Seafaring and seafarers : in the Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean / A. Bernard Knapp.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Knapp, Arthur Bernard, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Seafaring life--Mediterranean Region--History--To 1500.

Seafaring life.

Shipping--Mediterranean Region--History--To 1500.

Shipping.

Ships, Ancient--Mediterranean Region.

Ships, Ancient.

Bronze age--Mediterranean Region.

Bronze age.

Commerce.

History.

Mediterranean Region--Commerce--To 1500.

Mediterranean Region.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

296 pages : illustrations (some color), maps ; 26 cm

Place of Publication:

Leiden : Sidestone Press, [2018]

Summary:

Seafaring is a mode of travel, a way to traverse maritime space that enables not only the transport of goods and materials but also of people and ideas - communicating and sharing knowledge across the sea and between different lands. Seagoing ships under sail were operating between the Levant, Egypt, Cyprus and Anatolia by the mid-third millennium BC and within the Aegean by the end of that millennium. By the Late Bronze Age (after ca. 1700/1600 BC), seaborne trade in the eastern Mediterranean made the region an economic epicentre, one in which there was no place for Aegean, Canaanite or Egyptian trading monopolies, or 'thalassocracies'. At that time, the world of eastern Mediterranean seafaring and seafarers became much more complex, involving a number of different peoples in multiple networks of economic and social exchange. This much is known, or in many cases widely presumed. Is it possible to trace the origins and emergence of these early trade networks? Can we discuss at any reasonable level who was involved in these maritime ventures? Who built the early ships in which maritime trade was conducted, and who captained them? Who sailed them? Which ports and harbours were the most propitious for maritime trade? What other evidence exists for seafaring, fishing, the exploitation of marine resources and related maritime matters? This study seeks to address such questions by examining a wide range of material, documentary and iconographic evidence, and re-examining a multiplicity of varying interpretations on Bronze Age seafaring and seafarers in the eastern Mediterranean, from Anatolia in the north to Egypt in the south and west to Cyprus.

Contents:

1. Introduction

A Brief (Pre)History of the Mediterranean Bronze Age

2. Maritime Matters and Materials

Social Aspects

Seascapes and Seafaring

Merchants, Mariners and Pirates

Material Aspects

Shipwrecks

Ports and Harbours

Maritime Transport Containers (MTCs)

Ships' Representations, Boat Models

Stone Anchors, Fishing and Fishing Equipment

3. Early Bronze Age

The Levant and Egypt

Ships' Representations

Stone Anchors

Cyprus

Anatolia

4. Middle Bronze Age

Maritime Transport Containers and Overseas Trade

Shipwrecks and Stone Anchors

Maritime Transport Containers

5. Late Bronze Age

The Documentary Record

Ships and Cargoes

Merchants and Mariners

Ships' Representations (Levant)

Ships' Representations (Egypt)

Stone Anchors, Fishing Tackle and Fish

Harbours

Miniature Anchors, Fishing Tackle and Fish

Stone Anchors and Fishing Equipment

6. Seafaring, Seafarers and Seaborne Trade

A Diachronic Overview

Early Bronze Age

Middle Bronze Age

Late Bronze Age

Networks and Routes of Exchange

Seafaring, Seafarers and Bronze Age Polities

7. Conclusions.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 199-275) and index.

ISBN:

9789088905551

908890555X

9789088905544

9088905541

OCLC:

1020871744

Publisher Number:

99979115659