Ancient Seafaring

Investigations of Mediterranean connectivity have increasingly turned toward maritime landscape models to frame questions of seaborne exploration, marine resource exploitation, trade and exchange, and seafaring culture. Environmental and technological parameters are consistently acknowledged as crucial for understanding when and why different relationships developed across the sea, but their formal employment in the modeling and interpretation of maritime space remains quite limited. The methodology outlined here utilizes Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to integrate environment and technology as an analytical tool for exploring the complexity of seaborne connectivity. Focusing on sailing days as practical units of distance and using an Archaic Greek shipwreck off Turkey as a case study, this preliminary model demonstrates how a more nuanced spatial approach can inform the human geography and socioeconomic structures of ancient maritime interaction.

More than 30 years ago the American anthropologist-archaeologist William Adams wrote a seminal article on the interpretation of material culture change in ancient Nubia entitled ‘Invasion, Diffusion, Evolution?’ (1968). In it the author laid bare the inadequacies of invoking population movement to explain changes that could just as easily be attributed to cultural diffusion or evolution. A decade later Adams co-authored another article that took an even dimmer view of ‘migrationism’ (Adams, van Gerven and Levy 1978). In this latter article the authors offered up the Philistines as an example of a ‘historical migration’ – that is, a migration known from texts or through philology, but largely indiscernible through excavation. Although many of their points are well taken, the case of the Philistines should have been exempted from this sweeping criticism of the migrationist tendencies of culture-history. In addition to the textual evidence that attests to the movement and settlement of Philistines and other Sea Peoples along the Levantine coast, there is a burgeoning corpus of supportive archaeological data. Indeed, the Philistines, based on extensive excavations at three of their capital cities (i.e., Ashdod, Ashkelon and Tel Miqne-Ekron),  provide a superb case study of migration from an archaeological perspective.
The main purpose of this paper, however, is not to address Adams’ passing dismissal of the Philistine migration as an archaeologically observable event; but, rather, to counter the more focused and sustained revisionist thinking of the past decade regarding the Sea Peoples phenomenon. First, though, it is necessary to present a brief history of how the Philistines and their fellow Sea Peoples have been regarded over the past 150 years.

Though Odysseus’ tales to Eumaios and Aninoos in Odyssey 14.199–359 and 17.417–44, respectively, are presented as fictional tales within Homer’s larger myth, some elements have striking analogs in Late Bronze–Early Iron Age reality.

This article examines these portions of the hero’s false ainoi within their fictive context for the purpose of identifying and evaluating those elements. Particular focus is given to Odysseus’ declaration that he led nine successful maritime raids prior to the Trojan War; to his twice–described ill–fated assault on Egypt; and to his claim not only to have been spared in the wake of that Egyptian raid, but to have spent a subsequent seven years in the land of the pharaohs, during which he gathered great wealth.

Through a comparative examination of literary and archaeological evidence from the Late Bronze–Early Iron transition in the Eastern Mediterranean, it is shown that these aspects of Odysseus’ stories are not only reflective of the historical reality surrounding the time in which the epic is set, but that Odysseus’ fictive experience is remarkably similar to that of one specific member of the ‘Sea Peoples’ groups best known from 19th and 20th dynasty Egyptian records: the ‘Sherden of the Sea.’

For a long time, it has been assumed that the place names for the regions east of the Ganges in Claudius Ptolemy's geographical guide refer to loci in countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam and China. The careful analysis of a few detailed map representations according to Ptolemy's text, however, leads to different and also surprising conclusions. In these geographical maps that were made at the end of the Middle Ages, at the beginning of the age of discovery, we could recognise the oldest charts of the territory of today's state of Myanmar, former Burma. Changes and continuity regarding the settlement history and landscape become particularly plain through the depictions.

This paper reviews the earliest empirical evidence for seafaring, leading to the exploits of Homo erectus in two world regions. This leads to the explanation of the rationale of replication experiments intended to establish the minimum conditions under which demonstrated maritime colonisations in the Lower Palaeolithic could have succeeded.

