Building an Egyptian boat

Tallahassee.com

A filmmaker is re-creating a treasure-gathering voyage of Egypt's greatest female pharaoh, and a Florida State archaeology professor is designing the boat.

FSU's Cheryl Ward spent last week in Egypt as boat-builders laid the keel for a ship she and a documentary crew will sail 1,000 miles on the Red Sea in December. The trip will trace a journey made 4,000 years ago by Egyptians under Queen Hatshepsut to Punt (modern-day Ethiopia), to bring back gold, ivory, exotic animals, myrrh and live frankincense trees.

The project is the work of French documentary producer Valerie Abita, whose "Hatshepsut and the Land of Punt" is scheduled for broadcast next spring.

"(The queen) might have been the first feminist of ancient history," Abita wrote in an e-mail.

Ward is designing the boat with two other archaeologists, a naval engineer and a naval architect. Egyptian builders will construct a boat 70 feet long and 18 feet wide.

"We're doing our best as modern people to imitate something the Egyptians commonly did for 1,000 years," Ward said. "It's a great adventure and a huge challenge."

Ward, 47, has spent 25 years studying ancient ships and was hired at FSU in 2000.

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