Akshay Sarathi, Editor: Early Maritime Cultures in East Africa and the Western Indian Ocean: Papers from a Conference Held at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (African Studies Program) 23–24th October 2015, with Additional Contributions

Correction to: Finite Element Analysis of Shell-First and Longitudinally Reinforced Frame-Based Wooden Ships The article “Finite Element Analysis of Shell-First and Longitudinally Reinforced Frame-Based Wooden Ships” written by Nathan Helfman, Boaz Nishri, and Deborah Cvikel was originally published electronically on the publisher’s Internet portal (currently SpringerLink) on May 20, 2019 without open access.

Dan Mirkin, Sailing to the Holy Land: Crusader Ships, Seamanship, Logistics and Landing Operations

Alicia Caporaso, Editor: Formation Processes of Maritime Archaeological Landscapes

Disheveled Tenacity: The North Bay of Roman and Byzantine Dor Abstract Tel Dor overlooks the eastern Mediterranean on the southern Levantine coastline of Israel. Underwater surveys and a coastal excavation in the North Bay of Dor have produced evidence of an anchorage at the 4th–7th century CE Byzantine city of Dora. The existence of such an anchorage at the northwestern extremity of the city had been contemplated in the past. Also identified are traces of maritime activity from the time period between the 1st century BCE and 3rd century CE and from earlier periods. The concurrent use of the North Bay and the nearby South Bay and Tantura Lagoon during late antiquity mostly took advantage of the natural coastal morphology, augmented only modestly by man-made infrastructure. These three sites served local and interregional maritime traffic at Dor, a clear attestation to a decentralized resource management that resists strict categorization. The resulting image of the maritime interface(s) at Dor does not fit perceptions of a harbor as a spatially rigid, centralized managed phenomenon. Such a seemingly disheveled use of the scarce resource of natural anchorages has shown remarkable tenacity over the longue durée in the southern Levant, as typified by Dor in late antiquity.

Finite Element Analysis of Shell-First and Longitudinally Reinforced Frame-Based Wooden Ships Abstract During the period between the 5th century BC and the 6th century AD, two ship construction technologies were prevalent around the Mediterranean Sea: shell-first and frame-based. The shell-first concept was of a strong rigid hull, comprising edge-joined strakes reinforced by transverse frames which were not joined to the keel. In the frame-based technique, transverse frames were connected to the keel to form the skeleton, and the strakes were then nailed to the frames. The hull was strengthened with longitudinal reinforcements. These concepts did not exist in isolation, and at times both techniques were combined. An initial global finite element study (FEA) which analyzed the two technologies, the shell-first Maʻagan Mikhael (400 BC), and the frame-based Dor 2001/1 (6th century AD), revealed that the ships were on a structural par. In that same study, a controlled FEA experiment on generic models was constructed to simulate shell-first and frame-based ships, showing, however, that the shell-first technique exhibited significantly higher structural integrity than the frame-based method. These results prompted a secondary study to explore the mechanical-structural contribution of longitudinal reinforcements to frame-based constructs. Using the same frame-based generic model as in the previous study, longitudinal reinforcements were added in various configurations. The FEA results from this study demonstrated that three critical interdependent factors determined the relative strengths of shell-first and frame-based techniques: the number of transverse frames, the number of longitudinal reinforcements, and their relative locations.

For Sale or Sailors? Towards a Galley Ware Functional Designation Methodology Abstract Publications of materials recovered from ancient shipwreck sites in the Mediterranean increase every decade with each subsequent excavation, adding a wealth of data to the study of ancient Mediterranean societies. To date, however, there have been few detailed discussions of how recovered ceramics are designated as cargo or galley ware. As the field of maritime archaeology continues to grow, the time is ripe to advance methodologies to define and categorize galley ware ceramics, which can thereby aid studies of ancient seafarers and their relationships to the wider societies to which they belonged. This paper presents a methodological framework to aid in the identification of galley wares recovered from ancient Mediterranean shipwrecks and applies the methodology in two case studies. The larger goal of the study is to initiate within the field discussions of functional attribution in order to move beyond intuition and towards an applicable methodological framework.

The Ocean Decade Heritage Network: Integrating Cultural Heritage Within the UN Decade of Ocean Science 2021–2030 Abstract The Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development 2021–2030 is a UN initiative that promotes a common framework for supporting stakeholders in studying and assessing the health of the world’s oceans. The initiative also presents a vital opportunity to improve the integration of archaeology within the marine sciences. With the First Global Planning Meeting of the Decade held in Copenhagen at the National Museum of Denmark in May 2019, steps are already being taken to make the best of this opportunity, and the resulting creation of an Ocean Decade Heritage Network is proposed as a way forward to continue to raise awareness in the cultural heritage community about the Decade and to facilitate information sharing regarding this endeavour.

Engaging Pacific Islander Veterans and Military Families in Difficult Heritage Discussions Abstract A discussion program that engages Pacific Island veterans and military families in examining the experience of war through humanities sources including conflict heritage was recently undertaken in Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The program proposes to assist the community with gaining a meaningful and relevant understanding of war as a shared human experience by exploring their local conflict heritage and assisting in integrating Pacific Islander veterans into a sociocultural position of authority in the history of war in their islands. The program is informed by theoretical and practice-based approaches in Indigenous and community archaeology, is interdisciplinary in design, and provides some consideration for future prospects in engagement with descendant and veteran communities.

Early Boats in Scandinavia: New Evidence from Early Iron Age Bog Finds in Arctic Norway Abstract This article considers early boats in Scandinavian spanning a timeframe from Early Mesolithic colonization at c. 9500 cal BC up until the beginning of the Late Iron Age around AD 600 from a northern Norwegian perspective. The role of boats in current models of maritime colonization and proxy evidence from carved rock art images of Bronze Age to Early Iron Age boats are evaluated before focusing on newly dated boat remains from bogs in Arctic Norway currently housed at The Arctic University Museum of Norway. These include paddles predating the Iron Age and finds supporting the existence of rowed plank-built vessels in the early Pre-Roman Iron Age (500–0 BC). Rowing evidence includes a boat frame and oar radiocarbon dated to the sixth to fifth century BC and two oars from the later Pre-Roman Iron Age. Consequently, a revision of thinking about early Iron Age boat development is necessary, not only in Arctic Norway but also elsewhere in Scandinavia and Fennoscandia. The context of the earliest plank-built vessel in Scandinavia, the paddled war canoe from Hjortspring, Denmark, dated to c. 350 BC, is reevaluated in light of a probable coexistence with rowed boats.