Herodotus' description of an Egyptian baris-boat in II, 96 has long been recognized as an accurate account of indiginous Egyptian hull construction. His assertion that Egyptian vessels lacked frames was made plausible by the discovery of the frameless Dahshur boats; and his description of the ships' 'brick-like' planking pattern is confirmed through scenes of Egyptian boating like that of Ipy (TT 217). However, a philological crux - the meaning of the Greek verb [em paktoun] - has hindered understanding of the methods by which Herodotus' ship was built. Modern commentators mainly understand [em paktoun] as 'to caulk'. However, it can be shown that as a ship-construction term, [em paktoun] refers to a method of physically joining planks. Thus, Herodotus' observation that Egyptian craft were put together 'from the inside with papyrus' appears to mean that even as late as the Persian period, some Egyptian rivercraft were lashed together as was 4th-Dynasty Cheops ship. Archaeological evidence, however, shows that newer techniques from the Graeco-Roman world had also penetrated the Nile Valley in Herodotus' time.