Stephen DeCasien, Ph.D.

I was watching an episode of the new show Talamasca: The Secret Order and even though it was just a split second in a scene, I spotted a classically inspired three-bladed waterline ram… I might have a problem. Or the worst superpower.

Yes, a beautiful but very depressing site. I had no idea that “official” excavations and preservation of the site did not start until the 1980s and some artifacts are still being returned to this day. My Chinese colleagues like to remind me that Chinese archaeology is still “young”.

Yuanmingyuan (the Old Summer Palace) in Beijing, China.

All the translation issues aside it seems that some sort of ramming vessel likely developed in ancient China around the late 500s BCE, but only according to later Eastern Han sources and later Song sources citing Han ones….typical ancient text issues 😅.

Yes! I wrote an intro piece for the SCS blog, idk if it will come out or not. Also working on a paper with my Chinese colleagues, lots of bad interpretations & translation errors from ancient Chinese - modern Chinese - English which is the first problem in understanding these early Chinese vessels.

Exactly! Also it’s in line with the upper wale timers which kinda supports that argument. But I have seen good arguments for and against. In any case, a beautiful piece and I wonder how much of it originally had color? One of the few depictions of a prow castle or ship siege tower as well.

Trying to make it interesting for the students and maybe inspire one or two to study the topics further!

I handle the Greek and Roman sources, my colleague selects the Chinese ones, and we do each part separately and then we compare & reflect together with the class on various “ancient lessons” or “issues” like why ramming?! I’m also learning a great deal about ancient China through this collaboration.

This is my first co-taught course. My colleague specializes in ancient Chinese history and archaeology, while I focus on Greek and Roman studies. We explore broad themes like seafaring and trade in the Roman and Han empires, and warfare in the Warring States period and the Peloponnesian War.

Co-teaching a course comparing Ancient Greece/Rome with ancient China has been a blast so far. In just a few weeks we’ll reach the unit on ancient warships, and my students have no idea what’s about to hit them… they’re about to find out that naval ramming was a global and ancient phenomenon.

I have! When it was in the Vatican museum a few years ago. I always took the crocodile as a *very* stylistic proembolion (upper ram) like other stag, wolf, etc examples.

Currently finishing a chapter that includes a small section on the possible modeling and casting methods, as well as the materials used to make the largest rams for the Ptolemaic fleet at Actium (31 BCE). Just thinking how much I miss working there and need to work on that ship classification paper…

The easiest answer is we see the first “rams” in Greece during the mid Archaic period in the style of a boar’s head. However, and some scholars disagree, I believe the earliest rams sometimes referred to as “proto-rams” are seen in the Levant in the early Archaic period.

Quick and easy: A three-bladed waterline ram is a naval weapon cast in bronze, featuring three horizontal fins (sometimes called blades) mounted on the ship’s cutwater at the waterline, used to ram an enemy ship and channel the shock safely through reinforced timbers.

I love all these examples! And you kinda hit it right on the head…some of trireme rhyta are the earliest three-bladed examples we have though the dating is concerning. Casson and Morrison both mention this issue.

I am trying to get the 3D print material specifically for investment casting to work better so then I can quickly cast my own mini fleet 🤣

Sometimes the brain does what it wants with words! Must be the my New Jersey slang where “yeaaa, no” = no and “no, yeaaa” = yes. So definitely not definitive feels right. 😅

Around 3 hours!

Long awkward thread because I’m waiting for this 3D ram to finish to use for an upcoming invited lecture 😅

In addition, interpretations based on archaeological evidence of rams and reconstructions such as the Olympias may not fully apply to this earlier stage of naval development.

So when scholars reflect on naval warfare prior to and during the Greco-Persian Wars, we likely shouldn’t assume we are looking at a fully developed warship functioning as a complete, specialized weapon system.

This might suggest that the Greco-Persian Wars mark the first period in which we begin to see this design appear, or at least the transitional stage that led to it.

What stands out is that I haven’t yet come across any securely dated depictions of a three-bladed waterline ram before the Peloponnesian War (some confusing rock engravings and maybe a coin or two, but definitely not definitive).

Naval thought of the day:

I think what’s becoming increasingly apparent is that the evidence points to a wide range of ram designs such as conical, boar’s head, and chisel types before the emergence of the three-bladed form.

The Battle of the Egadi Islands was as much a clash of logistics and production as it was of tactics, and the rams may be our most tangible sign of that imbalance.

These flaws may reflect the declining quality and desperate tempo of a navy trying to rebuild under pressure, along with the likely reuse of captured Roman warships that were adapted to refill the ranks.

The placement of the spike holes also seems irregular and uneven compared to the tight, methodical patterns seen on Roman rams. Taken together, this suggests more than simple haste.

Looking at the Egadi rams, I can’t help but feel they reveal how strained the Carthaginian fleet had become by 241 BCE. Some appear unfinished, with beeswax seams still visible and tool marks left in place, as if they were rushed straight from the foundry to the ships.

I’m happy to be invited to give a lecture on my naval ram research at the Institute for the History of Ancient Civilizations (IHAC) at Northeast Normal University in Changchun, China. Looking forward to visiting and exchanging ideas next month!

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Prompted by discussion in another post, sharing this link to an article in case others are also interested in #hedgehogs and hedgehog-head boats in Ancient Egypt. Contains cute pictures!

www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/11...

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