The dredging of rivers and ports has been necessary for maritime cities for thousands of years. How was it done before modern machinery?

by TerryStedman

Tilling up silt and earth from rivers and ports requires enormous effort - how was this done before industrial-era machinery? Especially when the silt is deeper than a human is tall - how was this done if you can't just use a work crew with shovels & buckets?

Happy to hear from any pre-modern era from any geographical era - but particularly interested in late medieval Netherlands, ancient Rome, and the more ancient Near-East.

Bonus for any pre-Columbian American dredging info!

Czechbro

Please have a look at this fantastic scholarly paper, on exactly this subject: http://www.bollettinodiarcheologiaonline.beniculturali.it/documenti/generale/4_Morhange_Marriner_paper.pdf

This particularly relates to Ancient Roman dredging activity. Based on the article I think we can say a few things for sure:

  1. There is archaeological evidence for dredging activity at a number of ancient ports.
  2. While we don't know exactly what kind of technology was used, based on the fossilized markings on the ancient seabed and the 2nd Century AD dredging vessels found at Marseilles, we can hypothesize that it was some kind of large "scoop" which used a simple machine (wheel, pulley, lever action) or combination of simple machines to generate quite a bit of force. The archaeologists state that they were very surprised to see how effective it was, based on the depth of the dredging taluses (divots) made on the seabed.