Ancient Maritime Trade Routes

https://www.college-de-france.fr/site/jean-pierre-brun/symposium-2021-2022.htm
The production and use of amphorae in the Phoenician world was a very important economic sector, both in the Levant and in all the areas colonized by the Phoenicians since the early 1st millennium BC and in the urban communities that developed in these areas on the basis of such colonial roots. Amphorae were an indispensable tool for transporting products such as wine, olive oil or salted fish, which were not only in great demand but also played an essential role in the economies of most of the Phoenician and Punic cities of the West. These amphorae were manufactured both in Carthage and its area of influence and in Gadir and its "Atlantic circle", following certain size, weight and capacity standards, adapting in each case the oriental traditions to the local regulations and needs. In this context, the production (in parallel to the "normal size" containers) of small-sized versions, interpreted in many cases as "miniatures" closer to household plain wares, without an economic value similar to that of their prototypes, was observed long ago. Their frequent finding in cult contexts (as offerings) and especially in funerary areas (necropolises and tofets) suggested this functional connection, and some scholars considered that their manufacture was specifically intended for this function as votives. In recent years, the study of a large group of items in Cadiz (the ancient Gadir) and in the southern coast of the Iberian Peninsula has allowed to refute the idea that in this area they were used in funerary contexts, and in turn has confirmed that the "miniatures" reproduced in detail the profiles of the amphorae of normal size, with capacities that are divisors of the same capacity standard for liquids. The distribution of these small amphorae, which includes findings both on land and underwater in various parts of the region, also supports that they were not only used as votive offerings in the maritime sanctuaries of the Bay of Cadiz, but may also have been used for commercial purposes. The aim of the paper will therefore be to discuss the available archaeological evidence and, in the absence of additional sources (epigraphic, literary, etc.), to place these data from Cadiz in the general context of the production of small amphorae in the Phoenician-Punic world, tracing the possible existence of "commercial samples".

Communication routes are an important subject in the study of the human past. They allowed interactions between communities and the dispersal of goods and ideas. Their study, therefore, can shed light on the way in which communities inhabited the landscape, related to each other and were affected by macro-regional trends. Many methods, such as archaeomorphological analysis and Least Cost Route modelling (LCR), have been devised and are routinely employed for the reconstruction of ancient routes. Their analysis in terms of communication, trade or historical significance, however, has usually been left unexplored. This is probably due to the connected nature of routes, which form communication networks: these are shaped by interconnected nodes and extend over territories surpassing the regional scale in such a way that even a change in a single node or link can affect the whole network. Consequently, the partial reconstruction of communication networks provided by the aforementioned m...

Abstract This paper covers work using historical geographic information
systems (GIS) by the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative (ECAI)2 to trace
early navigation in Monsoon Asia. To open a scholarly Web-based platform
to a broader audience, the ECAI Austronesia Team is collaborating with
the Maritime Buddhism project conceived by Lewis Lancaster. The Maritime
Buddhism project is being developed to reach general audiences with a high level
of interactivity and 3D visualizations featuring historic timelines, ships, trade
routes and trade winds, travelling monks, life at ports, and stories. To allow the
information to be more accessible, mobile phone apps and multi-media museum
displays are being developed. Austronesian speaking peoples made navigation a
way of life across the Indian and Pacific oceans spanning thousands of years. The
goal of this integration of content and technology is to enable our understanding
of Monsoon Asia, its diffusion of culture, and oceanic navigation to become alive
and accessible.
Keywords: Maritime Buddhism, history, geographic information systems
(GIS), Monsoon Asia, Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative (ECAI), Austronesia,
interactive museum displays, 3D, ALiVE – Applied Laboratory for Interactive
Visualization Embodiment

