Maritime Routes

The present paper explores the shifting roles and understandings of the Singapore Straits from the latter Middle Ages until the opening decades of the eighteenth century. In pursuing this task, I will develop a set of basic questions that historicize and problematize the roles, functions and understandings of the Straits across the centuries, and also tease out historical and historiographical paradigms shaping and underpinning the understanding of the region’s past. In pursuing this programme I will make use of a broad range of sources including chronicles and histories, letters and treaties, navigational instructions and travel literature, as well as (European) cartography of the 16th to 18th centuries. In order to gain deeper appreciation of the multi-faceted roles and understandings of the Singapore Straits across the longue durée, I  not only adduce and evaluate materials of European colonial origin, but importantly also heed special attention to sources of Asian origin in general, and specifically to materials that have originally been written in Arabic, Malay, Chinese and have been made accessible to the wider reading public in various contemporary translations. The modes of enquiry and the insights brought to paper here differ both in terms of scope and objectives from my earlier findings expounded in The Singapore and Melaka Straits published in 2010.

INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH: The overall objectives of the University of Toronto expedition to South Sinai include tracing pharaonic routes and camps en route to the turquoise and copper mining region, investigating pharaonic and indigenous camps, mines, and their material culture assemblages in this region, and assessing Egypto-Sinaitic cross-cultural relations within this region. The 2000-2001 reconnaissance work and 2002 excavations in South Sinai focussed on Site 346, a New Kingdom anchorage and copper smelting camp beside the Red Sea, located at the northern end of El-Markha Plain and west of the mining region around Serabit el-Khadim. A topographic map was generated for Site 346 and this mound yielded a limited repertoire of pottery, copper furnaces, copper nodules, and crucible fragments, grinding stones and pounders, lithics, some faience beads, marine shells, urchin spines, and fish bones.  A surface survey revealed two contemporary, small pottery scatters (Sites 346a-b) two km to the south.  The project also investigated a circular, limestone structure (Site 345), 1.7 km to the south of 346.  In addition, the project has incorporated satellite image interpretation to isolate vegetation signatures and associated water sources within the arid environment of El-Markha Plain, thereby detecting potential archaeological sites for ground reconnaissance work. This report concentrates mainly on the results of the 2000-2001 reconnaissance, but incorporates some preliminary results from the 2002 excavations.

"The article re-evaluates maritime routes from Venice to the Levant and back from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth centuries, casting doubt on the conclusions arrived at by historians working within the primarily geographic approach. The paper examines records from over 150 voyages, such as diaries and travelogues of travelers and pilgrims, as well as taking into consideration geographic studies and various navigational aids used today. The study concludes that during this period, Venetian vessels sailed greater distances and much farther from the coast than had previously been thought, and that crossing open water was an integral part of any long distance voyage.

The study was undertaken for the MA dissertation at Tel Aviv University's Department of History under the supervision of Prof. Benjamin Arbel, and accepted by Prof. David Jacoby.

Online access follow the link below. If you are having hard time finding it, please write me.

Renard Gluzman, "Between Venice and the Levant: Re-evaluating Maritime Routes from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century," The Mariner's Mirror, v. 96, n. 3 (August 2010), 262–292.

Tackling maritime security is one of the major global challenges today.
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This paper examines several interrelated aspects of maritime connectivity within the Roman Mediterranean. First, it considers Fulford’s suggestion of a divide between eastern and western trading zones along the North African coast in the light of new discoveries since the publication of his article in Libyan Studies in 1989. Some evidence supports his analysis; the distribution of Italian bricks imported as return cargoes to North Africa does not extend east of the Gulf of Sirt; by contrast the identifiable exports from Cyrenaica go north up the Adriatic but not west to Tripolitania. However, the imported finewares at Berenice (Benghazi) in the third century AD are almost exclusively African Red Slip ware from Tunisia, though it is unclear if they have been imported directly (as clearly occurred much earlier with the import of Punic cooking wares to Cyrenaica), or as return cargoes from an intermediate entrepôt such as Portus. The idea of a certain amount of traffic along the North African littoral is supported by the epigraphic evidence suggesting Alexandrian worshippers at sanctuaries of Isis and Sarapis at major North African ports west of the Gulf of Sirt, who may be part of trading diaspora communities, of the kind attested at Puteoli and elsewhere. Such trading communities at major ports suggest regular mercantile connections on established routes, with knowledge about general market demand (if not actual price levels) at distant ports, and sometimes contacts between known trading partners. The glass industry is considered as a case study illustrating the geographical integration of the Roman economy through maritime networks between ports. Roman glass production relied heavily on large-scale primary production of raw glass in the Levant, using natron imported from Egypt. The raw glass was then shipped around the Roman world to secondary production centres where it was transformed into a final product; the different stages of production were linked by long-distance maritime trade routes. Finally, the paper examines how port structures, capacities and facilities might relate to and reflect the patterns of maritime trade in antiquity. The type and size of port infrastructure and harbour capacity can help to construct hierarchies of ports, ranging from villa harbours to major entrepôts like Portus, and to suggest connections between them within regional hierarchies. It is noteworthy that some of the villa harbours of the Roman period could accommodate sizeable sea-going ships capable of undertaking open-water voyages to distant emporia.

