The Sea in History: The Ancient World

740 Pages·2018·27.88 MB·English

by  Philip de Souza

1 EDITED BY PHILIP DE SOUZA AND PASCAL ARNAUD
GENERAL EDITOR: CHRISTIAN BUCHET
How important has the sea been in the development of human
history? Very important indeed is the conclusion of this ground- T T
THE SEA
breaking four volume work. The books bring together the world’s h H
e
leading maritime historians, who address the question of what
A E
difference the sea has made in relation to around 250 situations
n
ranging from the earliest times to the present. They consider, S
c
IN HISTORY
across the entire world, subjects related to human migration, trade, i E
e
economic development, warfare, the building of political units n A
including states and empires, the dissemination of ideas, culture t

and religion, and much more, showing how the sea was crucial to all W I
N
these aspects of human development. o The Ancient World

The Sea in History – The Ancient World ranges very widely in its r H
l
coverage, beginning with pre-historical maritime activity and going d
I
on to cover not only the classical Greek and Roman Mediterranean S
and Near Eastern worlds but also Africa, Asia and the Americas. T
Fascinating subjects covered include the migration of the Taíno
O
people in the pre-historic Caribbean, the Athenian maritime empire
R
at its height, the port of Alexandria in classical times, and ships,
E
Y
sailors and kingdoms in ancient Southeast Asia.
R
25 of the contributions are in English; 18 are in French.
I
O
T
PHILIP DE SOUZA is Associate Professor of Classics at University
S
College Dublin.
I
PASCAL ARNAUD is Professor of the History of the Roman World at H
the University of Lyon II, Senior Fellow at Institut Universitaire de
France and co-director of the ERC-funded Grant PortusLimen. L’

