Middle
East to Island Southeast Asia. In the earlier period the source of the Moluccan
spices would, of course, have been kept secret to preserve the Spice Islanders’
monopoly, in accord with ancient trading practices that also preserved the secret
of the frankincense groves of Arabia.
If maritime spice and plume traders from the Spice Islands could have been
reaching Mesopotamia 6,000 years ago, it is hardly surprising that the Spice
Islanders were sailing as far as ports in the Red Sea 2,000 years later. Indeed, there
seems no good reason that Spice Island cloves and other spices could not have
reached the Fertile Crescent and Egypt far earlier than the period established by
the find at Terqa. Mummification was being practised in Egypt at least 5,000 years
ago. If there were an early Egyptian demand for cloves and cinnamon, antiseptics
which were later of major importance for embalming, this may well have prompted
Spice Island traders to sail the coastal route to the Red Sea far earlier than we can
expect to find evidence that could establish this as fact. It is so improbable for the
cloves found at Terqa to have survived intact for nearly 4,000 years, in a city buried
under 60 ft of silt, that we can hardly expect still earlier evidence of the same kind
elsewhere. If the Spice Island traders could reach the Euphrates delta 6,000 years
ago, there seems no good reason for them not to have followed the coastal route
from there to the Red Sea ports giving access to the Fertile Crescent and Egypt.
For it is clear from recent evidence that Mesopotamian bitumen-coated reed sailing
boats made from bundled reeds traded along this route 7,000 years ago [25].
3.9 Evolution of the Sailing Strategy of Following Fast
Warm Currents over Long Distances
We have been considering evidence for the Spice Islanders’ extension from regional
trading to international spice trading with the development of maritime longdistance coastal trading through the northern Indian Ocean probably 6,000 years
ago. But of greater significance was the Spice Islanders’ development in the same
period of a capacity for transoceanic sailing, based on their exploiting powerful
warm currents flowing through and out of the WPWP. The development of this
new capacity, we suggest, depended on their mastering, in what we have described
as their WPWP long-distance voyaging nursery, of the sailing strategy of following fast warm currents over long distances. We shall argue that the evolution of
this sailing strategy and the linked evolution of the double-outrigger as a craft optimally designed for exploiting fast currents together led to a remarkable extension
in maritime skills and technologies and trading range. Indeed, we shall argue that
it eventually empowered Spice Island mariners to become explorers, international
horticultural traders and colonizers in two oceans.
Understanding the hydrodynamic advantages of the double-outrigger over the
sailing raft that preceded it and the single-outrigger that replaced it in the
3 The Oceanographic Context
Islanders to become international maritime traders at a time before Phoenician and
Indian maritime traders had taken control of the coastal sea route from the Middle
East to Island Southeast Asia. In the earlier period the source of the Moluccan
spices would, of course, have been kept secret to preserve the Spice Islanders’
monopoly, in accord with ancient trading practices that also preserved the secret
of the frankincense groves of Arabia.
If maritime spice and plume traders from the Spice Islands could have been
reaching Mesopotamia 6,000 years ago, it is hardly surprising that the Spice
Islanders were sailing as far as ports in the Red Sea 2,000 years later. Indeed, there
seems no good reason that Spice Island cloves and other spices could not have
reached the Fertile Crescent and Egypt far earlier than the period established by
the find at Terqa. Mummification was being practised in Egypt at least 5,000 years
ago. If there were an early Egyptian demand for cloves and cinnamon, antiseptics
which were later of major importance for embalming, this may well have prompted
Spice Island traders to sail the coastal route to the Red Sea far earlier than we can
expect to find evidence that could establish this as fact. It is so improbable for the
cloves found at Terqa to have survived intact for nearly 4,000 years, in a city buried
under 60 ft of silt, that we can hardly expect still earlier evidence of the same kind
elsewhere. If the Spice Island traders could reach the Euphrates delta 6,000 years
ago, there seems no good reason for them not to have followed the coastal route
from there to the Red Sea ports giving access to the Fertile Crescent and Egypt.
For it is clear from recent evidence that Mesopotamian bitumen-coated reed sailing
boats made from bundled reeds traded along this route 7,000 years ago [25].
3.9 Evolution of the Sailing Strategy of Following Fast
Warm Currents over Long Distances
We have been considering evidence for the Spice Islanders’ extension from regional
trading to international spice trading with the development of maritime longdistance coastal trading through the northern Indian Ocean probably 6,000 years
ago. But of greater significance was the Spice Islanders’ development in the same
period of a capacity for transoceanic sailing, based on their exploiting powerful
warm currents flowing through and out of the WPWP. The development of this
new capacity, we suggest, depended on their mastering, in what we have described
as their WPWP long-distance voyaging nursery, of the sailing strategy of following fast warm currents over long distances. We shall argue that the evolution of
this sailing strategy and the linked evolution of the double-outrigger as a craft optimally designed for exploiting fast currents together led to a remarkable extension
in maritime skills and technologies and trading range. Indeed, we shall argue that
it eventually empowered Spice Island mariners to become explorers, international
horticultural traders and colonizers in two oceans.
Understanding the hydrodynamic advantages of the double-outrigger over the
sailing raft that preceded it and the single-outrigger that replaced it in the