"The blue monkeys painted on the walls of Akrotiri on the Greek island of Santorini are among many animals found in the frescoes of this 3,600-year-old city. Historians have studied the murals for decades since they were unearthed in the 1960s and 1970s on the island, which was once known as Thera. But when we and a team of other primatologists recently examined the paintings, we realized the monkeys could provide a clue that the Bronze Age world was much more globalized than previously thought." Source: Phys.org.
"Archaeologists had assumed the monkeys were an African species, with which the Aegean people that built Akrotiri probably came into contact via trade links with Egypt. But we think the paintings actually depict Hanuman langurs, a species from the Indian subcontinent. This suggests the Aegean people, who came from Crete and the Cycladic islands in the Aegean Sea, may have had trade routes that reached over 2,500 miles."
The prehistoric town of Akrotiri, Greece.
Note: "Bronze Age Aegean (ca. 3500–1100 B.C.) wall paintings from the islands of Crete and Thera depict monkeys in a variety of roles such as running wild in nature, possibly following (trained) commands, and participating in sacred activities. These images, while stylistically Aegean, are traditionally considered closely related to—and descendant from—Egyptian, Near Eastern, and Mesopotamian monkey imagery. While monkey depictions in the latter regions may provide species-specific characteristics, Aegean wall paintings typically lack this level of detail." Source: A new identification of the monkeys depicted in a Bronze Age wall painting from Akrotiri, Thera.
"Jerash is the site of the ruins of the Greco-Roman city of Gerasa, also referred to as Antioch on the Golden River. Ancient Greek inscriptions from the city support that the city was founded by Alexander the Great and his general Perdiccas, who allegedly settled aged Macedonian soldiers there during the spring of 331 BC, when he left Egypt and crossed Syria en route to Mesopotamia. However, other sources, namely the city's former name of 'Antioch on the Chrysorrhoas', point to a founding by Seleucid King Antiochus IV, while still others attribute the founding to Ptolemy II of Egypt." Source: Wikipedia.
Note: According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (OCD, 3rd ed. revised), the city was "probably a Seleucid foundation."
"After the Roman conquest [of the region] in 63 BC, Jerash and the land surrounding it were annexed to the Roman province of Syria, and later joined the Decapolis league of cities. The historian Josephus mentions the city as being principally inhabited by Syrians, and also having a small Jewish community. In AD 106, Jerash was absorbed into the Roman province of Arabia, which included the city of Philadelphia (modern day Amman). The Romans ensured security and peace in this area, which enabled its people to devote their efforts and time to economic development and encouraged civic building activity." (Wikipedia)
"Jerash is considered one of the largest and most well-preserved sites of Roman architecture in the world outside Italy."
Note: According to Wikipedia, "The earliest Arab/Semitic inhabitants, who lived in the area during the pre-classical period of the 1st millennium BCE, named their village Garshu. The Romans later Hellenized the former name of Garshu into Gerasa. Later, the name transformed into the Arabic Jerash."
Before the Roman conquest, Gerasa / Jerash was captured by Alexander Jannaeus (103 - 76 BC), the second Hasmonean king of Judaea. The city "remained in Jewish hands until in 63 BC it became part of Roman Syria and of the Decapolis," according to the OCD. "It's prosperity, dependent on caravan trade, increased later when Trajan annexed Nabataea[1]. Gerasa, having become part of the Arabian province, enjoyed a 'golden age' under the Antonines."
[1] "Nabataea remained independent from the 4th century BC until it was annexed by the Roman Empire in AD 106, which renamed it Arabia Petraea." (Wikipedia)
"One particularly important temple in the city of Gerasa was the Temple to Artemis, built during the reign of the Emperor Antoninus Pius (138-161 AD). The temple was built on a prominent hill. The major temple for which the city is known was built during the reign of Antoninus Pius, circa 150 AD, but there is evidence of an earlier, smaller sanctuary to Artemis that existed as early as 79 AD. This indicates that the veneration of Artemis was already important in the city before the Antonine period. In addition to the temple to Artemis, there is also a temple to Zeus, another important deity in the city, to the south." Source: Ancient Origins.
"The city of Jerash went through many changes during its long existence, going from a Semitic village to a Greco-Roman metropolis, and eventually to an Arabized metropolis. The city however remained inhabited and was able to adapt to each epoch in which it found itself. It is for this reason that it could be considered an everchanging city."
Ostia Antica, not to be confused with the modern suburb of Ostia, is the name given to the archaeological site of the port city of ancient Rome.
