Ancient History/Greece/Greek Boats

Greek boats had two or three sails depending on the size of the craft. These boats were made out of large pieces of hard wood; these boats were large for the time but only could carry 100 – 150 kg of stone used to make statues. The usual items carried on the boats were construction supplies to build houses, war supplies such as iron, bronze, etc. the Greeks also carried lots of food, the most items they would trade were almonds,. Other objects they would carry were fish, olives, barley and other substances they would carry the substances over water by putting them in urns and putting a wax seal food.

There was a special road called the “Diolkos” it was a special road because it connected two seas so people would be able to travel to the other seas without getting a different boat, the length of this road was 175 km an anonymous writer said that after it was built it started to turn green because of the seaweed and barnacles laying on it because no one would clean it. This road started at one sea and ended at the other. What would happen was they would put this boat on a trailer pulled by three oxen they would then pull it across to the other sea.

To transport objects and themselves on land they would use wooden carts to pull themselves around the city or even their village. Now to pull the carts they would use animals, it was much easier to use pack animals because they would only have to control one for the others to follow. These animals could pull up to 100 kg. With the larger animals like oxen and cattle they could carry up to 500 kg. To build roads, not that they usually did because they thought it would be easier for their enemies to invade the area they would use stone or dirt to pave the area, the city would only do this if the area was based on trade. The fact was the poor people walked while the rich people used carts.

Transportation was a very important thing in ancient Greece. The people based their whole civilization on boat transportation.