This paper examines several interrelated aspects of maritime connectivity within the Roman Mediterranean. First, it considers Fulford’s suggestion of a divide between eastern and western trading zones along the North African coast in the light of new discoveries since the publication of his article in Libyan Studies in 1989. Some evidence supports his analysis; the distribution of Italian bricks imported as return cargoes to North Africa does not extend east of the Gulf of Sirt; by contrast the identifiable exports from Cyrenaica go north up the Adriatic but not west to Tripolitania. However, the imported finewares at Berenice (Benghazi) in the third century AD are almost exclusively African Red Slip ware from Tunisia, though it is unclear if they have been imported directly (as clearly occurred much earlier with the import of Punic cooking wares to Cyrenaica), or as return cargoes from an intermediate entrepôt such as Portus. The idea of a certain amount of traffic along the North African littoral is supported by the epigraphic evidence suggesting Alexandrian worshippers at sanctuaries of Isis and Sarapis at major North African ports west of the Gulf of Sirt, who may be part of trading diaspora communities, of the kind attested at Puteoli and elsewhere.

Such trading communities at major ports suggest regular mercantile connections on established routes, with knowledge about general market demand (if not actual price levels) at distant ports, and sometimes contacts between known trading partners. The glass industry is considered as a case study illustrating the geographical integration of the Roman economy through maritime networks between ports. Roman glass production relied heavily on large-scale primary production of raw glass in the Levant, using natron imported from Egypt. The raw glass was then shipped around the Roman world to secondary production centres where it was transformed into a final product; the different stages of production were linked by long-distance maritime trade routes.

Finally, the paper examines how port structures, capacities and facilities might relate to and reflect the patterns of maritime trade in antiquity. The type and size of port infrastructure and harbour capacity can help to construct hierarchies of ports, ranging from villa harbours to major entrepôts like Portus, and to suggest connections between them within regional hierarchies. It is noteworthy that some of the villa harbours of the Roman period could accommodate sizeable sea-going ships capable of undertaking open-water voyages to distant emporia.

Devotion to the goddess Tanit/Tinnit, a permutation of Astarte, took place in Mediterranean cave sanctuaries and on Phoenician ships. Employing both material and textual evidence, it is argued that her worship at sea and at port required a degree of religious competency of seamen that served as crew and combatants on trading vessels and military vessels, respectively. With the Phoenician priesthood centered in cities, coastal inhabitants would have depended on part-time officiants to supervise and perform certain rites. Reasons for the lack of mention in the literature of this non-elite class are proposed.

Zum Geleit (Preface to Wd0 43/2)
Die Herausgeber der „Welt des Orients“ freuen sich, dass mit dem vorliegenden Faszikel über „Permutations of Astarte“ nach WdO 40/2 (2010) bereits das zweite Themenheft der WdO erscheinen kann. Anders als das Themenheft von 2010 (Excavations at Qubur al-Walaydah, 2007–2009) ist das vorliegende Heft religionsgeschichtlich ausgerichtet. Unser Dank gilt
den Herausgebern des Themenheftes Prof. Dr. Mark Christian (Nashville) und Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Schmitt (Münster) für die Zusammenarbeit sowie dem Verlag, vertreten durch seinen LektorHerrn Jörg Persch und Frau Friederike Lonz, für die Unterstützung bei der Realisierung des Heftes.

