Herodotus proves the skeptics wrong . . . again

Herodotus keeps being vindicated. There has always been speculation that some of his reporting might have owed more to traveller's tales than to his actually having travelled to the places he described. It has also been assumed that some of his more far-fetched reports were the result of his credulous acceptance of locals pulling the leg of this traveling Greek, or simply from confusion arising from language and culture differences.

And no doubt there is some measure of truth to those criticisms. But as time passes, again and again we discover that the far-fetched tale was actually true. It is our incomplete knowledge which made us view his tale as far-fetched.

A decade ago I posted about archaeological discoveries in Egypt's western desert supporting what had till then been assumed to be a myth; A violent South Wind blew upon them.

Today I see, Nile shipwreck discovery proves Herodotus right – after 2,469 years by Dalya Alberge.

In the fifth century BC, the Greek historian Herodotus visited Egypt and wrote of unusual river boats on the Nile. Twenty-three lines of his Historia, the ancient world’s first great narrative history, are devoted to the intricate description of the construction of a “baris”.

For centuries, scholars have argued over his account because there was no archaeological evidence that such ships ever existed. Now there is. A “fabulously preserved” wreck in the waters around the sunken port city of Thonis-Heracleion has revealed just how accurate the historian was.

“It wasn’t until we discovered this wreck that we realised Herodotus was right,” said Dr Damian Robinson, director of Oxford University’s centre for maritime archaeology, which is publishing the excavation’s findings. “What Herodotus described was what we were looking at.”

Whether scientist or historian, it is worthwhile cultivating humility. The world is full of surprises.