Download Seafaring during the Classical period (480

Seafaring during the Classical period (480-334 BCE): an overview
Mapping out the next week
Today: overview of ‘Classical’ seafaring (480-334 BCE)
Wednesday: A closer look at Classical period shipwrecks
Friday: life on board a merchantman (based on shipwreck
evidence)
Greek victory at the Battle of Salamis (480 BCE), and a new panhellenic Greek identity
forged across the Aegean with the imperial initiative of Athens (the Delian League)
The Delian League (477-404 BCE) was
ultimately maintained with a strong Athenian navy
Piraeus (port of Athens) and the ‘long walls’: archaeological visibility of the Athenian
dependence on maritime power (longevity of the first long walls: 456-404 BCE)
Different views of Piraeus, as it would have looked ca. 430 BCE
(based on archaeological reconstructions)
The Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE): the ultimate challenge to the Athenian empire;
Spartans and their allies regularly besieged Athens
The ancient chroniclers of the Classical Period (e.g. Thucydides for the Peloponnesian War)
record naval strategies and battles, but little is revealed of commercial shipping
or the ships that were used in commerce (e.g. the ships that kept Athens alive while it was
besieged)
Resembling the biblical prophet Ezekiel and the ‘ship of Tyre’, a Greek comic playwright
eulogizes the commercial success of Athens during the Peloponnesian War
“Now tell me, Muses who have your dwellings on Olympus, of all the good things Dionysus
brought here in his black ship from the time when he sailed the wine-dark sea as a merchant.
From Cyrene silphium stalks and ox-hides, from the Hellespont mackerel and all varieties of salt
fish, from Italy fine flour and ox ribs, and from Sitalces an itch to plague the Spartans. Syracuse,
providing pigs and cheese…And from Egypt rigged sails and papyrus, and from Syria frankincense.
Fair Crete provides cypress for the gods and Libya much ivory for sale, and Rhodes dried grapes and
dried figs that bring sweet dreams. And again, from Euboea pears and fat apples; slaves from Phrygia,
mercenaries from Arcadia. Pagasae provides slaves and branded runaways, while the Paphlagonians
provide chestnuts and shiny almonds, which are the delights of the feast. Phoenicia provides the fruit of the
palm and fine flour, Carthage rugs and multicoloured head-cushions”
(Hermippus, 426-5 BCE)
Evidence for Athenian (Attic) commercial dominance in the eastern Mediterranean (5 th century BCE)
Attic ‘Owl Tetradrachm’ the dominant
currency in the Greek speaking world
Attic ‘Black Figure’
pottery widely exported
and imitated
What would Athenian merchant ships have looked like?
Merchant ship representations on Attic Black Figure pottery
What would Athenian merchant ships have looked like?
Merchant ship representations on Attic Black Figure pottery
Shipwrecks in the Aegean that sunk within the historical context of the Delian League
(or during Athenian naval and commercial supremacy in the Aegean)
Alonnessos
X
X
Excavation of
the Alonnesos
shipwreck
Excavated shipwrecks in the Aegean that sunk within the historical context of the Delian League
(or during Athenian naval and commercial supremacy in the Aegean)
X
Excavation of the
Tektaş Burnu shipwreck
Tektaş
Burnu
Lecture for Wednesday: the significance of the Tektaş Burnu shipwreck