(Continued from Ancient Viet, Cradle of Asian Civilization)
Although people of Bách Việt had knowledge of agriculture and the technology of shipbuilding, Chinese writers depicted the Việt as barbarians who had tattoos, lived in primitive conditions, and lacked such technology as bows, arrows, horses and chariots. [1]
Really.
Barbarians with tats who lived in caves and mud huts, with no weapons or chariots, but who possessed advanced levels of agricultural knowledge, as well as the necessary technology to build ocean-worthy trans-pacific ships.
I also must mention the smelting and mining technology needed to create those gorgeous calendric bronze drums…don’t forget the bronze drums). **
**As an aside, during one of my recent trips back to my homeland, I returned with a full-sized, museum-quality, authentic bronze replica of the Ngọc Lũ Drum. It is huge and heavy, and was a difficult object to lug back to the USA, but I can now proudly say that I actually own one of these ancient calendars.
First of all, let’s define what a barbarian is, shall we? After all, there is no way to defend a term if we do not know what that terminology means.
Barbarian
barbarian [bahr-bair-ee-uh n]
In the picture below, we have a bonafide barbarian. Notice his relative lack of clothing. Notice his unkempt hair, and the tattoo on his forehead. Since he is not on a horse or a chariot, we can assume he is not civilized enough to have ever been exposed to either. He is holding a sword, so we know he has the necessary technology for swords, but no bows or arrows. This means he has no access to these technologies.
What an amazing specimen of male barbarism.
Shipbuilding
Archaeological evidence indicates that groups of humans arrived on Borneo at least 120,000 years ago, probably by sea from the Asian mainland during an ice age period when the sea was lower and distances between islands shorter. [2]
While I do not claim that boats were being built back 120,000 years ago, evidence of boat building has been found, going back as far as 50,000 years ago from mainland Asia. That’s far enough for me to build this case up.
To build something as advanced as an ocean-worthy vessel, there are a few things that these Bách Việt Barbarians need to know.
Shipbuilding
Since I am not a shipbuilder, I can only take an educated guess about what is actually needed in order for a ship to be built, but right off the bat, a few obvious basics needed to be satisfied in order to allow the barbarians to build ships.
The first of these is, quite naturally, wood.
(Continue to Bách Việt Barbarian Woodworkers)
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[1] Bách Việt
[2] Ancient and Modern Ships – Part I. Wooden Sailing-Ships