Mainz, Heidelberg, Berlin undWürzburg am 1. Oktober 2013
Sebastian Grätz, Joachim Friedrich Quack, Bernd U. Schipper
und Daniel Schwemer
DieWelt des Orients, 43. Jahrgang, S. 149, ISSN 0043-2547
© 2013 Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen
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This is an open access book available at: https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/51045

In 1603, Dutch Admiral Jacob van Heemskerk plundered a Portuguese merchantman, the Santa Catarina, travelling from Macao to Melaka. The sale of the cargo at a public auction made traders across Northern Europe aware of the riches to be reaped from Asian trade. However, the episode raised legal questions and the United Dutch East India Company (VOC) commissioned the young Hugo Grotius to defend Heemskerk's actions. Grotius produced two classic legal texts, The Law of Price and Booty and its spin-off, The Free Sea, among the greatest works in the history of international legal and political thought. His observations dealt with free trade in the East Indies, the Dutch Republic's military conflict with the Portuguese and Spanish in Asia, and the legal and moral grounds for attacking and plundering Portuguese and Spanish mercantile shipping.

This book considers the background to the treaties then content and significances, and what Grotius actually knew about Southeast Asian politics and Portuguese institutions of trade and diplomacy when he wrote them.

Grotius' work on the freedom of the sea was a cornerstone in his enduring reputation as one of the founders of modern international law. The present book provides a valuable resource for historians of Southeast Asia and for students of international relations, political theory, maritime history and public law.
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Azlin Samsudin, Tarmiji Masron, Mokhtar Saidin, Jeffrey Abdullah and Saiful Shahidan.(2010). LEMBAH BUJANG, SEBUAH KERAJAAN LAMA YANG BERPUSAT:
DARI PERSPEKTIF SISTEM MAKLUMAT GEOGRAFI (GIS).IN: Seminar Prosiding: Penanda Arasan Penyelidikan Arkeologi di UKM (Editor: Asyaari Muhamad, Nik Hassan Shuhaimi Nik Abd. Rahman and Zuliskandar Ramli).Institut Alam Dan Tamadun Melayu (ATMA), Bangi.Pages: 305 - 325

Abstract:

Lembah Bujang telah dikaji sejak sedekad yang la/u dan dikatakan sebagai kerajaan Kedah Tua dari abad ke 1 masihi hingga 14 masihi. Ia juga dilaporkan sebagai salah satu kerajaan lama yang penting dalam abad tersebut sebagai salah satu persinggahan dalam perdagangan di rantau Asia Tenggara. Ma/ah dikatakan juga, penempatan di Lembah Bujang adalah merupakan satu kerajaan atau negeri yang mempunyai penyusunan masyarakat yang tersusun dan jaringan pertukaran barangan tersendiri dengan menggunakan sungai-sungai sebagai penghubung antara kawasan. Fungsi setiap tapak juga telah ditafsirkan berdasarkan kepada kajian o/eh Jane Allen pada tahun 1988. Kesemua tersebut adalah hasil daripada kajian arkeologi melalui  tinjauan dan ekskavasi yang dilakukan oleh pengkaji-pengkaji terdahulu. Bagaimanapun, kajian terhadap taburan tapak-tapak arkeo/ogi di Lembah Bujang dengan menggunakan pendekatan Sistem Maklumat Geografi (GIS) tidak pernah dilakukan /agi. 0/eh itu, ana/isis GIS telah dilakukan ke atas taburan tapak-tapak arkeologi yang sedia ada untuk menentukan polo penempatan dan pusat penempatan tersebut dan sungai utama yang menjadi nodi dalam kerajaan lama. Ana/isis yang dijalankan menunjukkan taburan tapak-tapak adalah tertumpu pada dua lembangan iaitu kawasan tadahan sungai Merbok dan Sungai Muda. Kedua-dua sungai ini memainkan peranan dalam kerajaan Kedah Tua. Ana/isis terhadap polo taburan tapak-tapak arkeologi pula berdasarkan kepada 3 atribut iaitu ketinggian, kecerunan dan fungsi setiap tapak menunjukkan bahawa wujud polo penempatan dan pusat kerajaan Kedah Tua. Polo penempatan Lembah Bujang ada/ah berkisar kepada Sungai Merbok sebagai sungai utamanya berbanding dengan sungai Muda. Ma/ah ana/isis tersebut juga menunjukkan bahawa kawasan Pengkalan Bujang dan sepanjang sungai Pengkalan Bujang kemungkinan merupakan pusat kerajaan Kedah Tua. Sekitarnya merupakan kawasan aktiviti ekonominya. Kewujudan pusat kerajaan, menunjukkan wujudnya kerajaan lama dan penempatan di Lembah Bujang merupakan sebuah penempatan satu negeri yang mempunyai kerajaan berpusat.