"According to Livy Ostia was founded by Ancus Martius, the fourth king of Rome. In Latin ostium meant entrance, a reference to the location of the town at the mouth of the River Tiber. At the beginning it was just a castrum, a fortified settlement, which protected Rome from enemies attempting to attack the city by sailing up the river. Eventually the nature of Ostia changed and it became a commercial and cosmopolitan town where advanced forms of trading were developed." Source: Roman Art Lovers
Video Notes: "The House of Apuleius was built in the republican period, as is indicated by a few remains of opus quasi reticulatum [a kind of brickwork]. The house was rebuilt in the Antonine period, after 148 AD (opus mixtum; dated brickstamps were found). It was excavated in 1885-1886 by Lanciani." Source: Ostia - Harbor City of Ancient Rome (photographs of the site and a floor plan of the house can be found here).
Ostia was sacked by pirates in 68 BC. "During the sack, the port was set on fire, the consular war fleet was destroyed, and two prominent senators were kidnapped," (Wikipedia). Pompey the Great took advantage of this disaster to get a new law passed, the Lex Gabinia, which gave him the authority to raise an army and clear the pirates from the Mediterranean once and for all. Pompey crushed the pirates in about a year, greatly increasing his fame, power and political influence.
In later years, Ostia was expanded to meet changing conditions and the demands of increased trade. According to A Guide To The Ancient World, by Michael Grant, "the [Ostia] harbor was too small to handle all the ships that now sought entry and the larger of them could not pass the sand bar at the river mouth," so the emperor Claudius [AD 41-54] "constructed a large artificial port two miles to its north, equipped with a towering lighthouse and linked to the Tiber by two canals." This new harbor turned out to be vulnerable to storms, so more modifications were made to solve the problem "and caused Ostia's activity and prosperity to reach its peak."
"In the following century," according to Grant, "emphasis shifted to the harbor quarter inaugurated by Claudius and Trajan [who expanded the work started by Claudius], which under Constantine I the Great (306-7) assumed an autonomous entity of its own under the name of Portus ... Meanwhile the city of Ostia itself had become much more a residential center than a trading town; the big apartment houses were allowed to go to ruin, but the construction of lavish new private houses went ahead."
The new harbor of Portus was sacked by the Visigoths in 408 AD.
"A cog is a type of ship that first appeared in the 10th century, and was widely used from around the 12th century on. Cogs were clinker-built, generally of oak, which was an abundant timber in the Baltic region of Prussia. This vessel was fitted with a single mast and a square-rigged single sail. These vessels were mostly associated with seagoing trade in medieval Europe, especially the Hanseatic League [next video], particularly in the Baltic Sea region. They ranged from about 15 to 25 meters (49 to 82 ft) in length with a beam of 5 to 8 meters (16 to 26 ft), and the largest cog ships could carry up to about 200 tons." (Wikipedia)
"The most famous cog still in existence today is the Bremen cog, depicted at the left. It dates from the 1380s and was found in 1962; until then, cogs had only been known from medieval documents and seals." (Wikipedia)
The cog evolved from a long line of earlier ship designs. According to the Naval Encyclopedia, "The Clinker was another name for the Cog (In French and English), Kogghe (in Batavian), Koggen (in German) or 'Coque', from the Spanish Coca or Cocha, or Concha in Latin, Coccha in Venetian. This was typical of the versatile cargo ships of northern Europe between the early Middle Ages and the era of great discoveries, although this type later coincided with the nava, more typical of the Lateen-rigged cargo ships. The clinker kogge was the first and most emblematic of these northern ships."
The 2016 report below describes the discovery of the shipwreck of a medieval cog in a Dutch port.
This type of ship is sometimes referred to as a Hanse or Hanseatic cog since it was used by the Hanseatic League:
"Merchants often also gathered in groups called Hanse for trading across the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. They only dared go to sea in convoys with their valuable freight." Source: Statdebund Die Hanse (Council of Europe).
"The Hanse used a ship called the cog for sea transport. It was a bulky freighter with one mast and a square sail. A helm at the stern and a flat floor made it possible to ship in low water. Unlike the Nordic longboats they were more economical to use. A cog could transport a relatively large amount of cargo with just a small crew, up to 90 tons ... It was produced relatively quickly and inexpensively at that time."
The cog's flat bottom allowed these ships to travel up rivers, but also made them unstable in bad weather. This vulnerability had a direct impact on the merchant's accounting practices, particularly in regard to insurance.
"Sonar technology has been used to identify one of the biggest Roman shipwrecks ever found in the Mediterranean Sea. It is believed that the vessel lay at the bottom of the seabed for 2000 years." Source: Ancient Origins.
"The wreck was located off the Greek island of Kefalonia, between 2013 and 2014 during 'an underwater natural and cultural heritage assessment survey,' reports the Journal of Archaeological Science . It was found not far from the fishing port of Fiskardo. The shipwreck has been named after the village as it is now called the ‘Fiskardo shipwreck’."
