Program

Abstract:

In the last ten years the quantity of ships and boats hulls in the Portuguese archaeological record has considerably augmented, mainly due to construction work on the riverfront of Lisbon. At the same time, the technologies and methods available in the field have advanced at a considerable rate. We attempt here to give an overview of how these advances have contributed to our research by outlining our methods and the results we have been able to achieve in the different cases we have been working on.

Abstract:

Mycenaean Messenia is considered to be one of the core areas of the Mycenaean world in the Late Bronze Age Aegean. Although it is one of the most studied regions in Greece, there is little understanding of the relationship between the people who lived there and the sea. Much of the scholarly attention has been focused on trade and exchange, colonialism, and acculturation processes such as Minoanisation, and Mycenaeanisation, but there is an opportunity to move beyond these paradigms. Many theoretical approaches have been used to understand the interconnectivity of the Aegean and the different relationships with the sea. World-systems analysis and network analysis both intrinsically rely heavily on the sea for theorising connectivity, and seascapes, coastscapes and islandscapes, as well as maritime small worlds highlight the connections between coastal communities. Studies of the exchange of material culture and iconography as well as Linear B documents can offer further insight into the maritime world of the Aegean. These, however, do not fully engage with the sensorial and emotional presence of the sea in the landscape. This presentation explores the maritime world of Late Bronze Age Messenia through concepts within maritime archaeology which have not always had the same level of impact within the field of Aegean archaeology, but approaches such as maritime cultural landscapes, maritimity, and the phenomenology of the sea can bring a fresh perspective to the discipline. This research brings together, for the first time, Messenia’s maritime material culture for direct and indirect evidence of a relationship with the sea and the maritime world from across the region. It then undertakes computational, spatial, and visibility analyses to establish the presence of the sea in the landscape while reflecting on what the lived experience of the sea was like for the people living in Messenia during the Late Bronze Age. It highlights the need for a deeper understanding of Mycenaean lifeways and their perception of the environment.

Abstract:

The remains of harbor-city installations near the modern settlement of Plytra in Laconia gulf, Xyli bay in southern Peloponnese, are dated in late Hellenistic and Roman period. They are associated with the ancient city of Asopos, a site of great archaeological importance as it was an essential trading post. This is evidenced by the size of the quarrying zones, the villa with mosaics, the multiple Roman baths, as well as the existence of a commercial harbor. Whereas, the Byzantine constructions are restricted parametrically of east bay. Ruins of the ancient city extends all along the entire length of the submerged wack bedrock, with the majority of them being located on the current spit formed coastline, presenting significant pathologies mainly due to the coastal erosion, formation processes and looting.

In order to contextualize the site, non-invasive investigations carried out, reveling more archeological remains and geomorphological indicators. This research aims to highlight the delimitation and interpretation of the port, the primary role in the development of the coastal configuration of the site through time played by the evolution of the relative sea level and the impact of tectonic events.

As the result of the aforementioned research, the sea basin in the east bay is considered the ancient harbor of the settlement. The creation of the mole, demarcating a sandy shore for the mooring and trading exchange of the vessels. Furthermore, the carved foundations of defensive structures at the southeast extremity of the old peninsula could be assessed for the possible re-evaluation of the paleo- shoreline. The frame outlined so far opens up new perspectives on the role of the Asopos in Hellenistic and roman times.

Abstract:

The presentation that concerns us will focus on the development of a PhD thesis on going. This research is being conducted through the theoretical approach of the maritime cultural landscape, in the chronological scope of Al-Andalus and geographically focused in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula. However, with our approach, we aim to lay a methodological set up which could be applicable to different geographical and chronological contexts.

As the title of the project suggests, the main objective of this study is to test the feasibility of using GIS to describe the maritime cultural landscape of a specific area and era, applying this methodology to the various case studies. Describing the maritime landscape will allow us to relate the environmental conditions of the coastal zone with the presence or absence of archaeological remains in several moments of time. Regarding the nautical perspective, we pretend to view the land from the sea, as
various aspects of the landscape will be analysed for their suitability to carry out activities related to the maritime environment, whether or not they involve directly the presence and use of vessels. As far as the diachronic perspective is concerned, underlying this premise is the fact that we are going to use not only several types of sources, in addition to the interdisciplinarity of this type of study, but also several chronological periods.

Regarding the method, we pretend to elaborate an „historical marine map“ which will consist of: theapproach to the interpretative reconstruction of the paleo-coast through studies of coastal geomorphology, followed by the reinterpretation of historical sources from a nautical perspective, the identification of elements of the maritime cultural landscape and their functions, whose data will be structured in a relational database, and the creation of a GIS platform through which we will conduct several analyses on the proposed landscape. Some of the analysis proposed will consist of the superimposition of historical cartography, reconstruction of marine spaces when possible as well as the paleo coast, and the geolocation of the elements as individual entities and performance of various statistical analyses.

Abstract:

The island of Kythera is located upon one of the most dangerous passages, of one of the most important maritime routes of the Mediterranean. Subsequently, the island’s geostrategic value was exploited for commercial, military, and paramilitary purposes by various agents throughout its known history.
The island has been the subject of research mostly focusing on terrestrial sites and specific periods. Generally accepted as a prominent hunting zone, pirate activity in the waters of Kythera is well attested during the modern period but remains mostly inferred during antiquity. Additionally, the operational specifics determining pirate activity in the region remain unclear.
In order to investigate pirate activity in Kythera across time, and delineate the modus operandi of attacks at sea, this study utilizes a synthetic geo-archaeological approach – namely the investigation of the fundamental geomorphological parameters and technological constraints defining navigation in the region, in order to define specific potent zones of operation off the island’s coasts, and the subsequent re-assessment of associated archaeological sites corresponding to periods of increased pirate activity in the region.
This article is part of a wider, ongoing, geo-archaeological GIS-based assessment of the island’s maritime history. It utilizes textual and iconographical sources, as well as current geomorphological, historical, and archaeological research. This corpus is complemented by historical cartography, cross-examined with present-day data, reports from local seamen recently interviewed, and field observations.

Abstract:

In Alexandria-Egypt, CEAlex (Centre d’etudes Alexandrines) conducted the first scientific underwater excavations in 1994 on the submerged site of the remains of the ancient lighthouse of Alexandria near Qaitbey fort, since 2014, for the first time in Egypt, with the support of Honor Frost foundation, the center has launched a 3D underwater photogrammetry data-gathering program to obtain a DSM – Digital Surface Model – of the submerged site of the lighthouse, and a 3D model of some artifacts. During this work, many challenges were inherent all over the processing methods to make the result more efficient. For this reason, Photogrammetry and computer graphics may be used to help discover and encode accurate optical properties of materials, such as inscriptions and features of small objects. In this paper we present the result of an underwater research project using mixed techniques between photogrammetry and ’Virtual’’ Reflection Transformation Imaging (RTI) combine with Photogrammetry of a statue base locate underwater, achieved by applying ‘’Virtual’’ lighting to 3D model objects, using multiple images of fixed view-points and varying lighting conditions, these techniques allow virtual automated reconstruction of highly detailed 3D texture-mapped models, to show all visible inscriptions and hidden details of the object using some specific filter and altering the light in RTI after stripping any color and texture information from it, we describe the V-RTI method and critically compare it to the current standard Highlight (H-RTI) method.