Nautical Archaeology of the Ancient Mediterranean

Catalog description

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. COURSE OVERVIEW. Surveys seafaring and maritime culture in the Mediterranean from the Stone Age through the Roman Republic, with an excursus on fluvial galleys of Imperial Rome. Examines the archaeological and historical evidence for ancient navigation, shipbuilding and maritime trade, with a focus on both land-based and underwater sites. Students explore Egyptian seafaring on the Nile and in the Red Sea, Bronze Age shipwrecks such as Uluburun and Cape Gelidonya, Phoenician and Greek colonization, Etruscan maritime activity and Roman naval and merchant vessels. The course integrates material culture, iconography and archaeological discoveries to illuminate the technological, economic and cultural aspects of ancient Mediterranean seafaring. TOPICS AND THEMES. Stone Age seafaring; earliest evidence for boats; Egyptian Nile boats; Funerary Barge of Khufu; Tomb of Ti; Middle Kingdom Egyptian ships; New Kingdom Egypt; Queen Hatshepsut; Punt expedition; obelisk barge; Ramses III naval battles; Syro-Canaanite ships; Cape Gelidonya shipwreck; Late Bronze Age ships; Uluburun shipwreck; cosmopolitan trade; Phoenicians; Greeks; Etruscans; Greek shipwrecks; Western and Eastern Mediterranean; Bronze Age warships; penteconter; Archaic warships; Classical warships; Athenian trireme; Hellenistic giant warships; galley rams; Roman trade and economy; Roman merchantmen; Battle of Actium; Roman Imperial warships and shipwrecks; ship construction; rigging; armament; nautical technology; maritime trade; naval warfare; artifact analysis; cultural geography; surveying; excavation; conservation; interpretation of seafaring evidence; integration of material culture and texts; economic and social history of the Mediterranean. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification or approval of instructor.