Справедливы слова Геродота о том, что Египет – это дар Нила. Без плодородных земель нильской долины и речного судоходства, соединившего страну воедино, цивилизация Древнего Египта никогда не достигла бы своего небывалого расцвета. Неудивительно, что в древнеегипетских источниках упоминается около 90 названий для различных типов кораблей! Однако, не всем известно, что древние египтяне были также и хорошими моряками, а их морские корабли были построены в самобытной традиции, многие черты которой так и остались уникальными. Это тем более удивительно, что в Египте не было древесины, пригодной для постройки морских кораблей. Уже во времена первых династий древние египтяне совершали дальние торговые рейсы в Красном и Средиземном морях. Морской флот Египта играл важную роль в военных кампаниях и уже в XII в. до н.э. на его кораблях впервые в мире был применен таран. Позже, в Эллинистический период, Египет, следуя политике талассократии («власти над морем»), держал под контролем все Восточное Средиземноморье. В лекции будут рассмотрены основные свидетельства о мореплавании в Древнем Египте - о кораблях, портах и маршрутах - дошедшие до нас в письменных источниках, на рельефах и в археологическом материале, в том числе и совсем новом.

Damnoni cave is a Mesolithic site located on the southwest side of Crete, in the Rethymnon district. The site was found by a targeted survey method used with success in the Kandia region of the East Peloponnese.  In this method, Mesolithic sites are located by exploring
coastal areas with abundant fresh water, south-facing limestone caves, and nearby coasts with very steep bathymetry. While the importance of factors like fresh water may be obvious, the final factor is especially important; if the bathymetry is gradual, the Mesolithic sites would have been closer to the modern shore and inundated by the ever-rising sea levels since the last glacial maximum. At Damnoni, however, the subduction of the African tectonic plate under the European forces the White Mountains of west Crete dramatically up. Consequently, the bathymetric drop-off is 100 meters within a short distance from the shore at Damnoni. The region around Plakias, and specifically around the Damnoni Bay, fits all the environmental  criteria for a Mesolithic site, and, in fact, the Plakias Mesolithic Surveydiscovered early Holocene tools in front of the cave in 2008.The survey, having met with such extraordinary success, moved on to the excavation phase in 2011. This paper presents the excavation method and the preliminary results of both the 2011 and 2013 field seasons.

The early history of nautical technology in the western Indian Ocean and adjoining parts of the African coast is poorly understood. In the absence of evidence from shipwrecks, it has hitherto been based largely on the uncertain interpretation of a few documentary references and speculation surrounding technological parallels and assumed lexical resemblances. This paper examines some of the linguistic evidence in a more rigorous way, by undertaking a cross-dialectal comparison of names for watercraft and terms for outriggers in Swahili (Kiswahili), a Bantu language spoken on the islands and in scattered communities along the western seaboard of the Indian Ocean. The resulting analysis provides a new outline of the development of Swahili nautical technology and maritime culture, highlighting the key role played by particular boat forms, and the relative importance of indigenous innovation and different external influences, including the elusive impacts of Austronesian seafaring.

If the statement that the Greeks were a people of sailors needs to be qualified, it is nonetheless undeniable that the sea was a geographical aspect of great importance in the ancient Greek world. It is therefore not surprising that this element impregnated the beliefs and cults from the Atlantic to the Persian gulf and in particular in Magna Graecia. This book explores the ways in which the maritime culture influenced the major figures of the Greek pantheon, the Olympian gods, from Homer to the Hellenistic period. It moderates, in this respect, the overimportance too often attributed a priori to Poseidon. An investigation of this type necessarily utilised a variety of sources: literary, epigraphic, archaeological, iconographic and numismatic. By analysing beliefs, the topography of the sanctuaries, cultural practices both on board and on terra firma and the nautical ex voto (anchors and ships), it constitutes an indispensable tool for the study of the Greek religion and the study of naval archaeology.

