Explanation: Herodotus was a Greek writer who is known as both Father of History and Father of Lies - the first because he was the founder of the Western academic tradition of history, trying, for the first time, to weave disparate facts and happenings into a coherent narrative whole that examined the causes and effects of the course of events. The latter because he was not always rigorous in checking to make sure those facts and happenings were true (though he does a damn sight better than predecessors who uncritically repeated outright mythology).
Every once in a while a claim of Herodotus that has been rejected by modern scholarship for years turns out to be true by archeological evidence.
Found their description of the boat form as hard to understand as Herodotus’s original.
The planks are staggered like bricks in a building
The ‘tenons’ which link the planks together, normally only link one plank to another.
The tenons in the Baris, however, are extremely long and link multiple planks together, like 6-7, which is unusual. What’s more, the Baris lacks traditional ‘ribs’ that would make up the structure of the boat. Those connecting ‘tenons’ take their place in ensuring the boat stays in the correct shape, which is also unusual.
^ That there are traditional ribs, obviously in an older boat they would be wood, but normally you attach the boards to that superstructure. Whereas in the Baris those ‘ribs’ are segmental and go through the boards to link them together.
There are two holes in the bottom for steering
And the inside is reinforced with papyrus, a kind of paper-like material that can be made reasonably water-resistant.
That’s how I understand it, at least. I’m far from informed on the subject, basically everything there is cobbled together from the article and the wiki page. If anyone has corrections, trust them over me on it, lol
