The maritime archaeologist Cheryl Ward, an associate professor of anthropology at The Florida State University 25 years research has been dedicated to showing the scope of their ability and now, to proving their independently invented approach to ship construction worked magnificently at sea; inspired by the 2006 discovery of the oldest remains of seafaring ships in the world in manmade caves at Wadi Gawasis, on the edge of the Egyptian desert.
An expedition was financed and filmed as part of A French documentary that will air internationally.
An international team of archaeologists, shipwrights and sailors has recently built a full-scale replica of a 3,800-year-old ship and sailed it on the Red Sea to re-create a voyage to a place the ancient Egyptians called God's Land, or Punt.
Despite the thoughts of many people, including Ward's fellow archaeologists, thinking of the Egyptians as being tied to the Nile River and lacking in the ability to go to sea; scholars had long known that Egyptians traveled to Punt, but they debated its exact location and whether the Egyptians reached Punt by land or by sea. As many had thought the ancient Egyptians did not have the naval technology to travel long distances by sea, but the findings at Wadi Gawasis confirmed that Egyptians sailed a 2,000-mile round trip voyage to Punt, located in what is today Ethiopia or Yemen.
By October 2008, the 66-foot-long by 16-foot-wide ship was completed using the techniques of the ancient Egyptians - no frames, no nails and planks that were designed to fit together like the pieces of a puzzle.
After immersing the ship in the Nile to permit the timbers to swell closed around the wood fastenings, mounting the rigging and testing the steering system, they transported the complete ship by truck to the Red Sea - rather than carry it piece by piece across the desert as the ancient Egyptians would have done.
