This book proposes a new approach to the Hellenistic and Roman harbours of the Aegean, based on the combined study of harbours and contemporary ships, seamanship, and commerce. It focuses on the capacity of harbours to accommodate and serve certain numbers of ships, their cargo, their crews, and their passengers. This is achieved through the study of a variety of archaeological, written, and geomorphological data on harbour configuration, and subsequent analysis relating these harbours with the ships that were most likely to use them. Two harbours are used as cases studies, the important commercial centres of Delos and Kenchreai. The results reached concerning these harbours are then discussed in a wider perspective and contextualized with other contemporary sites in the Aegean, as well as within a wider scientific discussion over commerce and seamanship in the Hellenistic and Roman Mediterranean.

AUTHOR
Ioannis Nakas is a maritime archaeologist and archaeological illustrator living in Athens, Greece. After finishing his BA at the University of his hometown, Ioannina, he obtained an MA from the University of Southampton and a PhD from the University of Birmingham, UK. His interests include ancient harbours, ships and seamanship, ship iconography, commercial amphorae and fortifications, subjects on which he has published a series of articles.

REVIEWS
‘This book emphasises a different approach to the study of the harbours by examining the relationship of the harbours with the ships and seamanship of the period. The work focuses on a region and sites that are of international interest for scholars of Roman and classical archaeology, as well as potentially for those in maritime archaeology more widely.’ Dr Adam Rogers, University of Leicester

‘The author is for the first time analysing two of the most promising harbour sites of the Aegean. Both the material/data of the case studies, and the aim/approach/methodology of the work is new and of great importance.’ Dr Alkiviadis Ginalis, Deutsches Archäologisches Institut