En los últimos años nuevos estudios están mejorando nuestro conocimiento general de la articulación del tráfico marítimo en época romana.(Remolà Vallverdú and Pociña López, 2001); (Berrocal Caparrós, 2008); (Keay, 2011) El estudio de los contextos portuarios  permite analizar, a través del fondo portuario estratificado tras siglos de frecuentación y actividades comerciales, una gran serie de aspectos relativos a la historia marítima y económica no solo del propio puerto, sino de su territorio marítimo (Ford, 2011). Estos estudios están ayudando a definir una red de tráfico marítimo mucho más compleja que la tradicionalmente planteada para el comercio annonario. Resulta extremadamente interesante comprender estos procesos pues en época augustea se produce un cambio capital en las dinámicas y las tendencias comerciales. El comercio tardorepublicano está caracterizado por ser un comercio con un alto porcentaje de iniciativa privada, en manos de publicanii y negotiatores basado en el abastecimiento de las colonias y la explotación de las materias primas que estas pudieran ofrecer. En ese sentido se observan unas tendencias de comercio marítimo basadas principalmente en el comercio de redistribución a media y pequeña escala. La heterogeneidad de las cargas (al menos en la variedad de los productos) y el tonelaje medio establecido reafirman estas interpretaciones (Pomey, 1978); (Tchernia, 1986); (Nieto Prieto and Raurich i Santaló, 1999). Sin embargo, las sucesivas legislaciones de las furmentationes promovidas en los últimos años de la república (Lex sempronia furmentaria, Lex Terentia et Cassia frumentaria, Lex Clodia Frumentaria….) condicionan un cambio en los modelos comerciales en los que el estado intervendrá de forma directa creándose bajo Augusto el Prefecto de la Annona y otorgando la gestión de la misma al ordo ecuestre. Esta intervención llegó a casos extremos como  los sucedidos durante la crisis neroniana. Estos cambios obligan pues a un comercio más directo, con menos escalas y por tanto un contexto arqueológico diferente. Puertos principalmente redistribuidores como pudiera haber sido el de Carthago Nova en fases anteriores, ven progresivamente decaer su actividad comercial (Ramallo Asensio, 2011).
A través del estudio de los contextos materiales de los fondos portuarios de Carthago Nova, y de los puertos de redistribución, Statios Marítimas o fondeaderos auxiliares, así como de los pecios, podemos comprender mejor los ritmos y los cambios que supuso en el comercio marítimo y en la demanda de consumo el cambio de modelo comercial annonario y sobretodo, las reformas urbanísticas de la ciudad bajo el gobierno de Augusto.

O artigo aqui apresentado tem como objetivo uma análise do Imaginário Romano do Oriente no século I E.C.. Pretende-se fazê-la a partir de trechos retirados do texto anônimo intitulado “O Périplo do Mar Eritreu”, o qual narra portos, cidades e povos descritos pelo autor como parte da jornada realizada através desse universo plural que, em sua época, englobava a Costa Leste da África, a Península Arábica e a Índia.

Simpson, E., ed. The Adventure of the Illustrious Scholar: Papers Presented to Oscar White Muscarella. Leiden: Brill, 2018.

The Adventure of the Illustrious Scholar: Papers Presented to Oscar White Muscarella, edited by Elizabeth Simpson, is a Festschrift celebrating the career of one of the foremost archaeologists of the ancient Near East. Oscar Muscarella is a former curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a formidable scholar who has excavated at sites in Turkey, Iran, and the United States. He has published eight books and nearly 200 articles, excavation reports, and reviews on topics ranging from the arts of antiquity and the importance of connoisseurship, to the difficulties of dating and the problems of forgeries, the looting of ancient sites, and the antiquities trade. The forty-seven contributors are experts in the areas of Muscarella's interests and are major scholars in their fields. This volume constitutes an unusual, important, and timely addition to the archaeological and art historical literature.

Project Supervisor for Magnetometric Survey at Pattanam: Researched, planned, and conducted a magnetometric survey, identifying sub-surface features and mapping the Indo-Roman maritime landscape of Pattanam. Processed data in Digital Archaeology Computing Laboratory, UoS. Established a standard practice for future archaeology in India. Assisted in project excavation, geoarchaeological survey, and ceramic analysis, providing comparative data for interpreting the port’s heritage. Project artifacts exhibited at Unearthing Pattanam: Histories, Cultures, Crossings (National Museum, New Dehli).