Cambodia and Indonesia is covered in our book-Hindu temples of Bharat, Cambodia and Indonesia. For a detailed reading of these belowgiven historicites please read our TRILOGY Devraja I, DevrajaII and Devraja III with over 1500 pages. Also 27 papers cover this topis. All available to read on academia.edu,scribd,researchgate.net Dr Uday Dokras Ph D SWEDEN The Silk Roads are amongst some of the most important routes in our collective history. It was through these roads that relations between east and west were established, exposing diverse regions to different ideas and ways of life. Notably, these exchanges also included the diffusion of many of the world's major religions including Hinduism and Islam. A trade route is a logistical network identified as a series of pathways and stoppages used for the commercial transport of cargo. The term can also be used to refer to trade over bodies of water. Allowing goods to reach distant markets, a single trade route contains long-distance arteries, which may further be connected to smaller networks of commercial and noncommercial transportation routes. Among notable trade routes was the Amber Road, which served as a dependable network for long-distance trade. Maritime trade along the Spice Route became prominent during the Middle Ages, when nations resorted to military means for control of this influential route. During the Middle Ages, organizations such as the Hanseatic League, aimed at protecting interests of the merchants and trade became increasingly prominent. Early development: Long-distance trade routes were developed in the Chalcolithic Period. The period from the middle of the 2nd millennium BCE to the beginning of the Common Era saw societies in Southeast Asia, Western Asia, the Mediterranean, China, and the Indian subcontinent develop major transportation networks for trade. One of the vital instruments which facilitated long-distance trade was portage and the domestication of beasts of burden. Organized caravans, visible by the 2nd millennium BCE, could carry goods across a large distance as fodder was mostly available along the way. The domestication of camels allowed Arabian nomads to control the long-distance trade in spices and silk from the Far East to the Arabian Peninsula. Caravans were useful in long-distance trade largely for carrying luxury goods, the transportation of cheaper goods across large distances was not profitable for caravan operators. [9] With productive developments in iron and bronze technologies, newer trade routes-dispensing innovations of civilizations-began to rise.

Passer de l'état de servitude à celui de détenteurs de fonctions politiques de premier plan : voilà le destin bien peu commun que connut une famille italienne dans le courant du XIX ème siècle. Une aventure dont nous restent bien sûr des traces postales et épistolaires...

"The article revisits the “Santa Catarina incident”, the famous episode of the first Portuguese ship captured by the Dutch in Asian waters, placing it within the broader context of Luso-Dutch rivalry in the Malay world, particularly the Straits of Singapore and Malacca. Through a careful analysis of European sources, the author assesses the broader consequences of this event and the ensuing international implications. After 1603, the VOC directors and the regents of the Dutch Republic were alerted to how profitable the policy of freebooting and despoiling the enemy could be, while the Portuguese authorities of the Estado da Índia became aware of their vulnerability in the face of geographical constraints. There is also a discussion of the legal defence of the Dutch interests as presented by Hugo Grotius, the Dutch jurist who has frequently been upheld as the “father of modern international law”. What becomes very transparent in the course of the present account is how important the Macao merchants really were to the Estado da Índia, how far their networks of trade spanned deep into Southeast Asia, and how, despite suffering a number of severe setbacks as a result of VOC freebooting activities, they managed to recuperate from these blows with amazing agility and perseverance.

You can download this paper from
http://www.icm.gov.mo/RC/TextPE.asp?No=11&ID=555"

The discovery of the Sungai Batu complex by the Centre for Global Archaeological Research, Universiti Sains Malaysia in 2007 is of great significant in understanding the early civilisations in Malaysia. The complex was found during a scientific palaeoenvironmental reconstruction sutdy. A total pf 97 mounds were mapped and identified in 3km2 area that has great archaeological potential. To date, excavations at 16 mounds revealed ritual monuments, a riverside jetty built in the 2nd century CE, and iron smelting sites that were used from the 1st century CE. The discovery of the iron smelting industry in this complex showed that the Sungai Batu civilisation had an economic base. These new findings give a more holistoc and complete picture of the Bujang Valley civilisation and should lead to a significant re-evaluation of the evidence that has been accumulated since the 1840s. Based on the early research results, the Bujang Valley civilisation was thought to date as early as the end of the 4th century CE and to be primarily a Hindu-Buddhist site (Coedes, 1968). These new finds with chronometric dating (radiocarbon and OSL) allow us to re-write not onl the history of Malaysian civilisation but also that of the region. To date, the important discovery of a 110 CE monument meant Sungai Batu provides the earliest evidence of a monument (with chronometric dates) in Southeast Asia.

