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Building pharaoh's ships: Cedar, incense and ... - British Museum

Building pharaoh's ships: Cedar, incense and ... - British Museum

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228<br />

WARD BMSAES 18<br />

Fig. 1: The wood-to-wood, mortise-<strong>and</strong>-tenon fastening has a demonstrably indigenous origin<br />

in Egypt <strong>and</strong> was the primary fastening for seagoing <strong>ships</strong> of the Middle Kingdom. A<br />

trapezoidal slip of wood (tenon) is cut to fit tightly at its centre in a pair of mortises that<br />

are placed opposite each other in adjacent planks.<br />

Fig. 2: Mediterranean shipwrights typically used<br />

small pegs to lock tenons in place on each<br />

side of the plank seam. The pegs were<br />

placed perpendicular to the seam as a<br />

way to reduce longitudinal slippage along<br />

plank edges.<br />

http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/online_journals/bmsaes/issue_18/ward.aspx

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