cedar wood from byblos

The timeline for felling and transport of Cedar Wood to the shore of Byblos given by the Wenamon report,  the Egyptian Emissary, corresponds to the felling in October and November and logs remains on the ground in between December and February and transported to shore between March and April. Shipping is done in summer when the winds and sea not strong . The logs could be floated down rivers to the coast at that time when the water from snow-melt and the springs fills the rivers with enough volume of water suitable for floating  the logs of wood down the river to reach the beach. The logs could have been left to season until the early summer the sailing period in the Mediterranean.

Cedar Wood was notorious and widely used due to its incomparable qualities of durability workability and rot and parasite resistance. Though it is a softer wood than oak for example. It is both strong and flexible.  Cedar Wood is also  easy to shape when green to form curved planks. The resinous sap of Cedar Wood kept wood safe from worms. The wood is protected from decay and marauding insects . Cedar Wood was revered for its unique properties in ship building .

This history covers cedar forests from their first evolutionary emergence in the Cretaceous .  Written of the cedar “the proud tree is a child of the high altitude ”. Cedar Wood grows in a severe climate where the snows lie a few meters deep for five months of the year . The vertical growth of Cedar Trees and the thick forests of antiquity makes Cedars suitable for quantity extraction of wood logs .

The isotope of strontium 86Sr is naturally-occurring in living trees. Living tress absorb varying levels of the radiogenic isotope 87Sr from the soil. So Cedar Trees are different from region to region reflecting unique 87Sr/86Sr isotopic ratios. 87Sr/86Sr isotope ratios of Cedar Wood from forests in the East Mediterranean indicate the exact geographic origin of the wooden objects from which Cedars Forest. For example in the case of Senwosret III  boat the Cedar Wood originates specifically from the forest of Horsh-Ehden in Mount Lebanon. In the case of the boat Uluburun it was the  forest of Tannourine in Mount Lebanon.  

The modern appreciation for the Cedar of Lebanon began in the Victorian period when travelers went to the Levant in search of living biblical history . 

Charcoal and post-holes excavated at prehistoric tombs in Nekhen tell us that cedar was already imported to Egypt by the Predynastic late Chalcolithic or Naqada II 3500-3200 BCE.   

Egypt’s great amount of archaeological wood was preserved in very good conditions. The hot arid and sandy conditions have essentially mummified organic matter keeping entire wooden ships in near-pristine condition for thousands of years. 

In buildings in Egypt,  Cedar Wood for the supports for walls and roof beams were essential in palatial temple and funerary construction  as well as for colossal doors that served as portals. 

Egyptians called “Byblos ships ” ships mostly primarily made of Cedar Wood. Cedar Wood is strong, light, rot and parasite-resistant and the relatively soft heartwood was easily shaped with bronze tools.  Cedar Wood was always used for the ship’s mast . A Cedar mast was tall and straight, strong and flexible whereas a more rigid wood could break in wind . Wenamun, the Egyptian Emissary, received from the King of Byblos timber in the shape of stem-post and keels for the construction of ships.

Cedars provide straight planks of great length. Because Cedar has a large amount of compression wood the trunk remains vertical by reinforcing itself along the grain . Compression wood in Cedars is very dense while retaining great elasticity and because of its density it absorbs much less water. The combined forces of water-resistant compression wood and cedar resin as a preservative and sealant successfully prevented wood from rotting . Shrinkage of Cedar Wood in water is minimal and it seasons without significant distortion. It is easily worked and it is strong and flexible and light . PharaohTutmosis carried dismantled ships for travel inland on donkey caravans to navigate on the Euphrate. 

Egyptian Pharaoh Senwosret III's Boat was made of Cedar Wood from Horsh Ehden forest in the Mount Lebanon. The Uluburun ship form Tannourine-Hadeth forest in the mountains of Byblos. The Athlit Ram boat was also from the forest of Tannourine-Hadeth . Egypt New Kingdom historical records often identify Byblos as the port that provided Egypt with timber and particularly with Cedar Wood.

Cedar wood furnished the planks for thousands of elite sarcophagi . Coffins found at the Meryet-Amun tomb were made of Cedar Wood from Byblos. 

For example, a coffin in Cedar Wood of an Egyptian woman called Memeithis, who held the title of one who acts for the Mistress of the Temple of Sakhmet, is 8 m in length and the lid shaped from planks of wood that were fitted together. The coffin was undecorated and kept the natural color of the exterior surface the dark reddish brown of Cedar Wood. 

Many pharaohs imported Cedars of Lebanon for use in burial. Sarcophagi were sometimes carved of Cedar Wood as for example the one which contained the mummy of Ramesses  II. 

Egyptians sometimes imported semi-worked or converted Cedar Wood logs fromByblos.  Regarding Mesopotamia Akkadian texts show that Cedar derived products were exported more frequently than logs and beams. 

