ARIT-INA-KUDAR Public Seminar Series
We are pleased to announce a collaborative series of public online lectures between the American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT), the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA), and KUDAR, focusing broadly on society’s relationship with the sea. With speakers ranging from post-graduate students to established academics, and an equally broad range of topics, this series hopes to bring new results, ideas, projects, and scholars to the public.
Upcoming Seminars:
Dr. Emre Kuruçayırlı: New Research on the Cape Gelidonya Shipwreck (October, 2023)
We are looking forward to learning more about the latest results from the recent research on the 13th-century BC shipwreck excavated at Cape Gelidonya, Türkiye, from Dr. Kuruçayırlı. More information will be posted in the autumn.
Past Seminars
Dr. Deborah Carlson: The Classical Shipwreck at Tektaş Burnu, Türkiye (January 26th, 2022)
Our first lecture was on January 26th, 2022, from Dr. Deborah Carlson who discussed the 5th-century BC shipwreck excavated at Tektaş Burnu, Türkiye, with approximately 200 attendees from Europe and North America. Please follow this link to watch a recording of the presentation. Discovered by the Institute of Nautical Archaeology along the southern coastline of the Çeşme peninsula during their annual surveys, this wreck was excavated by an international team of archaeologists between 1999 and 2001. The excavation and study of this site has yielded new information on the production and distribution of amphorae from Erythrae, the carriage of various types of foodstuffs, and the only stratified examples of marble ophthalmoi – or ‘ship’s eyes’ – from a wreck site.
Dr. Alkiviadis Ginalis: The Byzantine Aegean, A Connecting Sea (October 20th, 2022)
Our second collaborative seminar was on October 20th, at 19:00, from Dr. Alkiviadis Ginalis, Curator of Late Antique and Byzantine Archaeology at the German Archaeological Institute in Istanbul. Dr. Ginalis discussed how the Aegean Sea acted as a center of states and empires for millennia, and as a bridge, a transition, or a barrier for the complex coasts and islands that define it. For the Byzantine Empire, the sea was also a heartland, a link to an imagined and idealized past, and a geographic passage between the wider Mediterranean and the Black Sea. For the centuries between Late Antiquity and the Medieval era, however, these shifting values were accompanied by dramatic changes in the Byzantine Empire itself – constant shifts in its boundaries, and serious alterations in state structure, human activity, and settlement patterns. Characterized by its maritime environment, the different islands and coastal areas of the Aegean therefore played crucial roles in economic, social, cultural and political interactions.
Archaeological research has revealed a broad spectrum of material culture that sheds light on various aspects of life in the Byzantine-era Aegean, as well as its social landscape in this period of transformation. In particular, evidence about the development of seafaring and harbour infrastructure – as gateways for communication and movement into this mutable environment – offer unique insights about the increasingly complicated maritime world of Late Antiquity. To watch a recording of his lecture, please click here.
Dr. Mantha Zarmakoupi: The Maritime Infrastructure and Network of the Delian Emporium (December 6th, 2022)
Delos underwent a rapid economic development after 167 BCE, when its Roman rulers granted the port of Delos ‘duty-free’ status under Athenian dominion and turned it into a commercial base connecting the eastern and western Mediterranean. The island became a free-trade commercial base under nominal Athenian supervision, but essentially under Roman rule. The result of this economic development was an unprecedented population increase and, by consequence, an accelerated urbanization – changes attested by the formation of new neighborhoods and harbor facilities and the redevelopment of existing urban and harbor areas of the island. This presentation will discuss the island’s urban development, maritime infrastructure and its commercial connections in order to shed light on this important key site in the history of Hellenistic Greece and the nascent Roman Empire. To watch a recording of this lecture, please click here.
Dr. Paul Salay: If it isn’t broke: Regional Shipbuilding Traditions and Maritime Networks in the Ancient Mediterranean (January 27th, 2023)
In his project, Dr. Salay applies the geo-spatial tools of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to create a picture of the development and increasing complexity of maritime connectivity and transport from the Late Archaic to the Early Empire. From that foundation, he examines the evidence for several regional shipbuilding traditions, one in the Northwest Mediterranean, and the other in the Northern Adriatic, that are only recently becoming fully appreciated. In particular, he examines the question of how and why these regional shipbuilding traditions persisted, in some cases by more than a millennium, within the context of the tremendous growth and cosmopolitanism of the maritime cultural landscape in the ancient Mediterranean.
As evident in his presentation, he explores several inter-related questions. For example, what factors led to the adoption of new technology versus the retention of more established traditions? How did these various shipbuilding techniques respond to the pressures and influences of increasingly robust maritime transport networks? By asking such questions, he hopes to gain a fuller understanding of the complex and variegated ways that technological transfer took place, and to produce a more nuanced view of Mediterranean shipbuilding during this period.
Dr. Georgia Holly: Linking Nature and Culture for Sustainable Livelihoods: Establishing a Marine Protected Area around Mozambique Island. (May 9th, 2023)