Study looks into expressions of maritime religion at Phoenician-
Punic coastal shrines and considers them opposite inland manifestations in mainland Phoenicia and south Lebanon. Historical, archaeological, and sociopolitical approaches bring shape and focus to the often diverging evidence.
Keywords: Tanit, Grotta Regina, Maritime Religion, Umm el-Amed

Gallipoli peninsula is one of the most significant geographical point for the movement of the prehistoric
populations between Balkans and Anatolia. Apart from the narrow isthmus connecting the
peninsula to the European continent, it is encircled with the Aegean Sea in the south and Marmara
Sea in the north which makes it rather island geography. In this paper, a reassessment of the four
prehistoric mounds dating from Early Neolithic to Bronze Ages; Değirmenlik, Karaağaçtepe
(Protesilaos), Akbaş, and Asartepe, all situated on the south end of the peninsula are discussed.
Although these prehistoric sites are situated inside the Gallipoli National Park, they are heavily subject
to destruction by natural processes and agricultural activities. The future surveys and studies
on the Neolithic Period would help us to better understand the details on the initial habitation of
the peninsula.
Key words: Gallipoli Peninsula, Prehistory, Prehistoric Mounds, Prehistoric Settlements, Prehistoric Turkish Thrace.

This article delves into the historical evolution of the Singapore Strait or Straits from the medieval period to the early modern era, spanning approximately four centuries. Preceding the establishment of the British trading post in 1819, the understanding of the toponym "Singapura" was primarily captured in Johann Heinrich Zedler's German Universal-Lexicon from the mid-18th century. Zedler extended the toponym to various geographic features, including the straits, positing that they derived their name from the nearby settlement.

Building on Zedler's claim, the author examines early European cartographical materials, proposing the Temasek-Singapura paradigm, later expanding it into a broader paradigm by the 20th century. Victor Obdeijn's assertion that the Straits of Singapore were relatively "new" features challenges the traditional association of these toponyms. Obdeijn suggested that Singapura could not have functioned as a trading center before the Portuguese arrival in the early 16th century.

Examining Arabic, Turkish, and predominantly Portuguese sources, the article draws crucial conclusions. It highlights historical interpretations of the toponym Singapura beyond the "Lion City" mentioned in the Sejarah Melayu. Early Portuguese chronicles emphasize the ruler's authority derived from controlling waterways, earning him the title "Lord of the Strait(s)." However, by the late 16th and early 17th centuries, Singapura was no longer linked to the settlement or island but exclusively to the straits. The paper underscores the fallacy in Zedler's assumption that the maritime arteries were named after the town; instead, the straits bestowed their name upon the nearby settlement of Singapura.

«Vessel Tracking: Venice's Marine Traffic in the First Half of the Sixteenth Century – a Geospatial Analysis» (in collaboration with Renard Gluzman), in Reti marittime come fattori dell’integrazione europea, Istituto di Storia Economica “Francesco Datini”, Prato, Atti delle “Settimane di Studio” e altri Convegni, Firenze: Firenze University Press, 2019, pp. 135-153.

The lifeline of international trade is provided by shipping – a sector that is considered by scholars as one of the four cornerstones that fostered globalization. Today, shipping lines are said to operate in a borderless environment where economic priorities are dominant. In this sense, transport geography has largely surpassed political geography and geopolitics. However, until the mid-twentieth century, the prospects of shipping were tied down to the level of economic activity of the place of registry; thus, the interplay between political change, fleet nationality and the evolution of shipping networks was crucial.