This dissertation provides a preliminary report on the discovery of a Third Dynasty boat-burial from Abusir South (ca. 2544 BCE), and reevaluates a corpus of 70 Egyptian boats and boat-burials from the third millennium, demonstrating dramatic changes in both funerary practice and nautical technology. The Abusir Boat was excavated between 2015-2016 by the Czech Institute of Egyptology and the Institute of Nautical Archaeology. It is the only known boat-burial dated to Egypt’s Third Dynasty, and the only ancient Egyptian hull recorded with its lacing and wading intact. The 17-meter long funerary barque is a social and technological missing link that ties Khufu's Fourth Dynasty royal ship to the First Dynasty boat-burials from Abydos, Saqqara, Helwan and Abu Rawash.

The first part of this dissertation reevaluates the known corpus of Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom boat-graves. Prior scholarship has frequently assumed chronological continuity in the purpose and meaning of boat-burials and has focused on assigning interpretations based on later textual and iconographic sources. This dissertation challenges these assumptions. Focusing on the archaeological remains, it proposes a new typology for boat-graves, and identifies previously unrecognized patterns in the form, structure, associations, and distribution of boat-burials. These patterns can be linked to an ongoing status race between Egypt’s elites and royalty. Significantly, this dissertation demonstrates that changes in the form and distribution of boat-burials correspond to the wider social patterns proposed in the punctuated equilibrium theory of Egyptian history.

The second part of this dissertation analyzes the development of Egyptian nautical technology. The evidence from the Abusir Boat requires us to re-conceptualize how early Egyptian watercraft were built. This dissertation defines a tradition of “Early Nilotic Laced Construction” and disproves established hypotheses about the construction of Early Dynastic boats. Significantly, while the techniques used to construct the Abusir Boat link it to Early Dynastic boat-building traditions, its overall philosophy of construction is similar to Khufu's royal ship, bridging the immense technological gap between the First and Fourth Dynasty. While nautical technology underwent dramatic technological and philosophical changes following the Old Kingdom, this dissertation reveals how boatwrights innovated through the adaptation and repurposing of older techniques.

This paper deals with the subject of Viking Age iconography as source material for rigging details and sail technology of Viking Age ships. The survey consists of two parts: 1) an iconographical analysis of Scandinavian ship motifs c. 750-1050 AD, in particular motifs from the monumental picture stones of Gotland, but also from coins, rune stones and graffiti. 2) a critical analysis of the methods used in reconstructing Viking Age ships’ rigging and sail during the last 20 years. It is concluded that a major part of the ship motifs are a fairly reliable source of Viking Age ship technology, and that most of the vessels depicted are warships with low and wide square sails. Furthermore it is concluded that the methods used in sail reconstruction are often based too strongly on ethnographical sources; despite the fact that this material does not correspond visually with the ship motifs of the Viking Age. This thesis does not entirely reject the ethno-archaeological reconstruction method, but proposes a more complex perception of Viking Age ships’ sail. It is suggested that the long and slender warships were equipped with low square sails, and that these vessels were not constructed primarily to tack against the wind.

Most slaves in the Greek world were imported non-Greeks and their offspring. Yet little is known of the entry into slavery of individuals from the non-Greek periphery. Far more promising for studying entry into slavery is a less numerically significant process, piracy, where the capture and sale of individuals - mainly Greeks - is extensively documented. Piracy was both a form of labour in itself, and a means of acquiring labour. The aim of this article is to explore the pragmatic aspects of capture and sale, as well as the extent to which the practice of ransoming prisoners kept captives away from entering the slave supply, by studying the pirate crew's work, the technology at its disposal, and the fate of its victims.

