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Maritime archaeology

Maritime archaeology is a discipline that studies human interaction with the sea, lakes and rivers through the study of vessels, shore side facilities, cargoes and human remains. One speciality is underwater archaeology, which studies the past through any submerged remains. An other specialty within maritime archaeology is nautical archaeology, which studies vessel construction and use.

Maritime archaeology can be divided in a three-tier hierarchy, of which the first tier consists of the archaeology of shipwrecks and wreck sites. In this discipline the wrecking process itself is studied: how does a ship break up, how does a ship float to the bottom, and how do the remains of both ship and cargo decay over time?

The second tier studies the ship as a machine, both in itself and in a military or economic system.

The third tier consists of the archaeology of maritime cultures, in which nautical technology, naval warfare, trade and shipboard societies are studied.

Maritime archaeology has two important advantages over land archaeology. First the remains of ships and cargoes, even organic materials, are sometimes better preserved under water or in bottom sediments. The second advantage lies in the fact that until recently, shipwrecks were usually beyond the reach of human intervention or salvage, thereby creating perfect time capsules.


Contents

Famous shipwrecks

Famous wrecksites


Prehistory

Archeological evidence indicates that humans arrived on New Guinea at least 60,000 years ago, probably by sea from Southeast Asia during an ice age period when the sea was lower and distances between islands shorter. See History of Papua New Guinea. The ancestors of Australian Aborigines and New Guineans went across the Lombok Strait to Sahul by boat over 50,000 years ago.

Atlantic and Mediterranean

The earliest indications of shipbuilding in the Atlantic are attributed to the Saharan Mende-speaking peoples. Recent excavations point to a possible link between ancient Egypt and prehistoric Mende-peoples who may have migrated out of Sudan. See History of Ancient Egypt. Artistic impressions dating to between 10,000 and 8,000 BC depict Saharan men as wearing round helmets akin to those depicted in Olmec statues. See Olmec.

Included in the nomes of ancient Egypt are names associated with harpoons. Actual harpoons dating to 3000 BC have been found in West Africa, indicating ancient seafaring as early. See West Africa: History.

In the Mediterranean area, maritime archaeology mainly deals with the innumerable retrievals of ancient ages, especially regarding the Roman fleets. The many discoveries in the sea and in some lakes (notably in Nemi, Italy, where Caligula's ships were found) were really helpful in explaining some passages of the history of Romans, Phoenicians and Etruscans, and allowed to track respective presences in the related areas.

Phoenicians ships ventured out into the Atlantic Ocean as far as Britain. Trade routes from Asia converged on the Phoenician coast, as well as between Mesopotamia on the one side and Egypt and Arabia on the other. Phoenicians also sailed south along the coast of Africa. A Carthaginian expedition led by Hanno the Navigator explored and colonized the Atlantic coast of Africa as far as the Gulf of Guinea, and, according to Herodotus, a Phoenician expedition sent out by pharaoh Necho II of ancient Egypt even circumnavigated Africa. The Phoenicians established commercial outposts throughout the Mediterranean, the most notable being Carthage in North Africa, with others in Cyprus, Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, Spain. Interestingly, the name Spain comes from the Phoenician word Sapan, which means ' that which is hidden', reflecting their penchant to jealously guard the locations of their mines and sources of wealth as trade secrets.

Italy is indeed one of the most important areas for these studies, with particular reference to Roman and Etruscan naval activities. Also because of the extremely high rate of expected wrecks (Romans calculated that at least 30% of cargo would have been lost by storms or pirate assaults), the traffic was proportionally (or perhaps more) increased, and many goods were found (ordinarily contained in amphoras or in the larger dolia ) that let us understand what the commerce was about. Sometimes, as in the case of the two "bronzi" found in Riace (Calabria), real artworks were brought to the surface. In other cases, like the very recent retrievals in Sarno river (near Pompeii), other details enlarge the knowledge of some interesting elements: this retrieval allows us to suppose in fact that on the Tyrrhenian shore too there were little towns with palafittes , like in ancient Venice. In the same area, the submerged town of Puteoli (Pozzuoli, close to Naples) contains the "portus Julius" created by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa in 37 BC, later sunk due to bradyseism.

But other areas too have no less interest, like the waters around Israel, where Herod's port at Caesarea was found. Other finds are consistent with some passages of the Bible (like the so-called Jesus boat, which appears to be similar to those in use during the first century AD).

The Antikythera mechanism, which appears to be an ancient clockwork astronomical computer, was discovered in a shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera.

mtDNA analyses (see Z. Brakez et al., "Human mitochondrial DNA sequence variation in the Moroccan population of the Souss area" extract) found that various populations have contributed to the present-day gene pool of the Souss region of southern Morocco, including Berbers, Arabs, Phoenicians, Sephardic Jews, and sub-Saharan Africans. Throughout the Sahara, Berbers, Arabs, and sub-Saharan Africans are significantly represented genetically.


Red Sea, Arabian Sea and Mediterranean Sea

Ancient Seafaring

In Lothal, India, there is secondary evidence of sea-going craft. Archaeologists have discovered a massive, dredged canal and docking facility at this coastal city of the Indus Valley. See Lothal and Indus Valley Civilization: Economy.

Coincidentally, Lapis lazuli was being traded from its only known source in the ancient world – Badakshan, in what is now northeastern Afghanistan – as far as Mesopotamia and Egypt by the second half of the 4th millennium BC. By the 3rd millennium BC trade was extended to Harappa and Mohenjo-daro in the Indus valley.

For an exceedingly helpful map of some ancient maritime routes between 25 and 220 CE, please see Eurasian Trade Routes at the Time of the Eastern Han Dynasty, posted at Chinese-Western contacts and chess by Peter Banaschak. Apparently, the maritime route leading to Lothal on this map (located southeast of Karachi, Pakistan) may be millennia older than this map suggests.

Oldest Known Harbor

Relying upon present day archaeological evidence, carbon-dating methods and astronomical data using sophisticated methods, Lothal appears to be the oldest harbor known. Present day deductions are that Lothal may have been built as early as 6000 BC, 3000 years earlier than any other known ancient river valley civilisation. Lothal is located in the northernmost area of the Gulf of Khambhat, leading to the Arabian Sea.

Suez Canal

Sometime around the 13th century BC a "Suez Canal" was dug between the River Nile and the Mediterranean Sea. See Suez Canal. Egyptian pharaoh Necho II (610 - 595 BC) then completed the canal by extending it from the Nile to the Gulf of Suez, thereby allowing ship passage between the Mediterranean Sea and Red Sea. However, because the Nile deposits much sediment, the canal probably silted up quite quickly. It was restored several times, notably by Ptolemy II and Trajan. But by the 8th century the Suez Canal had become unnavigable and likely remained so for the next thousand years.

Between 1859 and 1869, the Suez Canal was built again by the Compagnie universelle du canal maritime de Suez (Universal Suez Ship Canal Company) led by Ferdinand de Lesseps.


Pacific

A maritime route opened up between Chinese-controlled Jiaozhi (centred in modern Vietnam, near Hanoi) probably by the first century CE. It extended, via ports on the coasts of India and Sri Lanka, all the way to Roman-controlled ports in Egypt and the Nabataean territories on the northeastern coast of the Red Sea. The Hou Hanshu records that the first Roman envoy arrived in China by this maritime route in 166 CE.


Also see


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Last updated: 08-29-2005 11:13:35