Built:
2nd cent. bce.
In 1980, while conducting a routine underwater survey near Athlit on the Israeli coast, marine archaeologist Yehoshua Ramon discovered a bronze ram from an ancient warship. The partially covered ram lay about 200 meters offshore at a depth of 3 meters. The ram was lifted, conserved, and is now on permanent display at the National Maritime Museum, Haifa. A team from the University of Haifa later investigated the sea floor in the area, but no ship or related artifacts have yet been found.
The ram measures 2.26 meters long, 0.76 meters wide, and 0.96 meters wide, and weighs about 465 kilograms. The surviving wooden armature to which the bronze was fitted was built up of 16 pieces of cedar, elm, and pine. The central wedge-shaped ramming timber was connected by mortise and tenon to the ship's stem; a second heavy timber, raked aft, formed an angle of 71 degrees with the top of the ramming timber. This armature was enclosed in a bronze jacket averaging 2 centimeters in thickness and fastened with copper nails. The asymmetries of the construction suggest that the bronze piece was custom-cast to fit the preexisting bow timbers.
The Athlit ram is of a type familiar from pictorial representations of the Classical and Hellenistic periods. Three bladelike protrusions run horizontally along each side. At the head the three horizontal blades are crossed down the center by a solid vertical section, forming a gridlike striking surface. Driven by oar power, this ancient "warhead" was designed to smash the enemy ship's planking at the waterline. The ram is decorated with a variety of symbols in relief that have been identified with the Hellenistic kings of Egypt Ptolemy V Epiphanes and his successor, Ptolemy VI Philometor, who reigned 204-164 bce A date for the ram in the first half of the second century bce is supported by tree-ring analysis of the wood.
Casson & Steffy, Athlit Ram.