Note: "The shipwreck is dated between 1st century BC and 1st century AD and is one of the largest found so far in the Mediterranean Sea, for that period. It is estimated that it was carrying about 6,000 amphorae. The amphorae cargo, visible on the seafloor, is in very good state of preservation and the shipwreck has the potential to yield a wealth of information about the shipping routes, trading, amphorae hull stowage and ship construction during the relevant period and is therefore considered to be of significant archaeological importance." (Journal of Archaeological Science)
According to Ancient Origins, "The discovery of such a large vessel indicates that the small fishing village of Fiscardo was once an important commercial port. Recent archaeological finds suggests that it was a sizeable town in the classical era . The Journal of Archaeological Science states that 'houses, bath complexes, a theatre, a cemetery and a tomb, dating to Roman times between 146 BC and 330 AD were recently found,' near the modern sleepy fishing port."
"The Black Sea is considered to be one of the world’s finest underwater laboratories due to the anoxic (un-oxygenated) layer which preserves artefacts better than any other marine environment." Source: Black Sea Marine Archaeology Project. The sea bottom is a museum full of ancient shipwrecks from all over Europe, Asia and the Near East, as well as submerged artefacts and shorelines dating back to prehistoric times:
"Perhaps the most promising areas in deepwater archaeology are the quest for submerged prehistoric settlements in the continental shelf and for ancient shipwrecks in the anoxic zone, which are expected to be exceptionally well preserved due to the absence of oxygen. This concentration of historical powers, combined with the preservative qualities of the deep anoxic waters of the Black Sea, has attracted increased interest from marine archaeologists who have begun to discover a large number of ancient ships and organic remains in a high state of preservation."
"A team of Russian explorers has come across what is believed to be an ancient Roman ship that had survived for centuries at the bottom of the Black Sea." Source: Newsweek (2018).
"Roman Dunayev, who led the Neptune diving expedition that found the vessel, said the discovery was the first of its kind off the coast of Crimea, which was once under the control of the Roman Empire. The wooden ship was reportedly located at a depth of over 252 feet near the Balaklava region of Sevastopol, a major Black Sea port city."
"Archaeologists know quite a bit about ancient ship design from the classical world since the Greeks liked to decorate their pottery with images of impressive wooden military vessels and cargo ships that plied the Mediterranean sea for centuries. Except for a few precious remnants of wood, however, the vessels themselves are long gone. But researchers in the Black Sea have uncovered something incredible." Source: Smithsonian (2018)
"Kevin Rawlinson at The Guardian reports that the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project (MAP) has discovered an Greek merchant vessel on the floor of the sea dating back to about 400 B.C., the oldest known intact shipwreck ever discovered."
"...The ship is believed to be a trading vessel similar to a merchant ship depicted on the Siren Vase held at the British Museum. The vase, which dates to around the same time as the ship, is an image of the hero Odysseus lashed to the mast in order to resist the song of the Sirens, who mythology says used their hypnotic song to lure sailors into shipwrecking on their rocky island."
Note: "Cnidus or Knidos (pronounced K-nee-dos) lies at the tip of a long finger of land projecting into the sea in the south-west corner of western Turkey. It was founded in around 360 BC on terraces built into ground that rises a 1, 000 feet from the sea to a towering fortified acropolis. The city was inhabited until late antiquity, when it was abandoned, probably as a result of repeated raids by pirates." Source: The British Museum
"Cnidus boasted two fine harbours, four theatres and other fine civic and sacred buildings, the most important of which were situated on the western edge, overlooking the sea and with a fine view of the island of Cos. The Cnidians exported their wine and other produce far and wide, but the city was chiefly famous for its statue of Aphrodite. This naked representation of the goddess of love was carved by the Athenian sculptor Praxiteles, celebrated for his ability to turn white marble into living flesh.
"The ancient Romans relied on long-distance timber trading to construct their empire, according to a new study." Source: Science Daily.
"The timber requirements of ancient Rome were immense and complex, with different types of trees from various locations around the Roman Empire and beyond used for many purposes, including construction, shipbuilding and firewood. Unfortunately, the timber trade in ancient Rome is poorly understood, as little wood has been found in a state adequate for analysis. In this study, [researchers] successfully date and determine the origin and chronology of unusually well-preserved ancient Roman timber samples."
Note: The timber samples were from a site unearthed in Rome back in 2014 - 2016. Researchers determined that the wood originated in France.
Forests were important military and economic resources in the Classical world and battles were fought to control them. For example, "the Spartan general Brasidas's prolonged campaigns in Macedonia during the Peloponnesian War can be seen in part as a Spartan attempt to prevent Athenian access to the timberlands necessary to maintain the Athenian fleet." (Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd. ed. revised). Shortages of timber were a particular problem for the Greeks.
According to the OCD, "...The timber shortage was never so acute for the Roman republic as for the Greek cities, due to the ample forest resources of lowland Italy, Sicily, and the accessible lower slopes of the Apennine and Alpine ranges. As wealth increased and tastes became more exotic, the Roman timber trade (like the trade in decorative building stone) went further afield to satisfy the deman for more exquisite and rare woods."