Seminal works on harbours were published by Blackman in 1982 in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology. The focus of these papers was harbour technology and in particular the Mediterranean harbours of classical Greece and Rome. These often monumental harbours still represent iconic markers on the coastal landscape. However, over time researchers such as Honor Frost, Avner Raban and Nic Flemming began to ask questions about the nature of harbours in earlier periods. What did a Bronze Age harbour look like? What constitutes a ‘proto-harbour’ the term coined by Honor Frost? How did ports and harbours fit into the landscape and how did they affect and were they effected by, landscape change?

Nowadays, harbours of all shapes and sizes are studied by archaeologists for a plethora of reasons. Some are interested in what they can tell us about ancient trade and exchange being located as they are at the interface of land and sea. Others are interested in harbours as links in wider networks, the role they played between the coast and the hinterland, and between local and overseas communities, in order to try and ascertain the relative role of specific harbours and anchorages in the past. Harbours as a part of landscape are also critically important as they can provide an insight into how landscapes looked in the past, how they changed over time and how we may begin to explore these changes through processes of sea-level change and geomorphology. Harbours performed different roles, from great centres of international trade, to fishing harbours and naval ports. Many were iconic and monumental, others centres of rich ethnic diversity. Some ports such as Portus, the port of ancient Rome, fed larger centres of power upriver, others were conduits for regional commodities such as those around Lake Mareotis that supported the great Greco-Roman port of Alexandria. A few were located on the fringes of the known world and provided entrepots to other cultures and trading networks, such as the Roman ports of trade that extended down the Red Sea and across the Indian Ocean to India.

At essence ports and harbours had to provide some basic amenities, shelter for vessels being the critical factor, but fresh water and approaches that were easily navigable to enter and leave in a variety of maritime conditions and wind directions. The criteria that determined their location was a combination of physical determinants, topography, sheltered water, prevailing maritime conditions and the specific socio-economic or cultural requirements of the time. One observation often made about harbours is that coastal locales that provide good shelter often served in that capacity over millennia hence harbours were reused and reconstituted, extended and expanded over time.

As points of contact and places of exchange not just of goods but also ideas, harbours can often reveal aspects of cutting edge technology, for example, hydraulic concrete was first invented in the construction of breakwaters and harbour quays (Portus, Rome and Caesarea Maritima, Israel). Natural anchorages used to provide shelter to vessel over four thousand years ago have revealed traces of coastal management in order to try and keep the harbour silt free (Tell Achziv, Israel); while others represent such iconic monuments that they are listed amongst the Seven Wonders of the World (the light house of the port of Alexandria, Egypt). The study of harbours provides a rich and diverse view of our maritime past, the routes of trade, the vessels of trade, systems of trade, as well as technology and maritime practise – this wealthy resource is one that archaeologists are now beginning to engage with more fully and as a result harbours are further opening new doors to a more nuanced understanding our maritime past.

Links about ports and harbours:

• Research project: Lake Mareotis
• Portus Project and the AHRC
• Research project: Adulis – a port on the Red Sea, Eritrea
• http://www.Archaeologists and historians to investigate a vast network of Mediterranean Roman ports.ac.uk/mediacentre/news/2013/oct/13_190.shtml#.VCw6UBbYajY
• Research project: Quseir al-Qadim project

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The sea and the world’s coastlines have always been a great lure for me which is why being a maritime archaeologist and exploring how humans have and continue to interact with this fascinating environment is possibly the perfect job.

My roots are in Near Eastern archaeology and harbours and maritime networks of the eastern Mediterranean particularly during the Late Bronze Age. More recently I have explored harbours and connectivity in the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf spanning the Roman through to the late Historic period. I have conducted and directed numerous coastal surveys and ancient harbour projects in the region including in parts of Alexandria and along the Red Sea coast of Egypt, Eritrea and Oman. I have published over fifty publications that report on the results of this work.

I am also a self-confessed ‘boat nerd’ particularly fascinated in small traditional working boats that operated around the world’s coasts both past and present. For more than ten years I have recorded boats in the western Indian Ocean region, noting their form and construction and how this changed over time. I am also interested in the role they play within the maritime societies that build and use them.

I like to work in collaboration with colleagues in the countries that I conduct research. After a long history of collaboration with the University of Alexandria, Egypt, in 2009, having secured a European Union TEMPUS grant, I helped establish the first Centre for Maritime Archaeology and Underwater Cultural Heritage (CMAUCH) in the Arab world within the University of Alexandria. Subsequently, further collaborative initiatives have been undertaken in my role as director of the Maritime Archaeology Stewardship Trust. MAST aims to build capacity for maritime archaeology and coastal heritage management relating to training, education and resource enhancement in the Arab region, with activities to date in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Qatar and Oman.

I am also a HSE qualified commercial diver and have been involved in a number of shipwreck survey and excavation projects. Recently I directed a three-year collaborative research project in Montenegro, the Montenegro Maritime Archaeological Research Project. It was funded by the Headley Trust, supported by the Montenegro Ministry of Culture and co-directed by the Bar Museum. This three- year collaborative project aimed to train students of archaeology in Montenegro and provide opportunities for Southampton Masters students to participate in underwater survey and excavation. This project was completed in 2013 and is currently being written up for publication as a co-edited monograph.

Besides active research projects, teaching and academic publications, I have a very keen interest in communicating the subject of maritime archaeology to a wider audience. In 2007-2008 I was one of four expert presenters on the BBC/Discovery co-funded eight-part documentary series ‘Oceans’. Subsequently I have undertaken further presenting work for Channel 4 and National Geographic and am currently working on a one-hour documentary on Egypt’s Sunken City for BBC2. I am a lifelong supporter and current Vice President of the international Nautical Archaeology Society, a founder member of the UNESCO UniTwin Maritime Archaeological Network, and have recently been appointed Special Adviser for the Honor Frost Foundation.

During this course I will expand on some of the themes highlighted above – ancient seafaring, trade and harbours and of course further explore the threats currently faced by the world’s maritime and underwater cultural heritage.

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Currently, I am undertaking Ph.D. research on the impact of maritime commerce and trade on urban development in 12th to 14th century northern Europe at the University of Southampton. On this project, I am collaborating with the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde (Denmark).

My main research focuses on the impact of medieval commerce and seafaring on urban topology in northern Europe. Next to this, I study the construction and design principles underpinning clinker-built ships and the preservation and dissemination of (shipbuilding) knowledge. Another interest of mine lies in the study of Bronze Age connectivity, where I am currently focussing on the relationships between the peoples of the Scheldt and Leie basins (Belgium) and their neighbours across the Channel.

If you would like to read more about my research you can follow me on my Maritime Archaeology Blog.

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