For a long time, marketplaces were an underrepresented field of research in medieval archaeology. Numerous urban excavations and re-evaluations of evidence from older excavations, however, have significantly increased our level of knowledge over the last three decades. This paper summarises the main findings and uses historical
sources to outline the development of medieval markets. Particular focus is laid on the trading space of ports, which underwent their own development due to the specific conditions of merchant seafaring. This progress can now be understood in a more differentiated way for the first time. Beside markets and other places of trade, backgrounds and actors involved are discussed.
The development of the marketplaces is presented chronologically in three time periods. For the Early Middle Ages, a brief overview over the sources of the Carolingian and Ottonian market policies come first accompanied by archaeological examples of early inland marketplaces. This is followed by the emporia and other trading ports in the North Sea and the Baltic, from which beach and harbour markets as well as other infrastructure are known. The professionalism and mechanisms of early medieval trade are also discussed.
While in the High Middle Ages the number of inland marketplaces increased continuously, an commercial optimisation can be registered at the waterfronts, which is strongly linked to the professionalisation of merchant seafaring. On the one hand, public harbour markets were established in the ports, while on the other hand, private
and individually developed commercial properties appeared. From the late 12th century onwards, we can discern both a change and a diversification. The harbours lost their market function, while long-distance trade shifted to the houses of the merchants inside the town. Furthermore, central marketplaces were established to ensure the supply of the local population. At the same time, the inner-city markets became more diverse, which is expressed by the construction of warehouses, booths and other structures.

A “frying pan” of some interest, since it depicts a longboat, (Syros Museum 1163)  was found in a rescue excavation conducted under the direction of the author in the Roussos field at Chalandriani in Syros in 2002-2008. The field lies in the West Sector of the Early Cycladic Chalandriani cemetery . The excavation revealed 28 undisturbed graves of the corbelled type with grave goods more or less similar to those from Tsountas’s excavations, and distinguished by their variety and wealth. The new find (from Grave VII), besides enlarging the corpus of known depictions of longboats on ‘frying pans’, provides an opportunity, because of its well-documented contexts, to understand better certain aspects of these intriguing objects and the EBA II Chalandriani society they reflect.

The article concerns the nautical contents emerging from the text of the Acts of the Apostles 27-28, dedicated to the voyage of Paul of Tarsus (St. Paul) from Caesarea of Palestine to Rome (60 A.D.). This text is one of the most interesting written evidence about seafaring in antiquity, particularly as far as the shipwreck on Malta Island is concerned. Topics investigated are: 1. travel arrangements of passengers; 2. the course from Palestine to the Aegean, with reference to the seasonal winds; 3. periods of the year exploitable to navigate; 4. harbors suitable for the winter stop; 5. stormy sea navigation; 6. the method to reduce the speed of the ship at the mercy of the storm; 7. the jettison; 8. astronomical references importance; 9. the sounding lead use; 10. anchorage and anchors. The work ends with the analysis of the last part of the voyage, from Malta to Rome.

2013 yılı Piri Reis’in ilk Dünya Haritasının 500. Yılı olarak UNESCO’nun programına alınmış olmasına rağmen, hakkında yazılan kitaplar, makaleler kendisinin Haritacılık bilimine yaptığı katkıdan çok Kanuni Sultan Süleyman ve Pargalı İbrahim Paşa ile olan ilişkileri, idamı ve seferleri üzerine yazılmıştır. Dünya harita parçaları ve “Kitab-ı Bahriyye” eserleri üzerine yapılan yazılar ise komplo teorileri ile doludur.

Scholars typically argue that cultural interaction between the West Mediterranean islands of Sardinia and Corsica and the European mainland took place through the Tuscan Archipelago, via such intermediary islands as Elba and Pianosa. This path is posited as the prime route in and out of these islands for both people and objects throughout prehistory largely due to the belief that early - pre-sail - seafarers would have wished to avoid more treacherous open-sea voyages. This paper tests this hypothesis using social network analysis (SNA) to identify the strengths of inter-site relationships through time based on the relative proportions of West Mediterranean obsidian raw materials at 79 Neolithic sites dating from the 6th to 4th millennia BC. We argue that similar patterns of obsidian consumption reflect similar procurement mechanisms and the likelihood of more frequent interactions between the people of these communities. As such, it becomes possible to reconstruct the relationships that mediated the distribution of obsidian across the landscape.

