A version of Coates idea about a phoenician trireme based on the Luli evacuation friezes.
Phonecian trireme on the left, 'traditional' interpretation on the right.
From this it can be seen that the zygian (sitting innermost) would be the one visible in the palace frieze.
The idea of different length oars is decisively refuted in 'The Athenian Trireme'. The three levels cannot row in rythm if the oars are different lengths.
Why would the screens be placed alongside the thranite level but not the zygians ?
Possibly Coates himself ditched this idea more recently but I have not found a reference to that yet.
The centre of gravity of such a construction would rise and the presence of a lot of people on the top deck make it unstable. In the Conway's Age of the Galley, HT Wallinga goes through historical hoops to give the Phoenicians credit for the trireme but in the context of Corsica, not Tyre; without any physical or graphical evidence.
Once the Tyrian evacuation ships and Clement of Alexandria are removed from the scene there is no evidence to gainsay Thucydides. The samaina is another question.........