The present collaborative work in progress is an empirical attempt to verify this interplay with regard to Venice in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. On the basis of historical data on ship positions, extracted from archival sources, we create GIS-based online maps to conduct a geospatial analysis of traffic intensity and movement patterns along regional and inter-regional sea routes linking the Venetian port system with Mediterranean ports, paying special attention to the Eastern Mediterranean. In this sense, the platform “simulates” modern real-time technologies used to visualize shipping trends per vessel types.
Venice offers a good example of a maritime power that experienced diverse geopolitical contexts in the wake of Portuguese activities in the Indian Ocean. Although the consequent events did not disrupt trade with the Levant for long, they had a profound effect on Venice’s anachronistic political and economic conceptions. This period saw the gradual disappearance of the merchant galley system and a deep economic crisis in Venetian private shipping and shipbuilding enterprises.  It is therefore not surprising that a recent trend in early modern historiography is to extend the definition of proto-globalization (also known as the First Age of Globalization) to cover the early decades of the sixteenth century, a period in which the oceanic expansion already had a significant impact worldwide.

Against this backdrop, we shall examine to what extent shipping within the Venetian maritime state remained a closed system. To do so, we address the following questions: How did political and economic factors, such as the oceanic discoveries, Ottoman expansion, piracy, and so on, affect the colonial–Venetian maritime network? How did ship-owners of different socioeconomic backgrounds and geographical origins negotiate their position within this maritime network? Related to these questions are the particular privileged-based legal status of a colonial ship, entangling empires and multiple identities, the practice of “flagging out”, and illegal traffic.  In this sense, the project strives to contribute to a discussion of larger issues related to the long-term effects of Venetian rule in its overseas territories on economic development, immigration movements, cultural and ethnic identity in these possessions.

The Board of Directors of Actia Nicopolis Foundation decided to publish the work of Mr. Konstantinos Chr. Kostoulas on the commercial advertisment of Preveza up to 1940. The results of Kostoulas' research preceeds the main corps of the book which is illustrated with reproductions of old commercial and maritime advertisemnets, ephemera, postcards, postal cancellations and maritime stamps. The index of names, places, jobs, maritime companies, steamer names, etc. concludes the publication and makes it easier to trace them within the book. All texts are in Greek.


Το Διοικητικό Συμβούλιο του Ιδρύματος Ακτία ΝΙκόπολις θεώρησε ότι η πρωτότυπη και εξειδικευμένη εργασία του κ. Κώστα Χρ, Κωστούλα με θέμα την εμπορική διαφήμιση στην Πρέβεζα μέχρι το 1940, καρπός επίμονης και επιμελούς έρευνας, θα αποτελούσε χρήσιμο εργαλείο για τους μελετητές της πορείας της εμπορικής δραστηριότητας της Πρέβεζας.

Αποφασίσαμε να αναλάβουμε την έκδοσή της εμπλουτίζοντας τις εμπορικές και ναυτιλιακές διαφημίσεις, που είχε συλλέξει ο συγγραφέας, με αποσπάσματα παλαιών εμπορικών οδηγών, εμπορικά δελτάρια, ναυτιλιακές και ταχυδρομικές σφραγίδες της Πρέβεζας.

Η μελέτη του κ. Κώστα Κωστούλα παρατίθεται στο πρώτο μέρος της έκδοσης, ενώ στο δεύτερο παρουσιάζεται όλο το υλικό που συλλέχθηκε, σε τέσσερις ενότητες και με χρονολογική σειρά.

Κρίθηκε ότι η ευρετηρίαση των τοπωνυμίων, των κυρίων ονομάτων και επωνύμων, των ναυτιλιακών εταιρειών και των ατμόπλοιων που προσέγγιζαν στο λιμάνι της Πρέβεζας, των επαγγελμάτων και άλλων λέξεων που εμφανίζονται στα κείμενα και τις διαφημίσεις, θα ήταν χρήσιμη για την ευκολότερη ανεύρεση των στοιχείων που περιλαμβάνονται στην έκδοση. Συντάξαμε γι’ αυτόν το λόγο ένα Γενικό Ευρετήριο, το οποίο υπάρχει στο τέλος του τόμου.

Unlike other cart ruts found elsewhere in the world, the Azorean cart-ruts, engraved on volcanic stone, at the middle of the Atlantic, raise many questions: How old are they? Who created them? Were they made during a short or long time? These mysteriously enigmatic parallel grooves are noticed on the hard volcanic rock of the nine Azorean Islands in several locations. Recent scientific evidences have provided some support to the hypothesis of human presence in the Azores Islands before Portuguese settlement during the 15 th century. Are the Azorean cart-ruts pre-Portuguese? Here we try to establish a chronology for the cart-ruts of Terceira Island, Azores, Portugal, using an historical approach, a geological approach and also a 14 C dating approach , the last one obtained by dating a placic horizon found in the grooves of the cart-ruts named " Passage of the Beasts " , which indicates the presence of human activity in the island at least during the 11 th century, or probably before. The date obtained is consistent with another date achieved through similar methods for a man-made basin in the same island and is also consistent with the historiographical records.