Contrary to previous interpretations highlighting the role of Elba and Pianosa in the exchange of obsidian from the geological sources of Sardinia along the coast to northern Italy and France, our results suggest that obsidian also took a more direct open-sea path upwards of 200 km from Corsica to the coastal regions of Provence and Languedoc in southern France. These results are contextualized within broader patterns of obsidian circulation and use and have important implications for debates surrounding Neolithic obsidian procurement, exchange spheres, and early maritime navigation.

Perhaps no civilization in history is as associated with the sea as the Phoenicians, whose ships and seafaring ability allowed them to travel, trade, and establish colonies across the Mediterranean. Search and survey operations in the Mediterranean have resulted in the discovery of a limited number of Canaanite, Phoenician, and Punic shipwrecks, which have been found in both deep and shallow water.

These assemblages provide valuable evi­dence of this culture's critical maritime component, improving our knowledge and under­standing of Phoenician and Punic seafaring, while also helping us better understand the written accounts we do possess about these mariners and their activities. Within the last decade in particular, the excavation of the shipwreck at Bajo de la Campana (Spain) has shed new light on Phoenician seafaring and ship construction, while the discovery of the Xlendi Gozo wreck (Malta) has provided new evidence for Phoenician activity in the cen­tral Mediterranean.

Survey and excavation off the northwest coast of Sicily, in turn, has provided a remarkable material counterpart to the textual evidence for the events at the end of the First Punic War. When combined with the deep-water wrecks off the coast of Ashkelon and the smaller, locally oriented wrecks off the coast of Mazarrón (Spain), a more coherent-albeit still very incomplete-picture of Phoenician and Punic activity be­gins to take shape.

In this synthesis archaeological and historical research strands are combined in order to gain a more holistic understanding on the different influences shipbuilders along the Atlantic coast where subject to and the different ways innovations were implemented, appropriated and combined with native shipbuilding traditions. A major emphasis of this study is the English-Basque maritime cooperation and the role of Basque shipbuilders in facilitating a gradual transition from a shell-first to a skeleton-first principle.

Much has been written on the use of lead and copper sheathing in post mediaeval shipbuilding, yet evidence for such hull protection by Dutch shipwrights in the 17th and 18th centuries has received little attention. A discussion of the archaeological and historical evidence pertaining to the application of copper and lead sheathing by the Dutch long-distance trading companies outlines the argument for the innovative character, experimental use—on ships’ hulls—and standardization—on sternposts—as early as 1602. Archaeological evidence presented mainly comes from the Dutch East Indiamen Nassau (1606), Mauritius (1609), Batavia (1629), Vergulde Draak (1656), and Buitenzorg (1760).

Presentation of the discovery of a Sabaean presence on the Somali coast. It results from the illegal excavation of an archaeological site in Somalia, a temple for which no
parallel is attested in the region. There, monumental Sabaic inscriptions were unearthed, their photographs were posted on the Web and simultaneously handed down to Christian Robin and Khaldun Nuʿmān in 2019-20. Since then, we have had the opportunity to present this discovery in order to prevent the illegal trafficking of these artefacts.

The book deals with the interaction between the Neo-Assyrian Empire and the Cypriot kingdoms in the 8th and 7th centuries B.C.
It examines the Assyrian policies and how they were applied in the South Mediterranean coast as well as their first state controlled world economy. It looks into the possibility whether the Assyrians established a nascent navy in the Mediterranean during the late Neo-Assyrian period.It compares how the Assyrians behaved in Dilmun the other extreme border outpost of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Finally the book examines  in detail how Cyprus prospered and survived in the shadow of the Assyrian empire.

