Ancient Ports and Shipping

The proposed book brings together articles stemming from the XXV Finnish Symposium on Late Antiquity, held in November 2018. The contributions are structured around three thematic sections, all contributing towards a new and interdisciplinary understanding of what the sea as an environment and the pursuit of seafaring meant for Late Antique societies. Part 1 looks at the practicalities of tackling the sea as an environment for purposes of travel, trade, and warfare. Part 2 engages with the questions of seaborne communications networks and islands as the characteristic hubs of the Mediterranean environment. Part 3 broadens this view with an exploration of the Mediterranean as an environment with great metaphorical and symbolic potential. Throughout the volume, the editors and contributors have maintained an emphasis on a multidisciplinary, broad-angled understanding of the Late Antiquity’s human interactions with their environments – built, natural, and imagined alike. Perhaps more than any other type of environment (equaled perhaps only by mountains), the sea has been understood as immovable to a proverbial degree, and indeed as often been envisioned as an entity wholly indifferent to the concerns of humanity. The sea was an exception and a limit to civilization, and that can be perceived on the conceptualizations of phenomena such as shipwrecks, symbolizing the dichotomy of the safe land and the ungovernable sea. Yet it was the sea’s capability of moving – both through actual mobility and through such emotions as fear, hope and pity – that formed one of the primary means of conceptualizing its significance to the Late Antique societies.
In particular, we feel that understanding the role of environment for ancient societies and culture should be pursued across a range of themes, allowing us to discern diachronic trends and continuities. The significance of the sea for both the concrete mobility of goods, people and ideas, as well as the usefulness of the sea as a metaphor and conceptual, occasionally heterotopic, space both elucidated through an approach that looks at the Mediterranean as an environment, and takes appropriate note of the most recent scholarship. Moreover, this volume will benefit from the use of the theoretical approach of the spatial turn that is a theoretical approach that places emphasis on space and place in disciplines linked with social sciences and the humanities. While never ignoring the fact that we are temporally (as well as environmentally) bound beings, during the past few decades, the use of this approach in different fields of
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study has increasingly emphasised the importance of spatiality in understanding the history of the human being and of its relation with the environment. The subject is challenging, because it demonstrates that space is no longer a neutral concept and cannot be considered independent from that which it contains, and therefore neither can it be considered as immune to historical, political and aesthetic changes. Ideas of the reciprocal causal relationship between subjects and their environments have been common currency in spatially oriented disciplines (e.g. archaeology. geography, history, urban studies. This sort of approach can help set forth more nuanced theories regarding the relation between social systems and their environment - in this case, with the maritime cultural landscape – using case studies and methods applied in different disciplines such as archaeology, classics or history.

Summary
Research on Mediaeval Inland Harbours between
Rhine and Danube
This paper presents ongoing and completed research within the framework of the
„Inland Harbours Project“ at Jena University. Five case studies – Karlburg, Salz,
Ratisbon, Frankfurt on the Main, and the Fossa Carolina – illustrate how archaeological, geo-archaeological, and historical methods can help to identify harbour structures
and historical riverbanks as well as transport networks. Previous work on mediaeval
navigation was usually focussed on maritime harbours as well as early mediaeval
emporia and often lacked interdisciplinary approaches. Because inland waters and
especially rivers may have changed their course dramatically throughout history,
it is essential to combine archaeological and historical methods and sources with
geo-archaeological and other natural scientific methods. This enables the accurate
reconstruction of the historical terrain relief and hydrological situations and correct interpretation of potential archaeological features of harbour installations. Additionally,
the meaning and function of a harbour can only be understood by studying its location
on a local scale within its related urban topography and harbour-related infrastructure
(e. g. castles), and on a regional and superregional scale within its topographical and
political framework. Research within the „Inland Harbours Project“ shows that even
in the High and Late Middle Ages, harbours did not necessarily need constructive
installations to land boats, which leads to the question of whether bank revetments
and quays were initially a response to land reclamation.
The two early mediaeval centres of Karlburg on the river Main and Salz at the
Frankish Saale illustrate how methods of archaeology and geo-archaeology can be
combined to receive evidence-based results of the former river courses and the terrain. For Karlburg, the hypothesis of a mediaeval harbour basin, which is based on a
historical map from the 19th century, has been revised. The results of archaeological
excavations, geological drillings, and surveys allowed the location of the mediaeval
river bank at a distance of 2 km up to 100 metres west of the modern river. Because no
harbour constructions were found, a natural landing site can be assumed. In contrast
to Karlburg, a wide range of geo-archaeological methods showed the stable position of the Frankish Saale in Salz from the Neolithic to the Early and High Middle
Ages. Being part of the royal palace complex Salz, located in the deserted riverine
settlement Mühlstatt, people lived on an elevated, flood-safe position on a calcitecemented gravel layer/alluvial fan. A simple, naturally formed landing site with a
gently sloping embankment could be reconstructed.
The ongoing research of the mediaeval harbour in Ratisbon is focussed on the
analysis of different small rescue excavations along the modern river bank and the
analysis of a huge urban excavation at Regensburg „Donaumarkt“. Because of the
excellent preservation of archaeological features, many scientific methods such as
dendrochronology, radiocarbon dating, archaebotany, and archaeozoology are used
to analyse the development of the mediaeval waterfront in light of inland navigation
Forschungen zu den mittelalterlichen Binnenhäfen zwischen Rhein und Donau 245
and urban development. Early results of the Donaumarkt excavation revealed that
the river bank from the 9th and 10th century was located 20 metres further inland.
Moreover, a navigable side arm or canal was detected parallel to the main arm of
the Danube that was used until the 11th or 12th century. In contrast to Karlburg and
Salz, different types of bank revetments have been documented such as wattle work,
stones, and wooden poles. The whole Danube river bank was used for navigation and
may have had special functional zones that were associated with the landward urban
topography.
An exceptional example for the construction of mediaeval inland harbours is a
quay wall of the 13th/14th century that was discovered in 2012 at the mediaeval Saalhof castle in Frankfurt on the Main. The quay made of stone and wood is located at the
court wall of a mediaeval water castle from the 12th and 13th century (the Saalhof).
The quay is two metres wide and paved, and it ran parallel to the court wall of the
Saalhof. Based on urban topography, the Saalhof castle was located in the commercial
heart of the town, framed by the most important streets. The Saalhof castle worked
as a seat of royal and later civil administration. Because of its location on a natural
alluvial land tongue that reached several metres into the river Main, it was suitable for
controlling navigation and trade. With regard to the water castle of Kaiserswerth on
the Rhine, the function of water toll collection is discussed. Mediaeval castles seem
to have been of great importance to delineate royal territory and to control and defend
important trade routes for inland navigation.
The rivers Danube and Main remain among the most important routes for inland
navigation today. Attempts to connect both river systems to bridge the European watershed were carried out in the Early Middle Ages by Charlemagne in 793 AD, who
initiated an ambitious canal project – the Fossa Carolina. Written sources describe
building the canal in detail as well as its failure. The constructive details of the threekilometre long canal and the question of its completion are the focus of an ongoing
project, „Fossa Carolina“, which combines archaeological and geo-archaeological
methods. Fieldwork showed that huge parts of the canal were buried under colluvial
sediments shortly after the digging, and they were never removed afterwards. Together
with the canal’s missing southern connection to the river Altmühl, this suggests that
the canal was really never finished. However, at least some parts of the approximately
five-metre wide canal fairway were ready to use and may have been navigable. The
banks of the canal were fixed with wooden embankments to prevent erosion. The
shallowest water depth was approximately 0.5 metres, which would have allowed
navigation by early mediaeval flat-bottomed ships.