Geophysical Research:
"The geophysical studies conducted by Ms. Carmen Obied, (Southampton University) consisted of magnetometric survey of select areas of the Pattanam site. The  primary aim was to identify sub-surface features such as brick walls, hearths, kilns and dumps in order to map the ancient maritime landscape of Pattanam. Magnetometry is highly effective in archaeology since it can detect human processes and interventions that affect the magnetic properties of the soil. The magnetometric surveys have greater significance in Pattanam since they are particularly effective in waterlogged areas. At Pattanam, besides the water logged areas, the locations with possible sub-surface features were scanned using a dual sensor fluxgate gradiometer. The data will be processed at the Digital Archaeology Computing Laboratory at the University of Southampton and contextualized on the topographic survey maps of the Pattanam area. If the Pattanam survey generates positive results, it could become a standard practice for locating  potential archaeological spots elsewhere in India."

A single feather as symbol of all-encompassing divine balance was manifested in ancient Egypt to meet its complex needs as a state that embraced diverse peoples with conflictng interests. Balance, and consciously following developed inner promptings towards 'right' action instead of rigid external injunctons to do 'good' against 'evil', could very well be the key to restoring sacred order to the world. The intent of this paper is to trace the impact of The Feather of Ma'at and its accompanying teachings, within and far beyond the parameters of Africa. The paper explores the rippling influence of a cooperative relationship between humankind and the cosmos, its concept brought through a succession of sea journeys on circular ocean currents.

Worlds Apart Trading Together sets out to replace the outdated notion of ‘Indo-Roman trade’ with a more informed perspective integrating the new findings of the last 30 years. In order to accomplish this, a perspective focusing on concrete demand from the ground up is adopted, also shedding light on the role of the market in long-distance exchange. Accordingly, the analysis conducted demonstrates that an economically highly substantial trade took place between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean in the 1st–6th cen. CE, altering patterns of consumption and modes of production in both India, South Arabia and the Roman Empire. Significantly, it can be documented that this trade was organised at the centres of demand and supply, in Rome and India, respectively, by comparable urban associations, the transport in-between being handled by equally well-organised private networks and diasporas of seagoing merchants. Consequently, this study concludes that the institution of the market in Antiquity was able to facilitate trade over very long distances, acting on a scale which had a characteristic impact on the economies of the societies involved, their economic structures converging by adapting to trade and the market.
NB: See uploaded addenda in paper below 'Worlds Apart Trading Together – addenda'
Available reviews:
—J. Simmons in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2018.09.59 (http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2018/2018-09-59.html).
—R. Tomber in Journal of Roman Archaeology 31, II (2018): 948–52.

UPS AND DOWNS AT KANESH proposes a revised sequence of Old Assyrian eponyms and establishes a relative and an absolute chronology by way of linking textual evidence, dendrochronology and archaeological stratigraphy. This chronological framework is used to trace broader historical and social developments of political and territorial centralisation in Anatolia, as well as to offer new insights in the social and commercial history of the Old Assyrian trade.
A number of economic and social transformations in Assyrian society over the course of two centuries are identified by way of a statistical and prosopographical analysis. It is shown how the economic system that drove the well-known overland trade of the early Colony Period collapsed in a dramatic fashion after only thirty years (c. 1895-1865 BC), and that a series of changes in administrative organisation were created in immediate response. A primary vehicle in financing the trade – the joint-stock enterprise – was abandoned, and exchange came to be organised by way of venture trade. A distinct community of hybrid Assyrian-Anatolian households grew more prominent as mixed families came to be engaged mainly in local Anatolian trade and agriculture. In turn, a small and wealthy Assyrian elite functioned as permanently settled foreign trading agents, and a distinctive group of itinerant merchants continued to engage in the caravan trade and connect the Anatolian colonies to the mother city of Assur.

