An interdisciplinary database about Roman ports

You are welcome to attend a FREE research seminar at University of Southampton.

Venue: Lecture Theatre A (Room 1133), Building 65, Avenue Campus, University of Southampton
Date: Wednesday February 10th
Time: 18:00

Professor Simon Keay, Dr Nicolas Carayon and Hembo Pagi (Rome’s Mediterranean Ports project, University of Southampton) will be discussing ‘An interdisciplinary database about Roman ports’.

The ERC Advanced Grant funded Rome’s Mediterranean Ports Portuslimen project addresses specific questions relating to the capacities of, and inter-connections between, a range of over 30 selected ports in the east and west Mediterranean. It does so in order to allow us to better understand their role in promoting the trade and commerce across the Roman Mediterranean during the imperial era.

In order to undertake systematic comparisons between these sites, the project has developed a large data management system. This was developed and tested using archaeological collections and combines different kinds of port-specific archaeological, geo-archaeological, epigraphic and historical data so that they can be manipulated within a GIS context. This is making it possible for the project to address specific research questions relating to the definition of ports and their associated landscapes. Our recent ongoing work on the ports at Narbonne in France and Elaia in Turkey is used to demonstrate how this works in practice.