The Practical Mariner Project

21 May 2024

The Practical Mariner Project explores the ancient sailing world in the Mediterranean from the perspective of mariners and their practical needs. The team will compare and contrast wayfaring and place-making either side of the 3.2Ky climate event, i.e. 1500-800 BCE, during which rainfall declined sharply and state-run networks unravelled under pressure from a range of social and political factors, only to re-emerge in an altered and greatly extended form. Processes of wayfinding are of particular interest: did new routes emerge out of knowledge exchange with fishing communities or the persistence of low-level local and regional trade?

The team is combining agent-based modelling software with geographical information systems to animate the complex interaction between the carrying capacity of the land, the organisation of coastal communities and the practical requirement of sea-borne living. The availability of food, water, chandlery, and materials for repairs on land will be integrated with the presence of fish in the sea in different seasons and different points in the agricultural and maritime cycles. The aim is to assess the impact of climate change on sailing and fishing networks, particularly along the north African coast and on smaller islands across the Mediterranean.

Funder: Augmentum

The interactive map below presents shipwrecks in the Mediterranean that have been dated to between 1500-500 BC. It provides the basic information about the ship like its date, the dates of excavation, survey or discovery, and its dimensions. It also presents any evidence of the physical remains of the ship, such as wooden elements of the hull, metal nails, or pine resin caulking, as well as evidence for dunnage (protective packing for cargo) and for fishing activity. The map will continue to grow over the course of the project with more information about the seafaring world of the Bronze and Iron Age Mediterranean!

Principal Investigator: Dr Linda Hulin

Linda Hulin’s interests centre upon the materiality of interregional contact across the eastern Mediterranean, and particularly the Levant, Egypt, Cyprus and Libya. She has researched the impact of empire on both rulers and ruled in the Late Bronze Age, and she focuses generally upon the relationship between aesthetic sensibilities and social identification in both the ancient and modern world.

Dr Karl Smith

Karl Smith is an archaeologist specializing in GIS, remote sensing, and computer modelling. His DPhil research focused on simulating prehistoric seafaring – specifically agent-based maritime mobility modelling, coastal visibility analysis, and methods of navigation and he has continued to develop his maritime mobility models on his own and in collaboration with the Maritime Encounters project. He has also worked as a geophysicist and GIS specialist on archaeological projects in the UK, Italy, Croatia, Greece, Oman, and Kazakhstan. He is a member of the Computational Archaeology and Seafaring

Dr Max MacDonald

Max completed his PhD at the Centre for Maritime Archaeology at the University of Southampton in 2024. His thesis focused on the human relationship with the sea in Late Bronze Age Greece. Drawing on his experiences growing up on the west coast of British Columbia, his research explored both maritime material culture and the emotional experience of the sea. He has participated in archaeological excavations in Greece, Italy, Spain, England, and Scotland, both underwater and on land.

The Practical Mariner Project