This session contribution to the AIAC Conference takes the issue of the relationship of Portus to the ports of the Roman Mediterranean as the principal framework of enquiry. It would also break new ground by looking at ports in terms of their distinctiveness as communities and the degree to which they were embedded into the broader political, economic, social and cultural fabric of the Roman Mediterranean during the Imperial period.

In order to achieve this, the conference will be organized around a number of themes which will seek to address the following underlying questions:

1. How important were geographical context and accessibility in the choice of port location?
2. How significant were ports to economic production and exchange across the Roman Mediterranean?
3. How significant were ports in the movement of people, ideas and contagion across the Roman Empire?
4. How distinct were port communities from communities inland?
5. To what extent can ports be considered as symbolic landscapes as well as functional foci?

 

1. Simon Keay (British School at Rome, University of Southampton), Giulia Boetto (Centre Camille Jullian, Université d’Aix-en-Provence)

Introduction: Portus, Ostia and the Ports of the Roman Mediterranean. Contributions from Archaeology and History

2. Michael Heinzelmann (University of Berne)

Supplier of Rome or Mediterranean marketplace? The Changing Economic Role of Ostia after the Construction of Portus in the light of new Archaeological Evidence

3. Simon Keay (British School at Rome, University of Southampton)

Portus and the Alexandrian Grain Trade Revisited

4. Cristophe Morhange (CNRS CEREGE UMR 6635, Universite d’Aix-Marseille), N. Marriner (CNRS CEREGE UMR 6635, Universite d’Aix-Marseille)

Mind the (stratigraphic) gap: Roman dredging in ancient Mediterranean harbours

5. Emad Khalil (University of Alexandria, Egypt)

The Sea, the River and the Lake: All the Waterways Lead to Alexandria

6. H. Hurst (University of Cambridge)

Understanding Carthage as a Roman Port

7. Darío Bernal Casasola

Arqueología de los puertos romanos del Fretum Gaditanum: nuevos datos, nuevas perspectivas

8. Daniel González Acuña

Hispalis, puerto romano de la Bética. Aproximación urbanística

9. Giulia Boetto

Le port vu de la mer: l’apport de l’archéologie navale à l’étude des ports antiques

10. Josep Maria Macias Solé, Josep Anton Remolà Vallverdú

Portus Tarraconensis (Hispania Citerior)

11. Sebastián F. Ramallo Asensio, Miguel Martínez Andreu

El puerto de Carthago Nova: eje de vertebración de la actividad comercial en el sureste de la Península Ibérica