Vol. 14. The Archaeology of Piracy in Antiquity

Proceedings of the International Hybrid Conference held under the auspices of the Department of History and Archaeology of the University of Athens (October 5-6, 2023)

Abstract

The volume The Archaeology of Piracy in Antiquity (AURA Supplement 14) brings together the proceedings of the international hybrid conference of the same title, held on 5-6 October 2023 at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (N.K.U.A.), under the auspices of the Department of History and Archaeology. The conference was organized within the framework of the A.P.Pir.A. research project, hosted at N.K.U.A. from 2021 to 2024 and funded by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (H.F.R.I.). The project’s principal aim was to develop a systematic approach to piracy in the Greek seas from the Final Neolithic to the Roman period, with archaeological evidence at the center of the investigation.

The volume’s main geographical focus is the Aegean, but the individual contributions range from the Ionian and Adriatic seas in the west to Cilicia in the east. Chronologically, they span a particularly broad period, from the Early Bronze Age to the Roman era, while three studies extend into the early modern period. The volume comprises 21 studies, together with an appendix devoted to the Museum of Cycladic Art educational program Piracy in the Ancient Cyclades, developed as part of the A.P.Pir.A. project.

At the heart of the volume is an effort to open up a substantive discussion about the archaeology of piracy. Rather than examining piracy solely through written sources, the contributions explore how settlements, fortifications, shipwrecks, burials, weapons, iconography and maritime landscapes might be reconsidered by including piracy within the range of possible interpretations. The volume does not seek to provide definitive answers, but rather to raise questions and serve as a point of departure for new lines of enquiry, new methodologies and new archaeological interpretations.

Contents

• Vangelis Samaras, “Preface”
• Vangelis Samaras, “An Introduction to the Archaeology of Piracy”
• Jan Driessen, “Λῃστικός or Can We Really Talk of Pirates in the Bronze Age?”
• Nadia Giagkoudaki, “Investigating the Origins of Piracy in the Aegean: Trade and Maritime Raids during the Early Bronze Age”
• Anastasia Angelopoulou, “The Art of War in Prehistoric Aegean: Early Cycladic Fortified Citadels and Weapons”
• Dimitris N. Sakkas, “Searching for Piracy in the Middle and early Late Bronze Age Aegean”
• Leonidas Vokotopoulos, “Insecurity at Sea and the Fortified Sites of the 13th/12th centuries BCE on Crete”
• Konstantinos Tsonakas, “The Multiple Facets of the Seafarer in the Late Bronze Age Aegean”
• Andreas Ladas, “Seeking Timber in the Pirates’ Lairs: The New Approach to Wenamun’s Report”
• Panagiotis Gounelas, “Sailing through ‘the Unresting Sea’: The Archaeology of Piracy in the Early Iron Age Aegean”
• Olympia Vikatou and Vivian Staikou, “From Homer’s Taphians to the Pirates of Ayia Mavra: Exploring the Legacy of Piracy in the Central Ionian Sea”
• Filip Budić, “ ‘Savage’ Liburnians, Notorious for Piracy: Reconsidering the Liburnian Thalassocracy and the Role of Seaborne Raids”
• Aris Tsaravopoulos and Evangelos Kroustalis, “The Pirates’ Den of Aigilia and the Antikythera Shipwreck”
• Nirefs Markakis, “Maritime Commerce, Naval Supremacy and Piracy in the Peloponnese-Crete Strait: A Geo-archaeological Assessment on the Island of Kythera”
• Konstantinos Pantzouris, “The Islets as Pirate Sites: The Archaeology of Piracy on Agathonisi”
• Helen Kalmpourtzi, “Trade and the Elimination of Piracy: The Case of Hellenistic Rhodes”
• Adam Dawson and Nicholas Rauh, “The Archaeological Footprint of the Cilician Pirates”
• Ioannis Nakas, “Piratical Ships of the Aegean: A Comparative and Diachronic Approach of the Ships Used by the Pirates of the Aegean during the Classical and Hellenistic Period”
• Eleni Manakidou, “Seascapes and the Athenian Relationship with the Sea in Cult and Vase-Painting”
• Stamatis Fritzilas, “Tyrrhenian Pirates and Dionysus: The Iconography of an Ancient Story of Piracy”
• George Koutsouflakis, “Between Myth, Lore and Historical Reality: Piracy in the Phournoi Archipelago, Eastern Aegean”
• George Koutzakiotis, “Searching for Traces of Corsair Activity in the Aegean during Early Modern Times: From Historical Accounts to Archaeological Remains”
• Eleni Markou, “ ‘Piracy in the Cyclades’: A Museum of Cycladic Art Educational Program in Experiential Learning”