Persistence and change are necessary for the stability and development of both the human individual and the human society, since the beginnings of human history. Man needs a static framework, which, related to his self-awareness, defines a topocentric system of perception, evaluation, order, and meaning. He also requires a dynamic impetus, which allows exceeding the limits of special world views, shifting of perspectives and transformations of individual as well as social approaches to life. Travelling especially helped to broaden man’s horizon and mind. Accross cultures voyages guided by the skies are linked with practical concepts of exploring and domesticating time and space, but also figuratively with the life’s journey and with other worlds, being expressed by mythic, ritual and later scientific language.

The appearance of the brailed rig and loose–footed sail at the end of the Late Bronze Age revolutionized seafaring in the eastern Mediterranean. The most famous early appearance of this new technology is found in history’s first visual representation of a naval battle, on the walls of Ramesses III’s mortuary temple at Medinet Habu. In this monumental combat scene, both Egyptian and Sea Peoples ships are depicted with this new rig, as well as top–mounted crow’s nests and decking upon which shipborne warriors do battle. The identical employment of these innovative components of maritime technology by opposing forces in this battle suggests either some level of previous contact between the invaders and those responsible for designing and constructing Egypt’s ships of war, or shared interaction with a third party, perhaps on the Syro–Canaanite coast. This article examines the evidence for the development of the brailed rig in the eastern Mediterranean, and explores the possibility that at least one group of Sea Peoples, who may have comprised a key part of the international economy of the Late Bronze Age in their role as “pirates, raiders, and traders” (Georgiou 2012: 527) – Artzy’s “nomads of the sea” (1997) – played a similarly integral role in the transference of maritime technology between the Levant, Egypt, and the Aegean.

The intrusive nature of the Philistine material culture, which suddenly appears in southern coastal Canaan in the first half of the twelfth century BCE, has never been in doubt. Moreover, it is widely acknowledged that the origin of this material culture is to be found in the Aegean/Mycenaean world, which, by the end of the thirteenth century, encompassed much of the eastern Mediterranean region. Precisely how the Philistines transported themselves and their material culture from their original to their adoptive homeland, however, has never been adequately explained.
A cursory glance at a map quickly reveals that travel from most proposed Philistine homelands (i.e., mainland Greece, the Aegean Islands, Crete, Cyprus) to southern coastal Canaan require travel by sea; however, travel from two others (i.e., coastal Asia Minor, Cilicia) do not. A large-scale, overland migration from these latter regions, although possible, would have been extremely difficult because of the geographic barriers present along this route. More telling is the pattern of sites that have produced the so-called, Sea Peoples material culture: they are all located on or near the coast, thus strongly suggesting that the settlers of these sites arrived by sea.
An examination of the excavation and survey data relating to southern coastal Canaan at the time of the Philistine settlement indicates the influx of a large, foreign population. The question remains, however, was maritime capability ca. 1200 BCE commensurate to the task of transporting a great number of people across considerable distances? Evidence contained in texts, iconography, and the results of underwater
archaeology pertaining to Late Bronze Age seafaring indicates that, indeed, it was.
A secondary source of data for the Philistine migration is later, better documented, seaborne migrations, such as the Greek colonization of the western Mediterranean. Contemporary histories combined with extensive excavation of the settlement regions provide a clearer picture of most aspects of these later migrations by sea than is available for the Philistines. Finally, the application of migration principles generated in other social scientific fields to the context of the Philistine settlement leads to a broader understanding of the process of the Philistines’ migration.

[publisher's description] In Naval Warfare and Maritime Conflict in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Mediterranean, Jeffrey P. Emanuel examines the evidence for maritime violence in the Mediterranean region during both the Late Bronze Age and the tumultuous transition to the Early Iron Age in the years surrounding the turn of the 12th century BCE.