Most of the blades used with working with Cedar Wood are for adzes used in ship construction . Egyptian hardened-copper axe was retrieved from the vicinity of Nahr Ibrahim river near Byblos, the axe-head probably belonged to one of the royal ship crews acquiring Cedar Wood from Byblos for either Cheops or Sahure boats .  Axes appear in Egyptian naval construction scenes and were sometimes used to square logs.  Several types of felling and woodworking tools found in Byblos including several axes and adzes drills chisels a gouge and a hammer . Is found in the Wenamun story from the 11th century BCE that perhaps the ropes mentioned are needed for the felling operations. 

The process for Cedar Wood encompasses issues of acquisition, felling, terrestrial, fluvial and maritime transportation conversion and marketing .  Cedar Wood could be felled during the autumn and left to season in the mountains until spring when it was floated downstream .  

After the felling operations logs would be transported from the forests to their point of floating on the river by means of terrestrial transportation using animals like hauling by yoked cattle dragging by cattle the chariot filled with timbers and sledging with horses . Once on shore these logs could have been arranged on the ground to form a raft and tied together  by ropes preparing to be attached to the stern of the boat for export.

Cedar Wood indentations in growth rings also occur occasionally in the trunks of Lebanon Cedar Wood. Individual indented rings line up radially in succession. The tracheids at the indentations also deviate from longitudinal orientation and they appear arched in radial section. Trabeculae are more clearly evident in the tracheids of indented than unindented parts of the rings and they are more frequent than in normal wood .   

*Wadi Qassouba is a valley south of Byblos. The Qassouba has been suggested as the river used for logging activities during the Bronze Age.  The Qassouba wadi reaches a maximum elevation slightly above 300 meters which is considerably below from the lowest cedar stands at 1000–1200 meters. So terrestrial means need to be applied at the start of the timber journey.

*The river Nahr el-Fidar 2km to the south of Byblos has a seasonal regime . The valley of Nahr el-Fidar seems more adequate for land transportation of the logs . The Hadrianic inscriptions in this region indicate that the valley of Fidar was used for the extraction of logs from the forests of Ehmej and Laqlouq in the mountains of Byblos .   There are still well-preserved roads and tracks or ramps extending from the high forest zones down to within 500 meters from the coast where the floating of logs starts.  

*The river of Nahr Ibrahim 5km south of Byblos longitudinal profile is steep at higher altitudes and therefore does not present the possibility for floating timbers. But at around 400–500 meters of elevation floating timber is possible.  Egyptian texts indicate that the land of Negau, may be could be Nahr Ibrahim, acted as a main exporter of Cedar Wood. This is supported by the finding of around fourteen imperial Hadrianic inscriptions on the right bank of the river.  (Bibliography Lucy Semaan)

Over the 2500 years the ziggurat was abandoned to erosion. During the  ziggurat at Ur temple's initial construction it is likely that Cedar Wood was used for roof beams and doors. The strontium isotopic show that the origin of the Cedar Wood is from Ehden forest in Mount Lebanon and exported from Byblos.    Cuneiform inscriptions indicate that Assyrian kings imported Cedar Wood from the regions of Lebanon particularly Byblos starting at the end of the second millennium BCE .   

 Cedar Wood oil was used extensively in the embalming of the dead. According to some scientists the Cedar Wood resin used on the human body at the end of the mummification process was injected into the body through the anus .  In preparation for the Egyptian journey, the transmutation from life to afterlife Cedar was a prerequisite. Cedar Wood derivative products were also applied as a sealant purifier and preservative not only to dead bodies but also to papyrus scrolls .

Evidences suggest that round Cedar Wood column bases were used in temple as pillars that support the roof . 

Many objects found were made from Cedar Wood from Byblos like for example a statue of woman, dowels, furniture, boxes, spoons panels, statuettes chairs. Many objects in Cedar Wood  were retrieved from the tombs of Queen Hetepheres,  Meket-Re, Tutankhamun and Thutmosis IV. 

The scent of Cedar Wood has been preserved in wood found in buried archaeological material several thousand years old .     

During the reign of King Herod use of Cedar Wood for construction of temples was widespread. For example the Cedar Wood was also discovered at the Herodian palace and fortress of Kypros .   

The so-called “Jesus Boat” recovered from the Sea of Galilee was built mostly of reused timbers some of which was Cedrus libani. Another well-known shipwreck found off the coast of Turkey at Cape Galidonya was made of Cedar Wood from Byblos .  The Athlit Ram galley found off the Mediterranean shore was made of Cedar Wood.  As well as the shipwreck  the Uluburun found off the coast of Turkey was made of Cedar Wood from Byblos. The Cheops burial barge was made also from Cedar Wood from Byblos.