This paper is one of eleven articles in the series “Mastering Postal History” that describe how envelopes and other postal artifacts can be used as original source documents for researching the humanities and the social sciences.

Seafaring vessels have been around for a very, very long time. Would you believe they have been around longer than human beings? Homo sapiens showed up about 125,000 years ago, but another part of the family, Homo erectus, evolved over a million years ago. They wandered northward and eastward over the land masses connected to Africa until they bumped into the Pacific Ocean. It would appear Homo erectus wasn’t big on long distance swimming. So somewhere between 800,000 and 900,000 years ago, one of them decided to build the first boat. The island of Flores is located off the coast of southeast Asia between Java and Australia. And that is where evidence was found confirming when and where our ancient ancestors invented the boat.

While there is much more to ship mail postal history than routes, this article is devoted to researching seaborne routes. From a postal history standpoint, knowing the route will facilitate determining both the means of transport and the applicable rate(s).

The very first transatlantic letter was carried by Christopher Columbus on his initial trip to the New World. It was sent by the Catholic Monarchs to the King of Cipango (Japan), where it was believed Columbus would reach. Mail has been an important part of ship travel ever since that time. Throughout history, monarchs have recognized the importance of postal systems to controlling their empires. Indeed, as colonial empires spread worldwide, ship mail became an integral component of imperial ambitions.

The burgeoning of the British colonies in North America, including the West Indies, was accompanied by growing commercial intercourse across the North Atlantic. It is worth noting that one of the most useful research sources for understanding the evolution of ship mail is to consult histories of British postal regulations as well as those of other nations.

There are several lessons to be learned from studying ship routes. But I believe the major takeaway is that from the earliest times of maritime mail, separate systems worked remarkably well in ensuring that the posts moved expeditiously from start to finish.

This document is best read with a PDF viewer set to “View > Page Display > Two-Page View”.

* The belief that the North Pole region could contain large quantities of oil and gas is one of the major forces driving Russian policy. The North Pole expedition of July-August 2007 laid the ground for submitting a claim to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf that the Lomonosov Ridge belongs to Russia.

* Russia’s claims will be challenged by Canada, the USA and Denmark. The Arctic region is likely to become a region of geopolitical competition later in the 21st century as the ice cap melts.

* There is a widespread view in Russia that its claim to Arctic territory is not speculative, but rightful compensation for territorial losses in Europe.

* Any foreign interest in the area, government, commercial or environmental, is seen as hostile intent.

* Armed action by NATO to contest Russia’s Arctic claims is discussed as a serious possibility.

* Reports of the death of the Russian North are greatly exaggerated, as they take no account of commercial rebirth based on the oil industry.

* Russia has a well-developed commercial and transport infrastructure to take advantage of opportunities offered by the retreating icecap, in contrast to other littoral states.

* Naval re-armament and increased military activity mean the same applies to capacity for military action.

L’oil bottle è una delle forme del repertorio vascolare della madrepatria che i Fenici mantengono durante i loro spostamenti nel Mediterraneo. È prodotta dalla metà dell’VIII al terzo quarto del VI sec. a.C. Data l’ampia distribuzione geografica e la varietà tipologica delle attestazioni è considerata un valido indicatore cronologico, utile anche alla definizione dei circuiti commerciali. In questo contributo si analizzano – sulla base di un aggiornato spoglio bibliografico e alla luce degli studi più recenti – i contesti in cui tale forma è documentata. Viene quindi presentato un elenco degli esemplari provenienti da contesti riconosciuti come stratigraficamente affidabili, al fine di tracciare le linee guida dello sviluppo crono-tipologico di questa forma.

L’étude d’un petit ensemble de lettres adressées, dans les années 1890, au même destinataire résidant à Tokyo nous permettra, ce mois-ci, de présenter les voies d’acheminement maritime de l’Europe vers le Pays du Soleil Levant. Malgré la monotonie apparente des affranchissements, la grande diversité des routes suivies témoigne de l’efficacité des services postaux de l’époque.