There has traditionally been little differentiation between the methods of armed conflict engaged in during the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages, on both the coasts and the open seas, while polities have been alternately characterized as legitimate martial actors and as state sponsors of piracy. By utilizing material, documentary, and iconographic evidence and delineating between the many forms of armed conflict, Emanuel provides an up-to-date assessment not only of the nature and frequency of warfare, raiding, piracy, and other forms of maritime conflict in the Late Bronze Age and Late Bronze-Early Iron Age transition, but also of the extent to which modern views about this activity remain the product of inference and speculation.

The Late Bronze Age ended with a bang in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean: palaces and empires collapsed, from Greece to Egypt; coastal territories were beset by pirates and marauders; migratory peoples were on the move across land and sea; and geopolitical lines were permanently redrawn – conditions reflected, in many ways, by the world portrayed in Homer’s Odyssey. The notorious ‘Sea Peoples,’ mysterious groups of warriors who were credited by the pharaoh Ramesses III with destroying empires across the Near East at this time, fit into this puzzle in some way, although their exact role continues to be hotly debated. In the Odyssey’s various subplots, Odysseus himself carries out activities that are that highly reminiscent of the Sea Peoples, as he engages in raids and skirmishes while circuitously making his way back from Troy. Though it is presented as a falsehood within Homer’s master narrative, one such subplot, the “Second Cretan Lie” (Odyssey xiv 191–359) is striking in its similarity to the experience of one specific Sea Peoples group, whom Egyptian pharaohs referred to as the "Sherden of the Sea", and whose seaborne attacks they claimed that “none could withstand.”
This book marshals documentary, pictorial, and material evidence to examine Odysseus’ Second Cretan Lie in the context of the Late Bronze–Iron Age transition, with particular emphasis on changes in the iconography of warriors and warfare, social and economic upheaval, and remarkable innovation in maritime technology and tactics. Particular focus is given the hero’s description of his frequent raiding activities, including an ill–fated attempt on the Nile Delta, and on his description of seven subsequent years spent in the land of the pharaohs, during which he claims to have gathered great wealth. Setting the evidence for the Sherden of the Sea against this Homeric narrative demonstrates not only that Odysseus’ Second Cretan Lie fits into the temporal framework of the Late Bronze–Early Iron Age transition, but that there were historical people who actually lived that which Odysseus falsely claims as his own experience.

This study focuses on the Periplus of Pseudo-Skylax, a controversial document from the late fourth century bc. Despite diverging views on its date and authorship, scholars agree this text could have derived most of its information from earlier and non-extant, nautical sources. This
article contributes to addressing gaps and limitations concerning the Periplus’s relevance and the forms in which such currently lost information circulated at the time of, and preceding, its publication. Its aim is to identify the contents in the Periplus of Pseudo-Skylax which the author could have obtained from earlier nautical sources; compare them with other, maritime-derived extant documents; and further analyse this information from a practical and sailing perspective.

The current model of proto-Malayo-Polynesian (PMP) holds that a unitary language was spoken in the Luzon Straits roughly four thousand years ago and that this diversified into all the extra-Formosan languages and was responsible for the Neolithic settlement of Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) and Oceania. The paper suggests that this is supported by neither the linguistics, the archaeology nor the distribution of material culture. Archaeology of ISEA after 4000 BP points to near simultaneous settlement in a wide variety of sites, while analysis of individual lexical items points to geographically biased distributions, suggesting they were selectively carried to different regions. Examples of material culture items associated exclusively with Austronesian culture are given, which again show strong geographical biases.

This points to a rather different model of time and place, here called the ‘boiling pot’ which assumes the Luzon Strait was an centre of innovative maritime technology and the starting point for voyages in canoes with multi-ethnic crews, establishing pioneer routes across the entire region and reconnecting with the non-Sinitic cultures of the mainland. This would then see PMP as a network of related subgroups, which can never fully reconstitute a unitary PMP, because no such entity existed.