A macroscopic analysis of the bead and pendant assemblage from Berenike (excavated in seasons 2009–2012) provides not only a preliminary bead typology and chronology, but contributes to the study of the multicultural character of the Red Sea port of Berenike from the Ptolemaic through the early
Byzantine period. The presence of diverse marine and terrestrial organics, semiprecious stones and manmade materials used in crafting beads indicates a substantial supply from coastal and inland desert dwellers, as well as from overland and overseas traders. Part of the products found at Berenike must have
been designated for permanent and temporary residents of the town. Other objects originated from, or were destined for African, Arabian or Asian markets.

The naval transport of stone in antiquity maintains some queries about its various aspects: professions involved; type, shape and capacity of ships; specific harbour infrastructures and equipment; navigation in the passages between sea and inland water; sources and destinations of the material, etc. On some of these themes, are providing useful clues, a fewwrecks, some comparisons between cultivation areas and monumental complexes and petrographic analyzes; some sources, on the other hand, suffered from poor understanding or have not received adequate appreciation. A topic that re-quires a drastic revision is the transport of Egyptian obelisks, which have been scientifically ‘damaged’ by its intrinsic property in stimulating suggestions.

The amphorae produced in the city of Gadir from the late-archaic period until the end of Antiquity are one of the commercial transport packaging groups more intensively studied in the Iberian territory, and generally in the western Mediterranean. They have a dense historiography that dates back several decades. Typological systematization works undertaken on these amphorae from Cadiz Bay are relatively abundant, produced both before and after the Roman annexation. Among these first attempts, should be highlighted the typological approaches derived from the analysis of the material from her fish-salting factories and some of her best known pottery workshops. However, it was not until very recently (thanks to the work of J. Ramon) when these amphora types have finally being formally defined, chronologically framed and also ordered within Mediterranean range typological groups. In general, these studies have provided a satisfactory state of research for the development of historical and economic analysis in recent years. Nevertheless, the significant progresses achieved in the local pottery workshops have provided wider archaeological databases that allow adding new details and refining these proposals. Therefore, a new typology of amphorae from Cadiz Bay is presented in these pages, conceived from a local perspective, following the model pioneered by Ramon for the case of Punic Ibiza. On this basis the methodological suitability of such local systematization will be discussed, as well as its (possible) coexistence with Mediterranean-range typologies.

MA Thesis in Maritime History (Faculty of Letters, Lisbon University FLUL, 2014) - revised version

The present thesis Shipwrecks of the “Carreira da Índia” (1595-1623) – Sources
for the Study in Portuguese Maritime History deals with factors which caused losses of
ships of the Carreira da Índia which linked the European metropolis Lisbon with its
Goa based Estado da Índia between 1595 and 1623. Although Portuguese-Asiatic
shipping was formally separated from the Habsburg Empire during the Union of the
Two Iberian Crowns (1580-1640), the European policies of the Spanish Kings,
especially towards the United Provinces and the Netherlands had its influence and
effects on the Portuguese side.
Shipwrecks, either on the outward bound or homeward bound voyages had
occurred for various reasons since the early days of the Carreira da Índia yet the
emergence of the two private European Companies, the Dutch United East India
Company (founded in 1602) and the British East India Company (founded in 1600)
were a new momentum by which’s characteristics of concurrence and struggle for
supremacy of the European-Asiatic spice trade, losses of Portuguese ships were caused
by planned and executed military operations as well.
Focusing on the geographical region of the Mozambique Channel in which the
losses have taken place, the thesis combines a historiographical approach with records
of underwater archaeology analyzing questions related to the political environment and
planed military operations in which shipwrecks have occurred as well as causes of
shipwrecks observing ship building and design modifications and effects related to
economic patterns such as the monetary flows of the Portuguese outward bound
shipping during the period of observation.

