The Itzternutional Journal of Nuuticul Archaeology (2003) 32.

1 : 124-125
doi: 10.1006/ijna.2003.1078
Early Navigation and Trade in the Indian Ocean
Cheryl Ward
Department of Anthropology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-777, USA
he international congress Early Navi-
gation and Trade in the Indian Ocean,
held between 4 and 6 J uly 2002 in
Ravenna, Italy, brought archaeologists together
as a reed boat modelled after Bronze Age
types neared completion in a nearby shipyard.
Sponsored by the University of Bologna, the
Fondazione Flaminia of Ravenna, and the Italian
Institute for Africa and the Orient, the meeting
served as a forum for interdisciplinary discussion
of the cultures and watercraft of the Indian
Ocean.
Maurizio Tosi, the primary organiser for the
congress, opened with an overview of the region,
followed by Tom Vosmers presentation of the
evidence for and principles behind his 13 m long
experimental reed boat. Excavations at Ras a1
J inz in Oman provided the first bitumen frag-
ments from full-sized boats more than a decade
ago, and Vosmer has used those fragments to
establish the materials (reeds, withies, reed mats,
cordage, temper for the bitumen) and methods
used by early Bronze Age boatbuilders.
Conference participants also heard a first-hand
account of the recent excavations and discoveries
of Robert Carter in Kuwait, where boat models
and barnacled bitumen fragments at As-Sabiyah
near the head of the Persian Gulf date to between
5500 and 5300BC. J uris Zarins offered a stimu-
lating discussion based on written records from
the Ur-I11 Lagash dockyards, where 800 to 1000
boatwrights worked in about 2040BC. He also
described the frankincense trade in Yemen,
where hundreds of Neolithic sites can be found
along riverbeds, and materials analysis work
suggests frankincense production from individual
regions may be traceable through chemical
analysis.
Serge Clezious discussion of third millennium
Oman focussed on the relationship between Ur
and Susa D through copper mines and trade, and
linked port sites at Um a1Nar and a1Abraq in the
United Arab Emirates to Ras a1Had in Oman.
The link between Um a1Nar and early Harappan
peoples of 3200 to 2600BC, and the seagoing
trade of the later Indus civilizations, were dis-
cussed by Gregory Possehl. A stimulating paper
about ancient Egyptian activity on the Red Sea,
the westernmost extent of the Indian Ocean,
as related to Punt, was offered by Rodolfo
Fattovich, and was followed by a discussion of
shipbuilding technology used by Egyptians at the
time.
Artefacts as indicators of contact and trade
were discussed by Massimo Vidale and Peter
Francis (beads), and by Sophie Mery, whose
work on ceramics provides hints of carrying
capacities for watercraft. Site reports from Steven
Sidebotham (Berenike and other Egyptian sites of
the Roman period), Alessandro de Maigret (first
millennium BC Tamna), and Lucy Blue (Roman
and mediaeval Quseir al-Qadim) showcased
the wealth of untapped information in these
arid, maritime sites, complemented by David
Whitehouses overview of long-distance navi-
gation in the first millennium AD at Ed-Dur
(UAE) and Siraf (Iran), where Chinese ships are
noted by the early 7th century AD.
Other maritime ventures in the Indian Ocean
included a discussion by Stefan0 Medas on
ancient navigation, Hellenistic accounts of icthy-
phagoi on the coast of Makran (Pakistan) by
Oskar Nalesini, and Anna Spinellis suggestion
that Ibn Battutas description of a ghost ship in
the Maldives was likely to be a Chinese pirate or
slave ship. A detailed presentation by Dionisius
Agius focussed on 10th-century Islamic ships
included in the geography of a1Muqaddasi and
relied on Agius ethnographic experience to
illuminate the references.
~ ~
1057-2414/03/010124+02 $30.0010
C. WARD: CONFERENCE REPORT
The conference is expected to become a biennial
one, and its maritime focus on sites and tech-
nologies of seagoing peoples in this important and
large region will be of interest to readers of this
journal, as will the significant publication of its
proceedings, currently being edited.
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