Did Phoenicians Round the Cape?
"A police cricket field near Pinelands in Cape Town may hide a 2,000-year-old Phoenician galley beneath its neatly grassed surface." So began an article in the Sunday Times of 7 June 1993. The article was entitled "Van Riebeeck, eat your heart out!"
It was by no means breaking news, however. As long ago as the 5th Century BCE, the Greek historian Herodotus recorded that two centuries earlier, Pharoah Necho II of Egypt had assembled a small fleet of Phoenician ships, manned by Phoenician crews, to explore the east coast of Africa. Phoenicia was a great maritime nation, known for its sturdy ocean-going ships. The mariners had returned to Egypt from the west, sailing across the Mediterranean Sea, and claimed to have circumnavigated Africa. Herodotus could not believe their report that in sailing around the tip of Africa, they had seen the sun on their right or starboard (i.e. to the north). It would have been difficult indeed for an ancient Greek to believe this. Anyone who has lived all his life north of the equator is used to seeing the sun to the south (or left when travelling in a westerly direction).
So much for Herodotus, but what of the claim that a wreck of one of these Phoenician galleys lies on the Cape Flats? There is, as it happens, a long history to this astounding claim.
George Thompson, who was at the Cape in the 1820s, wrote: "On the skirts of the Downs, or Flats, which form an isthmus between the Cape Peninsula and the rest of the continent, there was discovered a few years ago, at a considerable distance from the sea, what seemed to be the timbers of a vessel deeply embedded in the sand...
"A nautical gentleman who examined it with more care than I had an opportunity of bestowing, thinks that the wood (which has apparently been buried for ages in sand) greatly resembles cedar, and conceives it possible that this may be the remains of some ancient Phoenician vessel, wrecked here when our present Cape Flats were under water..."
Significantly, cedar wood was not used in the manufacture of European ships, but it was used by Phoenician shipbuilders.
The story re-emerged in 1852 when the Surveyor-General of the Cape, Charles Bell, visited the wreck site. In his report, Bell said that he had heard, many years before, of the wreck of an ancient ship at "Tigerberg" (Tygerberg, the hill above Bellville), but had disregarded the matter, thinking it impossible that a ship could have sailed so far inland.
After examining the site, he reported, "However extraordinary it may seem, I am compelled to believe that this wood is part of a large vessel upward of some seventy feet in length, wrecked when the sea washed up ... above the present high-water mark and left at a distance of at least 10 miles from the shore."
Bell requested permission to expose the remnants so that he could measure and make drawings of them, but, although permission and funds were granted, there is no known record of whether he did so or not. The site of this alleged shipwreck is marked in green on the map below.
A year later, the noted geologist and builder of roads, Andrew Geddes Bain, visited the site, about which he had heard rumours for over 40 years, to see what all the fuss was about. To his disappointment, Bain concluded that what others had identified as timbers and iron nails were nothing more than "a bed of lignite or brown coal, which is found all over the Cape Flats". Bain probably imagined that the story of the Phoenician shipwreck would die with his debunking of the legend - but it did not.
In about 1900, an employee of the Maitland Cemetery was engaged in digging when he came across what looked like a ship's timbers. The site was clearly not that mentioned by Bell and Bain, since it was only about three miles from the sea. This site is marked in blue on the above map.
A Mr D. Vrey reported that he had seen the remains of the ship after about half of it had been removed. Individual timbers, which were presumed to have been from the inside of the ship, had been removed and were lying in heaps. They were probably about 30-35 feet long and about 2-3 feet broad and thick and the wood was very rotten. Nothing more is known about this find.
Hoping to confirm the identity of the alleged Pinelands shipwreck, some UCT archaeology students were granted permission to examine the police cricket field while it was being rehabilitated in 1993. Sadly, although much of the field was excavated, no remains of the galley could be found. The site of this alleged shipwreck is marked in red on the above map.
The trouble with all of the above reported finds is that they identify different locations. Unless conclusive proof of a Phoenician shipwreck is uncovered, which seems unlikely, the question of whether the Phoenicians were the first to circumnavigate Africa seems destined to remain unanswered.
Scholars do not doubt that such a journey would have been possible, given the skills and knowledge of the time, but the fact that Herodotus's account is the only historical source casts doubt on its veracity. If a wreck on the Cape Flats were indeed that of a Phoenician galley, it would add credence to Herodotus's account.
What has this to do with Milnerton? Well, if the sea level rose sufficiently for a ship to sail to the Tygerberg hills or even to Maitland or Pinelands, it would mean that such a ship may well have sailed above what later became Milnerton. Who knows? The wreck of a Phoenician galley could be buried somewhere in the vicinity...
