It is the nature of man to explore the world around him. That is why during the ancient times, thousands of years ago, sailors traveled in ships, crossed oceans, reached different continents and conquered many islands.
Observing modern navigation will surely get you to thinking that traveling by sea, by air or even by land is a very complicated task. Having maps at hand during such travels will be of great help. But without the benefits and usefulness of modern technology and sophisticated navigational tools, how did the ancient people manage the task?
Numerous researches about early navigation techniques of different civilizations have found that almost all ancient navigators, most of them sailors, have relied on the placement and regular appearance of the sun, the moon and the stars for navigational purposes. Analyzing the findings, you will conclude that the techniques to use celestial bodies as points of reference for travel make sense.+
In fact, there are still many sailors and travelers today that use celestial or heavenly bodies to aid navigation during air, land or sea travel. But with the modern tools of today, of course, everything is made simpler and less complicated.
The history of celestial navigation
Studies and diggings have revealed that perhaps, seafarers made the earliest recorded distant travels in 3500 BC. During those times, not many navigation aids and tools were yet discovered and developed, researchers theorize that they made use of celestial navigation primarily for distant sea travels.
According to studies, most sea travelers during those times simply used landmarks when traveling. For example, they used hills, mountains and other landmarks to identify destinations and places. But of course, that system only worked for short-distanced travels. What about long ones, or those that involved crossing different oceans?
That is how celestial navigation probably set in. Ancient celestial navigation involved the observation of the placement in the sky of the sun, the moon and the stars. That is because out in the open water, no other landmarks could be seen or observed.
Out in the ocean, people can see nothing but horizons. Everywhere the eyes look, there’s just endless sea underneath, and the sky above. Because the sun, the moon and the stars regularly rise and set as the day goes by, ancient travelers have inferred that those celestial bodies could be used as effective reference points for traveling.
And surely, they did. By looking at the celestial bodies, you can easily infer directions. Of course, the sun and the moon rise in the east and set in the west although the seasons also bring angles into play. The stars, unlike the sun and the moon, don’t change angles depending on the season.
So, the stars have been considered more reliable in celestial navigation. The ancients probably learned to create line of sight systems to observe celestial bodies for navigation.
For example, the North Star is always located in the North. In the evening sky anywhere in the world, people will see the North Star as a distinct bright star that looks like a guide.
Ancient travelers may have used the North Star as an early reference point in traveling. Thus, through the North Star, they could identify directions. North Star is always in the north direction, and from there, it would be easy to infer other directions like the east, the west and the south.
Other ancient navigation tools
There were other navigation techniques or tools used by ancient travelers. Studies note that different civilizations developed different navigation tools and techniques for sea travel. For example, celestial navigation was widely used by European travelers.
In the Pacific, ancient Polynesian travelers were found to have learned how to navigate using wave observations. The concept is very simple, but is so sensible that you may be awed how such a simple idea could have been a very important aspect of navigation way back then.
You know that small waves are observed in deep waters and shallow waters are usually where huge waves can be seen. That is due to the presence of shallower land bottom of the sea on seashores. Polynesians knew that so they detected nearby land areas during travels using such simple knowledge.
In the Mediterranean, ancient travelers learned to use wind as indicators of directions. For example, in the Mediterranean, warm winds are coming from the south, cold breeze is from the north, dry is from the east and humid or wet is from the west.
Ancient navigation is full of wonder. Ancient travelers should be commended for being so smart and resourceful to develop ancient navigation tools and techniques.
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Tags: Survival