The fortunes of Byzantine Constantinople always have been intrinsically tied to the sea. Topographical, demographical and economical development of the city is reflected in the history of their harbours, which for the first time is concerned in its entirety in this volume.
Twelve studies regarding the city's the harbours and landing stages at the sea of Marmara and the Golden Horn - but as well regarding those in their European as in their Asian surroundings - are creating a synthesis of the current state of research by analysis of written, pictorial and archaeological sources.

"The presentation gives preliminary information on the shipwrecks of the submerged Egyptian city of Heracleion-Thonis excavated by the European Institute of Underwater Archaeology (IEASM). Underwater surveys started in 1996 in the Bay of Abukir allowed determining the outline of the submerged Canopic region, the circumstances and chronology of its submersion. From the 8th century B.C.E., this town was the custom and border post, and the emporion which controlled access to the Canopic channel, traded with the Greek regions and supervised foreign ships. More than sixty ships dating from the 6th to the 2nd centuries B.C.E. were discovered in the port regions and in the canals of the city bringing evidence on the intense maritime and fluvial activity in this coastal region. Initial analysis of the distribution of the ships of Heracleion-Thonis and some observations on their constructional peculiarities and on the choice of the building material is proposed. Ship 17 of Heracleion-Thonis is the first vessel to be excavated and is thoroughly analysed in the PhD thesis of A.Belov entitled ‘Studies of the Egyptian naval architecture of the Late Period. New archaeological evidence and an attempt at a 3D reconstruction’, which will be examined at the University of Bordeaux in autumn 2013. The ship shows many similarities with the description by Herodotus of the Egyptian river-going ship ‘baris’ (Histories, 2.96, c.450 BC).

David FABRE
Doctor in Egyptology, Université Paul Valéry – Montpellier III (France)
European Institute for Underwater Archaeology
fabre.david@free.fr

Alexandre BELOV
Center for Egyptological Studies of Russian Academy of Sciences
European Institute for Underwater Archaeology
belov.alexandre@gmail.com 
"

This study which focuses on the ancient port within the borders of Ptolemais ancient city in Pamphylia, has emerged from the data obtained by various studies conducted by various researchers in separative periods. The strategic and commercial potentials of the port, the foundation date of which was determined as Ptolemaios II Philadelphos, have ben evaluated comparatively in an archaeological sense.

Em 2017 terá lugar o colóquio “Sines, o Porto e o Mar. História e Património”, entre os dias 7 e 9 de setembro, com o apoio da Administração do Porto de Sines. Neste colóquio, que contará com a presença de vários investigadores portugueses e internacionais, irá debater-se não só o papel do porto de Sines na história, mas também, de um ponto de vista nacional, os temas das rotas marítimas e comércio intercontinental, o património portuário português ou a problemática da escravatura.

By combining underwater survey with formal and compositional study of ceramics, recent work at Burgaz (SW Turkey) reveals a late 6th- or 7th-century assemblage of wine and perhaps other agricultural products carried in LR1 and LR2-related amphoras. Representing various southeast Aegean and likely Cilician producers, the mixed cargo aboard this probable shipwreck offers insights into the complex dynamics of seaborne distribution at the end of antiquity. This brief study also underscores the need for documentation in underwater survey of amphora forms and fabrics, particularly those from a period characterized by intensified and diversified production of supra-regional ceramic types.