Naufragios da Careira da Índia (1595-1623)

ABSTRACT: El-Markha Plain is a key coastal region providing an anchorage for Egyptian expeditions traveling to the copper and turquoise mining region in South Sinai.  The University of Toronto expedition investigated a mound at Ras Budran and uncovered a late Old Kingdom, circular stone structure. It represents one of three Egyptian “forts” identified from the Early Dynastic through Old Kingdom period and augments two published Old Kingdom sites in South Sinai. It clarifies and underscores the perceived dangers in and the importance of South Sinai to Egyptian mining expeditions during this period. It displays an unusual circular design for an ancient Egyptian structure and an uncommon application of stone to a “fort”.  Its construction, occupation, possible destruction, and abandonment reflect contemporary late Old Kingdom records for Egyptian campaigns against Asiatic “Sand-dwellers” and a Bedouin massacre of an Egyptian expedition beside the Red Sea. The site illuminates multiple aspects of a period associated with the Old Kingdom’s “collapse” and the activities and cross-cultural interactions of a transitory garrison on Egypt’s eastern frontier.

The traders who are in search of the market, make the trade between East and West active and they have produced goods of all different countries in the Mediterranean basin.
We see the benefits of expanding the culture and arts of the East and opening it to the West.
-
Akdeniz havzasında bulunan tüm farklı ülkelere ait malların, üretmiş oldukları ve bununla beraber 
pazar arayışında olan tüccarların, Doğu- Batı arası ticaretin faal haline getirmelerine ve aynı 
zamanda Doğu’nun kültürünün ve sanatlarının yayılması, Batı’ya açılması doğrultusunda yararlardan 
söz edebiliriz. 

This paper discusses new, revised, and neglected sources for imperial Rome's economic, diplomatic, and military activities in the Red Sea  basin and on the Indian West coast. It also explores Rome's military and diplomatic investment into the security of crucial trade routes as a means to further long distance trade in order to guarantee high levels of tax income.

This second volume in the series collects papers from two workshops held at the University of Göttingen in 2019 and 2020. The international meetings tackled questions related to merchants and money in a comparative perspective, with examples spanning from the Bronze Age to the early Modern period and embracing Europe, the Mediterranean, Asia and East Africa. The first part of this volume presents historical case studies of how merchants planned and carried out commercial expeditions; how risk, cost, and potential profit was calculated; and how the value of goods was calculated and converted. The papers in the second part address current theories and methods on the development and function of money before and after the invention of coinage. The introduction of balance scales around 3000 BCE enabled the formation of overarching indexes of value and the calculation of the commercial value of goods and services. It also allowed for a selected set of commodities to take on the role of currency. Around 650 BCE, this led to the invention of coinage in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Four Minoan glyptic images from the Neopalatial period portray sacred trees in conjunction with boats and seascape. The Mochlos Ring depicts an elite female figure seated upon a stepped ashlar altar that includes a tree, inside a self-propelled hippocamp-headed boat. The Makrygialos Seal depicts a female figure performing a cultic salute toward a tree situated inside a boat. In the Amnissos Ring elite figures communicate with a hovering epiphanic tree deity in the vicinity of a boat. A female figure in a hippocamp-headed boat upon the sea is surrounded by three cult structures in the Ring of Minos. These images have traditionally been interpreted in three main ways: as a representation of Minoan cosmological concepts; as depicting a vague “Goddess from the sea” who is either a metaphor for a Minoan “thalassocracy” or else symbolic of a sequence of seasonal festivals; and as a ritual scene involving the literal transport of a tree in a ship from one cult site to another. While each of these interpretations incorporates degrees of validity, they are only partial explanations of these images. This paper proposes that the religious aspects of the images can be understood through the examination of their iconography in light of both Minoan religion and contemporary Canaanite seafaring religion. In his early analysis of Minoan culture, Arthur Evans attributed Minoan religious concepts to cultural diffusion from the Levant and Egypt. Acculturation is often discernible within art and material culture connected to cult and such evidence can provide information on the imitation or adoption of foreign religious concepts. It is argued here that the four Minoan glyptic images that combine trees, human figures, boats and the sea represent a combination of native Minoan with Canaanite religious ideas concerning a tree goddess who also had power over the sea. Each image is thus a glyph of the protective power of the Minoan tree deity over maritime voyaging, whether to a nearby Cycladic trading partner, a colony, or to a distant eastern Mediterranean destination. The empowerment of the expedition through supernatural patronage emphasises Minoan land-based power over the sea and extends the Cretan landscape outward to incorporate the seascape. It is further proposed that the images functioned in a protective talismanic capacity and that the containment of the iconographic motifs within the confines of gold rings and a stone seal linked the Minoan elites who owned these objects with the exotic aura of transculturality and power associated with overseas trade.                                             

