Personification in Greek Myth

[Minimalist]

Heyerdahl gets credit for being an experimental archaeologist/historian and for putting his own ass on the line to pursue his theories.  All that said, we have plenty of excavations of underwater shipwrecks in the Med which gives a pretty solid view of the types of commercial ships in use.  The oldest site identified so far, at Dokos off the Greek coast, dates from 2200 BC towards the end of the Early Bronze Age.  The site was covered in amphorae ( ceramic jars used for transport and storage ) as well as stone anchors and other assorted items which survived the ravages of time.  8 centuries later the Uluburun wreck was found off the Turkish coast and the same amphorae laden cargo was noted but this time there were parts of the ship's hull which did survive.  Uluburun dates to roughly 1,400 BC or the Late Bronze Age and curiously contains copper ingots which would have been amazingly valuable at the time.  (Someone lost a fortune when that ship went down - I hope it was a bastard like Trump!)  Nonetheless, the same style of cargo ship was in usage in the Med. for millennia. 

BTW, the Uluburun ship, as well as the Khufu Solar Barque from the Old Kingdom and the "jesus boat" from first century BC Israel all used the same mortise and tenon style of planked construction which was clearly a successful model and the ancients saw no need to change it.

But I doubt you would get the same carrying capacity in a reed boat.

This marine archeologist built a replica of an Egyptian craft. 

https://phys.org/news/2009-03-maritime-a...urney.html

Ancient Egyptians may be best known for building pyramids, but internationally renowned maritime archaeologist Cheryl Ward wants the world to know that they were pretty good sailors, too.
She ought to know. Ward, an associate professor of anthropology at The Florida State University, and an international team of archaeologists, shipwrights and sailors recently built a full-scale replica of a 3,800-year-old ship and sailed it on the Red Sea to re-create a voyage to a place the ancient Egyptians called God’s Land, or Punt. Their expedition was financed and filmed as part of a French documentary that will air internationally and on an upcoming episode of “Nova.”
“This project has demonstrated the extraordinary capability of the Egyptians at sea,” Ward said. “Many people, including my fellow archaeologists, think of the Egyptians as tied to the Nile River and lacking in the ability to go to sea. For 25 years, my research has been dedicated to showing the scope of their ability and now, to proving their independently invented approach to ship construction worked magnificently at sea.”

I doubt that it would have looked out of place in harbors of Piraeus, Rhodes, or Tyre over a span of 4,000 years.