Panel 5.3 – Economy and the Maritime Cultural Landscape of Greece

Organiser/Chair:

• Michael J. Curtis (University of Leicester)

Speakers:

• Marco Schugk
  Between locality and regionality: Aspects of innercycladic networking, a view on the early Bronze Age settlement of Koukounaries on Paros
• Michael Loy (University of Cambridge)
  Reconstructing Archaic period interactions and exchanges through the material networks of the southern Aegean
• Chiara Maria Mauro (University College Dublin)
  Closed harbors: an open question. A study based on Archaic-Classical evidences
• Michael Curtis (University of Leicester)
  The economic impact of the transition from the Hellenistic to the Roman period as seen in the maritime cultural landscape of Crete
• Jane Francis (Concordia University)
  Coast and Hinterland in Graeco-Roman Sphakia (West Crete)
• George W.M. Harrison (Carleton University)
  Crete the Important

This panel session will look at the ancient coastal settlements of Greece from the perspective of the maritime cultural landscape. The coastal settlements were economically important often acting as transition points, trading and distribution centres. They were often the first point of contact for seafarers, travellers and migrants and played an important role in the diffusion of cultural, political and religious ideologies. Their roles sometimes changed in times of war and peace and they became places where technological advancement was used to change and manipulate the local natural environment.
The aim of this panel session is to move away from the traditional approach of looking at coastal sites individually and to consider sites and monuments as part of a wider cultural landscape. The theoretical concept of the maritime cultural landscape offers a means of overcoming the boundaries of terrestrial and underwater archaeology and of increasing our understanding of the relationship between humans and the sea. This panel session will explore the cultural, economic, political, religious, social, technical, industrial and environmental aspects of this landscape.

1. Marco Schugk

Between locality and regionality: Aspects of innercycladic networking, a view on the early Bronze Age settlement of Koukounaries on Paros
Since the end of the last glacial maximum and the resulting rise in the sea level the closely packed islands of the Cyclades in the southern Aegean incorporate a unique habitat in the whole Mediterranean, whose incomparably maritime fragmentation not only offered its inhabitants promising opportunities but also faced them with logistical challenges.
Although several thousand years passed by from the first daring explorations into this archipelago to the establishment of stable settlements, the Cycladic culture reached its climax in Early Cycladikum II, whose prosperity is often emphasized by its established oversea contacts ranging from the Helladic mainland in the east over Crete in the south to Anatolia in the west.
But apart from the few proto-urban centres of this period, the majority of the Cycladic people organized themselves in countless smaller settlements spreading over the entire archipelago. On the basis of the early Cycladic artefacts in the settlement's area of Koukounaries on Paros – especially pottery, idols and obsidian – it is shown exemplarily that active participation in maritime networks including possible seefaring activities was only of secondary importance beyond substantial factors.

2. Michael Loy (University of Cambridge)

Reconstructing Archaic period interactions and exchanges through the material networks of the southern Aegean
That the number of cities and archaeologically visible settlements in the Aegean increased across the seventh and sixth centuries BC (the ‘Archaic period’) is not disputed; however, the interactions and exchanges exercised within and between cities and regions remains more obscure. An interest in site- and survey-level archaeology for this period has rendered much good-quality and usable data, but there have been few studies which have synthesised this material on a macro-regional Aegean scale. This paper, therefore, draws together and considers three datasets from sites all around the Aegean Sea (pottery, inscriptions, coins) and what the distribution and quantification of these various object types can tell us about the nature of the ancient economy. Given that exchange systems between sites had direction and intensity, economic transaction can thus be finely measured. Formal network analysis and statistical modelling will be used in order to interpret this material, in a methodology which integrates Big Data from multiple different excavation and survey projects. Specifically, this paper will consider what social and economic factors can be read through our interpretation of material networks, and to what extent coastal and island communities were united in exchange with their external contacts, and to what extent they acted autonomously.

3. Chiara Maria Mauro (University College Dublin)

Closed harbors: an open question. A study based on Archaic-Classical evidences
Although scholarly publications regarding ancient Graeco-Roman harbor systems often mention the expression «λιμήν κλειστός», the meaning of this term still remains obscure. While in the past several theories have been put forward, the academic world still diverges on the correct way to interpret this expression. This paper reconsiders the meaning of «λιμήν κλειστός», focusing on the ArchaicClassical eras and comparing the written sources and the archaeological information that is available today. Analysis of these two types of evidence in combination suggests a possible new interpretation.

4. Michael Curtis (University of Nottingham)

The economic impact of the transition from the Hellenistic to the Roman period as seen in the maritime cultural landscape of Crete
The late Archaic/early Classical periods saw renewed settlement along the Cretan coasts. New harbours and waterfront areas were constructed as a new generation of settlements, maritime enclaves and transition points arose around the coastline. Many of these settlements went on to become important trading and distribution centres, acting as reception points for seafarers, travellers and migrants and, in the process, being subjected to a diffusion of various cultural, religious and political ideologies. Their harbours were visited and used by commercial, naval and pirate fleets active in local and cross-Mediterranean waters. The Roman invasion of the island in 69-67 BCE heralded the commencement of a period of change in the coastal settlements as part of the adjustment to the new provincial status and access to a far wider marketplace. Changes took the form of a strategic attempt to channel imports and exports through certain harbours, possibly as a means of tighter control and to ease the administration of taxes such as the portorium. This led to specific investment in some of the harbours and an air of prosperity.

This paper will examine the changes that took place in the maritime cultural landscape between the end of the 1st century BCE and the 1st century CE. It will attempt to present the maritime landscape as it was at the point of the Roman invasion and examine how this changed over the following century as harbours and supporting infra-structure was reorganised.

5. Jane Francis (Concordia University)

Coast and Hinterland in Graeco-Roman Sphakia (West Crete)
The Sphakia Survey Project in west Crete identified hundreds of sites with Graeco-Roman phases, based mainly in pottery. One important area for the development of the area is the peninsula of Loutro, stretching out into the Libyan sea and providing Crete with a rare year-round harbour. Above Loutro rise the southern slopes of the White Mountains. The ceramic record from this area demonstrates what one would expect: large amounts of imported pottery close to the harbour. The sites in the hills above also contain similar material, but chronologies do not always match up, and it is clear that at least some of the upland sites are not dependent on the nearby coastal anchorages for the acquisition of imported goods.

This paper explores the coast and hinterland regions around the Loutro peninsula, beginning in the Archaic period and continuing through Roman. Aside from south-coast harbours, various other systems for the transport and importation of non-local commodities are considered within the context of Crete's particular history in order to understand reliance on water-borne movement versus land-based conveyance that is almost certainly not static over time.

6.  George W.M. Harrison (Carleton University)

Crete the Important
A sufficient amount has been written on the Cretan economy, to which have been added numerous talks which have not been published but whose results are known. An examination of the disparate material indicates that it needs to be placed within a framework that foregrounds the data to evaluate better and more securely surmises that have been made about prosperity in Crete during the Roman Empire.
This paper begins with as assessment of the essential studies of physical remains by especially Baldwin Bowsky but now even more importantly Gallimore and correlates information from those scholars (among others, such as Francis, working on ceramics and on trace remain analysis) with work by Theodoulou, and others, on the harbours themselves. It should now be possible to place objects on ships and ships in ports to a degree that has not been possible before and one that shows a Cretan economy far more robust than one might have presumed or even suspected.