En este artículo se destacan los principales condicionantes que gobiernan las diferentes cuencas del Mediterráneo. El análisis está enfocado hacia el mundo fenicio y las rutas frecuentadas entre el siglo IX y el siglo VII a.C. El objetivo es analizar las dificultades que caracterizan las varias áreas del Mediterráneo; también se han intentado detectar las modificaciones ocurridas en las rutas, identificando las posibles causas que las determinaron.

ATENCO was perhaps one of the largest European Commission projects on port development and pricing. The main objective of the project was to gauge the extent to which infrastructure development policies and related pricing in one country/port might impact traffic distribution among competing ports, and consequently to assess the desirability of developing a more harmonised approach towards port development across Europe.

The present brief report to the European Commission, uploaded below, summarizes the objectives of the various Work Packages and presents the project’s main conclusions. Amongst them, the project claims that, in spite of the benefits to society of long-run marginal cost pricing, in industries with high fixed costs, capital indivisibilities and increasing returns to scale such as ports, particularly those operating in a competitive environment, marginal cost pricing is not so straightforward, whereas full cost recovery, in combination with the user pays principle, can form a workable basis for fair and efficient pricing.

In addition, the project advocated for the need for accurate and standardised statistics on various port magnitudes and costs; transparency in port accounts and standardisation of accounting systems; definition of the relationship between the port and its ‘institutional supervisor’; and agreement on what is or is not allowed as public support to seaports (state aid). The report showed that if further progress on these issues were to be made, full cost recovery would become more straightforward, while the pricing policies to implement this could be left to the commercial skills of individual ports.

The cargo of marble blocks off Capo Bianco was dated to the Roman period. New sampling and analysis has identified Carrara marble, and also Rosso di Francia (Rouge Languedoc) and Portargento, which strongly suggests a post-medieval date. This leads to the suggestion
that nearby finds dating between the second half of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th may come from the same ship, perhaps sailing from France and Liguria to deliver stone in southern Italy. This is rare evidence of the post-medieval marble trade and demonstrates the importance of archaeometric analysis for the interpretation of wrecked cargos.

C’est une ville portuaire d’alors 22.000 habitants, Port-Louis, ancienne possession française de l’Océan indien, qui sera ce mois-ci notre destination. La desserte postale de l’île Maurice illustre en effet à quel point la recherche de liaisons efficaces a pu entraîner parfois des modifications radicales dans le tracé des routes maritimes entre Europe et contrées d’outre-mer. Nous rappelant, encore aujourd’hui, à quel point histoire et géographie postales sont intimement liées.

El presente artículo pretende ofrecer un estado de la cuestión sobre los pecios fenicios encontrados en el Mediterráneo (siglos IX–VII a.C.), analizando la tipología naval, la carga y los objetos de abordo. El objetivo es la reconstrucción de la ruta y las posibles causas de cada naufragio.

This article aims to provide a status of the issue regarding Phoenician shipwrecks (from the IXth to the VIIth century BC) discovered all along the Mediterranean, analyzing ship types, cargo, and on-board objects. The purpose is to rebuild the routes and find possible causes for each studied wreck.

Scholarship relating to the maritime nature of the Southern Levant depicts, for the most part, low-key, slow-paced activity. Indeed, the meager volume of this scholarship alone suggests as much, a fact which may explain the scarcity of references to the area in general Mediterranean literature. Several elements joined together to create such a picture, which is arguably inaccurate at best. Excessive attention has been awarded to the seamanship of the Jews, focusing mostly on written sources which are reticent on the issue. And, as far as concerns material evidence, particularism has dictated the tone in the approach of Israeli Archaeology towards the interpretation of coastal (and, indeed, dry-land-) sites; little has been done by way of a synthesized analysis, one that would supply finds with a wide, long-term historical context.
Owing to the accumulating produce of local maritime and coastal archaeology, such biases and lacunae are now more readily remediable. Especially, excavations conducted in shallow water along the coast of Israel have recently been able to produce a critical mass of evidence, possibly sufficient for answering various general questions of historical nature. In Dor alone some twenty-five sites of interest have been identified, more than a third of which have been excavated and established to consist of shipwrecks from the period of Late Antiquity. It is the intention of the paper abstracted here to approach late antique Dor through the scope of maritime activity, and to supply it with a historiographical contextualisation.