[Kindly read at the conference by Louise A. Hitchcock 

Now available here: https://12iccs.proceedings.gr/el/proceedings/category/38/32/381

The discovery of the Sungai Batu complex by the Centre for Global Archaeological Research, Universiti Sains Malaysia in 2007 is of great significant in understanding the early civilisations in Malaysia. The complex was found during a scientific palaeoenvironmental reconstruction sutdy. A total pf 97 mounds were mapped and identified in 3km2 area that has great archaeological potential. To date, excavations at 16 mounds revealed ritual monuments, a riverside jetty built in the 2nd century CE, and iron smelting sites that were used from the 1st century CE. The discovery of the iron smelting industry in this complex showed that the Sungai Batu civilisation had an economic base. These new findings give a more holistoc and complete picture of the Bujang Valley civilisation and should lead to a significant re-evaluation of the evidence that has been accumulated since the 1840s. Based on the early research results, the Bujang Valley civilisation was thought to date as early as the end of the 4th century CE and to be primarily a Hindu-Buddhist site (Coedes, 1968). These new finds with chronometric dating (radiocarbon and OSL) allow us to re-write not onl the history of Malaysian civilisation but also that of the region. To date, the important discovery of a 110 CE monument meant Sungai Batu provides the earliest evidence of a monument (with chronometric dates) in Southeast Asia.

Recent years have seen the emergence of a fundamental stage of underwater archeology: the exploration and study of shipwrecks at great depths. Technological development makes these sites more and more accessible. The logistical and financial resources remain important but they begin to be accessible to archaeologists.
These are major sites for research because they are mostly still intact. They have not suffered progressive destruction due to the sea and especially to man. However advances in technical diving with the use of "mixtures" and "recyclers", now allow an increasing number of divers to easily access deep shipwrecks lying beyond 100 m. Moreover, the spread of robots and small submarines make sites accessible at hundreds of meters deeph. Finally, and this is the most dangerous fact, fishing (trawlers) especially threatens ancient shipwrecks till 500 m. deep. Archaeologists of the XXI century are thus faced with a new challenge to prevent that these deep wrecks undergo the same fate as the coastal wrecks, which have mostly disappeared or have been completely devastated. A challenge that is particularly important in Corsica, which is a mountain in the middle of the Mediterranean, where the depth can reach 100 m near the coast. DRASSM seeks to address this challenge and has explored and studied a series of wrecks between 70 and 400 m deep in the Corsican waters. The results of this early research, in particular that carried out between 2012 and 2013, and the challenges they raise are the subject of this presentation.
Shipwrecks explored: Est-Perduto 2 (100 – 80 BC) ; Sud Lavezzi 5 (end of Ist - beginning IInd c. BC)
Alistro 1 (190-175 BC) ; Aleria 1 (100-130 AD)

The paper shows how an underlying geography evidenced through a group of texts written by a community of Assyrian traders in Anatolia 4000 years ago can be approached, explored, and employed to gain some fundamental insights into the general character of ancient long-distance trade and cultural exchange.

