Shipbuilding and trade in the Eastern Mediterranean during the 7th century : possible effects of the Muslim invasion

This thesis examines the change in shipbuilding techniques from the mortice and tenon method common in antiquity, to the frame first method, specifically when the former method disappeared, in the 7th century AD. It approaches this change, which is documented in the archaeological record, from a historical point of view, creating a context around the archaeological material, a context which was previously missing. As it does so, it arrives at the conclusion that the Muslim invasion brought a new economic and political atmosphere to the eastern Mediterranean which, in contrast to the Byzantine Empire, was conducive to an expansion in independent mercantilism and a change in shipbuilding techniques

A re-assembly and reconstruction of the 9th-century AD vessel wrecked off the coast of Bozburun, Turkey

In 1973, researchers from the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) were led to the site of a wrecked ship by sponge diver Mehmet A??k??n, near his hometown of Bozburun, Turkey. During further monitoring over the following 21 years by INA, the site was identified as a merchant vessel dating from the 9th century AD. The excavation of the site by INA researchers and students from Texas A&M University occurred over four summer seasons, from 1995 to 1998, and yielded approximately 900 whole or nearly-whole amphorae, personal items, palynological material, and approximately 35 percent of the vessel??s wooden hull. This dissertation is a record of the curation, cataloging, analysis and re-assembly of the preserved elements of the Bozburun vessel??s hull, as well as a theoretical reconstruction of the entire vessel. The Bozburun vessel is unique as it is the only fully-excavated shipwreck from the 9th century AD, and is, indeed, a valuable source of examples of ship construction in the Mediterranean between the 7th and the 11th centuries AD. This dissertation, after discussing the methods of excavation and cataloging methods, posits the hypothesis that the techniques used to build this vessel represent a transitional stage in shipbuilding technology, combining distinctly old and new techniques. While the builders used embedded edge joinery in the ship??s planking, a very old method, they also appear to have used a conceptual framework and standards to design the vessel as well; methods evident in modified forms in Italian shipbuilding treatises from the Renaissance

Maritime Aspects of Medieval Siraf, Iran: a pilot project for the investigation of coastal and underwater archaeological remains

status: publishe

Modelling the Maritime Cultural Landscape of the Costiera Amalfitana: The First Three Seasons of Research (2016–2018)

Human activity along the Amalfi coastline in Italy has been tied to the sea for millennia–for sustenance, migration, trade, warfare, and leisure. As a result, this region has an equally rich and extensive maritime cultural landscape composed of tangible and intangible elements. In 2016, a multi-disciplinary project began efforts to model and to understand changes within this landscape, and this essay presents the preliminary results of our first three seasons of work. Some efforts, such as the documentation of maritime cultural heritage in local museums, archival work, and geomorphological research proceeded smoothly. Unexpectedly, however, little material from the pre-modern era was found under water, adding questions to this study that future work in the Marine Protected Area west of Positano may answer