CHRISTIAN BUCHET is Professor of Maritime History, S
Catholic University of Paris, Scientific Director of Océanides N
and a member of l’Académie de marine.
A
Cover image: Mosaic showing a ship in a harbour, possibly Alexandria or Portus, 2nd–3rd D LA MER
century A.D., found in the remains of a Roman house under the Palazzo Rospigliosi, Rome.
Musei Capitolini, Rome (inv. AC 32350). é
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i DANS
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L’ HISTOIRE
DE SOUZA,
ARNAUD
(eds)
An imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge IP12 3DF (GB) and
668 Mt Hope Ave, Rochester NY 14620–2731 (US) L’Antiquité
The Sea in History
The Ancient World
La Mer dans l’Histoire
L’Antiquité
Other volumes in the series
The Sea in History – The Medieval World
La Mer dans l’Histoire – le Moyen Âge
The Sea in History – The Early Modern World
La Mer dans l’Histoire – la période Moderne
The Sea in History – The Modern World
La Mer dans l’Histoire – la période Contemporaine
The Sea in History
The Ancient World
La Mer dans l’Histoire
L’Antiquité
Edited by
Philip de Souza and Pascal Arnaud
General editor
Christian Buchet
THE BOYDELL PRESS
© Association Océanides 2017
All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation
no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system,
published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast,
transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission of the copyright owner
First published 2017
The Boydell Press, Woodbridge
ISBN 978 1 78327 157 3
The Boydell Press is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
and of Boydell & Brewer Inc.
668 Mt Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620–2731, USA
website: www.boydellandbrewer.com
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
The publisher has no responsibility for the continued existence or accuracy of URLs for
external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that
any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate
This publication is printed on acid-free paper
Contents
List of illustrations ix
List of contributors xv
Introduction générale et remerciements par Christian Buchet xvii
General introduction and acknowledgements by Christian Buchet xxi
Introduction (français) 1
Pascal Arnaud
Introduction (English) 5
Pascal Arnaud
La mer est le propre d’Homo sapiens 9
Pascal Picq
Prehistorical case studies
Maritime aspects of early Andean civilizations 41
Daniel H. Sandweiss
Une approche maritime et archipélique de l’occupation
amérindienne des Antilles 55
Benoît Bérard
The Taíno of the Caribbean: six thousand years of seafaring
and cultural development 66
Richard T. Callaghan
The importance of the sea for prehistoric societies in Western Europe 78
Barry Cunliffe
Pêche et interactions entre la Moyenne Vallée du fleuve Sénégal
et le littoral atlantique Sénégalo-Mauritanien durant le dernier
millénaire BC 89
Alioune Dème
The sea and early societies in the Japanese Islands 102
Mark J. Hudson
v
contents
Développement maritime de la civilisation océanienne 114
Emmanuel Desclèves
Historical case studies
The Ancient Near East and Pharaonic Egypt
Watercraft at the beginning of history: the case of third-millennium
Southern Mesopotamia 127
Ariel M. Bagg
La navigation fluviale sur l’Euphrate au second millénaire av. J.-C. :
usages, enjeux et communautés de pratiques 138
Grégory Chambon
The development of maritime exchange in the Bronze Age Eastern
Mediterranean 151
Caroline Sauvage
Development of maritime trade in the Egyptian world during the Late Age 165
Graciela Gestoso Singer
Les Peuples de la Mer 175
Pierre Grandet
Un événement nautique de la XXVIe dynastie : le voyage de la future
divine adoratrice Nitocris de Saïs à Thèbes sous le règne de
Psammétique Ier en 655 av. J.-C. 187
Sydney Hervé Aufrère
The Mediterranean world
Mediterranean ship technology in Antiquity 199
Julian Whitewright
Greek colonization, connectivity, and the Middle Sea 214
Carla Antonaccio
Les infrastructures portuaires antiques 224
Pascal Arnaud
Alexandria and the sea in Hellenistic and Roman times 243
Emad Khalil
The development of Roman maritime trade after the Second Punic War 258
Michele Stefanile
La mer et l’approvisionnement de la ville de Rome 268
Catherine Virlouvet
vi
Contents
The Roman Empire and the seas 283
Phyllis Culham
Les techniques de pêche dans l’Antiquité 294
Arnaud Zucker
The consumption of salted fish in the Roman Empire 307
Benedict Lowe
Taxing the sea 319
Nicholas Purcell
Les détroits méditerranéens dans la construction de l’image
de la mer Intérieure dans l’Antiquité 335
Arthur Haushalter
Ancient sea routes in the Black Sea 345
Sergey Saprykin
Maritime risk and ritual responses: sailing with the gods in the Ancient
Mediterranean 362
Sandra Blakely
La mer, vecteur d’expansion du christianisme au Ier siècle 380
Chantal Reynier
Maritime military practices in the pre-Phoenician Levant 391
Juan-Pablo Vita
La naissance des flottes en Egée 400
Jean-Nicolas Corvisier
The Athenian maritime empire of the fifth century BC 412
Philip de Souza
Financial, human, material and economic resources required
to build and operate navies in the classical Greek world 426
Vincent Gabrielsen
Les expéditions athéniennes en Sicile, ou la difficulté pour une marine
de garder sa supériorité 443
Daniel Battesti & Laurène Leclercq
Pourquoi Alexandre le Grand a-t-il choisi de licencier sa flotte à Milet? 461
Olivier Battistini
Hellenistic and Roman republican naval warfare technology 471
William M. Murray
La marine de guerre romaine de 284 à 363 484
Yann Le Bohec
Rome and the Vandals 496
Andy Merrills
vii
contents
The Indian Ocean and the Far East
L’océan Indien dans l’Antiquité : science, commerce et géopolitique 511
Didier Marcotte
Ancient seafaring in Eastern African Indian Ocean waters 523
Felix Chami
Early China and the Indian Ocean networks 536
Tansen Sen
The mobility of people and ideas on the seas of Ancient India 548
Fabrizia Baldissera
Ships, sailors and kingdoms of Ancient Southeast Asia 560
John Miksic
La violence maritime comme reflet du contexte géopolitique :
une piraterie sui generis dans l’Asie du Sud-est des premières
cités-entrepôts indianisées 573
Éric Frécon
Conclusion (français) 589
Pascal Arnaud
Conclusion (English) 617
Pascal Arnaud
Conclusion générale par Christian Buchet 645
General conclusion by Christian Buchet 679
viii
Illustrations
Maritime aspects
of early Andean civilizations
1 Map of the Central Andean region (D. Sandweiss). 42
2 Excavating at the Ice Age fishing site of Quebrada Jaguay, Peru
(D. Sandweiss). 44
3 Three of the six pyramids at the largest Late Preceramic
monumental centre of Caral (D. Sandweiss). 48
4 Fish remains from Lo Demás, Chincha valley, Peru (D. Sandweiss). 51
The Taíno of the Caribbean: six thousand years
of seafaring and cultural development
1 Map of Circum-Caribbean region (R. Callaghan). 73
2 Map showing computer simulations of ancient drift voyages
starting out from Key West (R. Callaghan). 74
3 Map showing computer simulations of ancient drift voyages
starting out from Isla Mujeres in September (R. Callaghan). 74
4 Map showing computer simulations of ancient drift voyages
starting out from the north coast of Venezuela in September
(R. Callaghan). 75
The importance of the sea for prehistoric
societies in western Europe
1 Map of Atlantic coastal zone (B. Cunliffe). 80
ix