The Rowing Style in
Ancient Egypt
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At this point, two questions are of interest to us. Firstly, did the
Egyptians have certain typical postural and movement patterns? Secondly, were
these patterns identical with those found in their art?
A Master’s Thesis which was written in 1978 deals with ancient Egyptian
rowing style. This piece, written by Lutz Weber, is perhaps the only piece of
research which deals with the question as to what extent ancient Egyptian
drawings, reliefs and paintings reflect physiologically accurate portrayals of
movement in everyday life. 1) For this reason, his work is presented
here.
The Egyptians used combined sailing-rowing ships on the arms of the
Nile, on the Nile itself, as well as when they were out at sea. Since rowing
was based on the necessity of using ships primarily as a means of transport
(sporting uses were only secondary), the rowing technique had to be suitable
for long distances.
For his examination, Weber
used representations of an ancient Egyptian ship on an expedition to the land Punt during Queen Hatschepsut’s reign
(18th dynasty). The paintings in her temple at Deir-El-Bahari show several ships
with their crews. In Fig. 2, we can see rowers who have been portrayed during
certain phases of a rowing stroke. Lutz
Weber was hence able to realistically reconstruct the acient rowing
style. Through comparisons with representations from the Old and Middle
Kingdom, he was able to show that the reconstructed style of rowing was not
only employed in the New Kingdom.
Weber
did not confine his research to pictorial material, he also carried out
practical experiments. As part of Weber’s thesis, two Egyptian rowing benches
were reconstructed on a pontoon boat on the river Rhine simulating the antique
conditions including the construction of copies of the oars.
Lutz Weber describes
the rowing movements in detail, he reconstructed them as follows (see Fig. 1
and 2):
“The rower stands firmly with both legs on deck and holds the arms away
from the body in order to go into the starting position. At this stage in the
sequence, the oar is not in the water and is carried to the prow of the ship
ready for use (phase a in Fig. 1).
|
Fig. 1 Schematic drawing of a rowing stroke in the Egyptian
style |
When the oar cuts the water, the rower pulls the oar towards his body
using his arms and trunk. Simultaneously, he stems his legs on the deck. When
pulling with his upper part of his body, the rower moves his rear towards the
rowing seat (phases b and c). Shortly before he sits down, he bends his arms
more to complete the pull of the oar. (phases c and d).
To raise the oar out of the water, the hands are pushed downwards. The
leg innermost to the ship is moved back at the same time to enable the rower to
stand up again. By getting up from a stepping position and bending the upper
body forward from the hip joints, the rower can move his hands further
downwards (actio-reactio) making movement of the oar blade out of the
water (phases e to g). The oar is then moved backwards, the hind foot now
having been placed beside the other foot again, so preparing for the next
stroke.” 2)
|
Fig. 2 Rowers at work, New Kingdom (left: phase c; right: phase f of the description) |
As is obvious, in this movement sequence, the whole body participates in
the activity and the rower uses gravity to his own advantage by utilising his
own weight. 3) A deliberate and fluent movement is facilitated with
as little effort as possible and without excess strain on the back or shoulder
girdle.
Even today in Egypt, a similar kind of movement employing the extension
mode may be observed - particularly among the fellahs (the peasants) and the
people of Nubia. I have
personally made such observations, for example among the rowers on the Qamrun-lake in the border of the
oasis Fayum. Siko, the captain of a felucca (a small
ship with oars and/or sails) in Assuan, utilized this mode of movement too.
In analyzing Egyptian art we can frequently safely state that the portrayed
people give us the impression of having been well balanced with respect to use
of their intrinsic and extrinsic musculature. This fact was then apparently
observed by the artists.
Cultures in which fighting and aggression play a significant role
frequently possess an aesthetic ideal involving over-developed extrinsic
musculature. This was not the case with the ancient Egyptians. They had
comparatively long periods of peace in the course of their history. They also
rarely had conquest ambitions, and, if so, these were modest, particularly in
the Old and Middle Kingdoms. Furthermore, they were seldom subject to attempted
invasion from other peoples. It is therefore no wonder that representations of
ancient Egyptians rarely show over-developed, “armoured” extrinsic musculature.
4)
To summarize, one may say that the ancient Egyptians frequently lived
with exemplary movement patterns and with an integrated body structure. 5)
Notes
1)
Lutz Weber,
Rekonstruktionsversuch der ägyptischen Rudertechnik in der 18.Dynastie,
unveröffentlichte Diplomarbeit an der Deutschen Sporthochschule Cologne, 1978
2)
Ibid, p. 34
3)
Contrary to the
Egyptian style of rowing, the common way of performance in the galleys/ships of
the Romans and of other Western people was to sit all the time during rowing.
The technique which is connected with this habit, with all its disadvantages,
cannot be discussed here.
4)
Similary, this
applies to some people of the far east too (India, China). As we can observe in
the artistic portrayals of these cultures, the outer muscles were shown as
little over-developed as in the Egyptian ones. The reasons for this cannot be
discussed here. People of these far east cultures were perhaps acting more out
of the core of their being (hara)
than Western people usually do.
5)
Despite the
manner of movement which was considerate towards the body, spinal and bone
disease was frequent. The causes were to be seen in extreme temperature
fluctuation between day and night. Additionally, people from the lower classes
had frequently additional pathogenic working conditions.
Excerpt from the book: Hans
Georg Brecklinghaus, The Human Beings are
awoken, you have set them upright. Body Structure and Conception of Man in
Ancient Egyptian Art and the Present Day, Freiburg 2002, ISBN 3-932803-04-3