It was by no means breaking news, however. As long ago as the 5th Century BCE, the Greek historian Herodotus recorded that two centuries earlier, Pharoah Necho II of Egypt had assembled a small fleet of Phoenician ships, manned by Phoenician crews, to explore the east coast of Africa. Phoenicia was a great maritime nation, known for its sturdy ocean-going ships. The mariners had returned to Egypt from the west, sailing across the Mediterranean Sea, and claimed to have circumnavigated Africa. Herodotus could not believe their report that in sailing around the tip of Africa, they had seen the sun on their right or starboard (i.e. to the north). It would have been difficult indeed for an ancient Greek to believe this. Anyone who has lived all his life north of the equator is used to seeing the sun to the south (or left when travelling in a westerly direction).
So much for Herodotus, but what of the claim that a wreck of one of these Phoenician galleys lies on the Cape Flats? There is, as it happens, a long history to this astounding claim.
George Thompson, who was at the Cape in the 1820s, wrote: "On the skirts of the Downs, or Flats, which form an isthmus between the Cape Peninsula and the rest of the continent, there was discovered a few years ago, at a considerable distance from the sea, what seemed to be the timbers of a vessel deeply embedded in the sand...
"A nautical gentleman who examined it with more care than I had an opportunity of bestowing, thinks that the wood (which has apparently been buried for ages in sand) greatly resembles cedar, and conceives it possible that this may be the remains of some ancient Phoenician vessel, wrecked here when our present Cape Flats were under water..."
Significantly, cedar wood was not used in the manufacture of European ships, but it was used by Phoenician shipbuilders.
The story re-emerged in 1852 when the Surveyor-General of the Cape, Charles Bell, visited the wreck site. In his report, Bell said that he had heard, many years before, of the wreck of an ancient ship at "Tigerberg" (Tygerberg, the hill above Bellville), but had disregarded the matter, thinking it impossible that a ship could have sailed so far inland.
After examining the site, he reported, "However extraordinary it may seem, I am compelled to believe that this wood is part of a large vessel upward of some seventy feet in length, wrecked when the sea washed up ... above the present high-water mark and left at a distance of at least 10 miles from the shore."
Bell requested permission to expose the remnants so that he could measure and make drawings of them, but, although permission and funds were granted, there is no known record of whether he did so or not. The site of this alleged shipwreck is marked in green on the map below.
A year later, the noted geologist and builder of roads, Andrew Geddes Bain, visited the site, about which he had heard rumours for over 40 years, to see what all the fuss was about. To his disappointment, Bain concluded that what others had identified as timbers and iron nails were nothing more than "a bed of lignite or brown coal, which is found all over the Cape Flats". Bain probably imagined that the story of the Phoenician shipwreck would die with his debunking of the legend - but it did not.
In about 1900, an employee of the Maitland Cemetery was engaged in digging when he came across what looked like a ship's timbers. The site was clearly not that mentioned by Bell and Bain, since it was only about three miles from the sea. This site is marked in blue on the above map.
A Mr D. Vrey reported that he had seen the remains of the ship after about half of it had been removed. Individual timbers, which were presumed to have been from the inside of the ship, had been removed and were lying in heaps. They were probably about 30-35 feet long and about 2-3 feet broad and thick and the wood was very rotten. Nothing more is known about this find.
Hoping to confirm the identity of the alleged Pinelands shipwreck, some UCT archaeology students were granted permission to examine the police cricket field while it was being rehabilitated in 1993. Sadly, although much of the field was excavated, no remains of the galley could be found. The site of this alleged shipwreck is marked in red on the above map.
The trouble with all of the above reported finds is that they identify different locations. Unless conclusive proof of a Phoenician shipwreck is uncovered, which seems unlikely, the question of whether the Phoenicians were the first to circumnavigate Africa seems destined to remain unanswered.
Scholars do not doubt that such a journey would have been possible, given the skills and knowledge of the time, but the fact that Herodotus's account is the only historical source casts doubt on its veracity. If a wreck on the Cape Flats were indeed that of a Phoenician galley, it would add credence to Herodotus's account.
What has this to do with Milnerton? Well, if the sea level rose sufficiently for a ship to sail to the Tygerberg hills or even to Maitland or Pinelands, it would mean that such a ship may well have sailed above what later became Milnerton. Who knows? The wreck of a Phoenician galley could be buried somewhere in the vicinity...
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