Seefahrt und Handel im östlichen Mittelmeer ca. 1550-400 v. Chr.

Martin Eckert Στο M. Seifert & L. Ziemer (eds) 2015. North meets East 1. Aktuelle Forschungen zu antiken Häfen. Ein Workshop veranstaltet von Julia Daum und Martina Siefert an der Universität Hamburg vom siebten bis achten Februar 2014, Aachen: 31-84.

Compared to the traditional focus on the central areas of urban settlements, the archaeology of the ancient Mediterranean is currently experiencing a shift in perspective by examining, to a greater extent, also sub-, peri- and extraurban facilities. Therefore, the harbors with their specific installations and characteristic social issues also come into focus, and more and more archaeological publications are concerned with maritime affairs. Since the underwater research technology has witnessed remarkable improvements, land-based research is increasingly accompanied by projects that venture a glance under the water’s surface, or even conduct underwater archaeology on the open sea. Due to this development, the Eastern Mediterranean begins to be examined more according to its quality as a maritime space, which demands a corresponding way of investigation: less by approaching the sea from the shore, but more by engaging the shores from the sea. The following lines provide a resume of the current state of research and derive some grounding conclusions about seafaring and seaborne trade in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age.