Abstract
The subject of this study is trade in Anatolia during the Early Bronze Age. With examples from various regions of Anatolia dimensions of trade and its contribution to the development of the Anatolian economy. On the other hand, trade models and types in Anatolia are tried to be determined with examples. The number of excavations and surveys carried out in Anatolia during the Early Bronze Age has been increasing in recent years. This situation increases our knowledge about Early Bronze Age Anatolia. There is quite a lot of data about the Anatolian economy in this period. However, it is noteworthy that there is a limited number of general studies on trade and commercial products, which are perhaps the most concrete actions of the economy. The main objective of this study was made available upon with concrete examples of how the trade is to reach a general assessment on trading results based on archaeological evidence and archaeometric analysis. Within this framework, interregional trade in Anatolia and long-distance trade outside Anatolia were evaluated together. In the light of archaeological evidence, it was concluded that trade was conducted interregional trade in Anatolia during the Early Bronze Age and that it was engaged in commercial activities with contemporary cultures of Syria, Mesopotamia and the Aegean World. In long-distance trade, a large link network consisting of large main settlements and / or smaller intermediate settlements, possibly involving multiple settlements on the geographically optimal road network, should be established with the support of the governing classes in the cities. As a result, the existence of commercial activities with interregional in Anatolia and long-distance with Anatolia during the Early Bronze Age is proved by archaeological data. Various archaeological evidence has been evaluated in this study. A limited number of archaeological evidence has been evaluated in this study. It is accepted that globalization started in the Near East in this period when commercial relations increased.

Were ancient merchants primarily adventurers, or were they experienced, savvy traders? This study challenges a widespread misperception about the planning of ancient Roman trade routes. While bravery and risk-taking were important, success actually depended on a cumulation of skill and knowledge developed over generations, with Alexandria and Rome playing a crucial role as predictable and reliable markets for buying and selling. Although the Romans were notorious for their dislike of the sea, they built on centuries of stable environmental conditions to successfully develop reliable, efficient trading routes - including open sea and close-hauled sailing -  and become the most important traders of antiquity, in terms of trade volume. Roman sailing capabilities are one main focus of this research. Twenty-eight important sailing routes are analyzed using modern techniques to determine the effect of geography, climate, weather, ship size, cargo characteristics, travel time, costs, customs duties, and piracy. Applying the regatta software program Expedition, 50,000 potential voyages were calculated for twice-daily launches on the main 183 sailing days per year. This data is compared to ancient Roman records, presenting a novel, reliable method for determining ancient Roman sea routes and voyage duration. The results are used to develop a model for understanding the profitability of Roman trade.

Die Studie widerlegt den weitverbreiteten Irrtum, dass antike Händler vor allem Abenteurer gewesen seien. Zwar waren Mut und Risikobereitschaft nötig, aber Erfolg war maßgeblich die Summe vieler richtiger Entscheidungen über Generationen, wobei Alexandria und Rom als berechenbare und zuverlässige Beschaffungs- und Absatzmärkte eine besondere Rolle spielten. Obwohl den Römern nachgesagt wurde, dass sie das Meer nicht liebten, nutzten sie es so erfolgreich, dass sie dank der über Jahrhunderte stabilen Rahmenbedingungen - gemessen am Handelsvolumen - die bedeutendsten Händler der Antike wurden. Dabei wurde auch auf Routen über das offene Meer und am Wind gefahren. Ein Schwerpunkt liegt auf dem Aspekt des Segelns im Mittelmeer. Dabei geht es u. a. um die 28 wichtigsten der bezeugten Segelrouten der Antike mit detaillierten Betrachtungen zu Geographie, Klima und Wetter, Schiffsgrößen, Ladungen, Reisedauer, Kosten, Zöllen, Piraten usw. Mit dem Regattenprogramm Expedition wurden für 183 Reisetage im Jahr mit zwei Startzeiten pro Tag rund 50.000 Berechnungen für realistische Routen in dynamischen Wettersystemen durchgeführt und mit antiken Angaben verglichen. Die so entwickelte Methode ermöglicht die verlässliche Bestimmung antiker Seerouten und Reisezeiten. Die Ergebnisse fließen in ein Modell ein, mit dem die Profitabilität des römischen Seehandels analysiert wird.