The Gulf of Messara Underwater Survey NEH Collaborat
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Maritime Landscapes of Southern Crete from the Paleolithic to Modern Times: The Gulf of Messara Underwater Survey NEH Collaborative Research Grant Proposal November 2017 Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World Institute of Nautical Archaeology Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities Karl Krusell Brown University STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT Maritime Landscapes of Southern Crete from the Paleolithic to Modern Times: The Gulf of Messara Underwater Survey This proposal seeks to gain funding for a major three-year collaborative research project aimed at characterizing the maritime landscapes of southern Crete from the island’s earliest human presence to the expulsion of the Ottomans at the very end of the 19th century CE. The maritime significance of Crete was already established in Greek oral tradition by the time the Iliad and Odyssey were first written down sometime in the 8th century BCE. Clues about the island’s seafaring history derived from such sources as Bronze Age wall paintings and New Testament scripture have provided the basis for much scholarly speculation, but ultimately leave many questions about the long-term development of maritime culture on the island unanswered. A recent debate among Mediterranean archaeologists was prompted by the discovery of lithic artifacts in southern Crete dated to the Paleolithic, which have the potential to push back the earliest human presence on Crete, as well as the earliest demonstrable hominin sea-crossings in the Mediterranean, to around 130,000 years ago. The project team will conduct an underwater survey of the Gulf of Messara, collecting data through both diver reconnaissance and remote sensing in order to ascertain the long-term history of social complexity, resource exploitation, and island connectivity. Located on the Gulf of Messara, which is located at the western edge of the Messara Plain in the center of Crete’s southern coast, are the Roman port of Matala, the Minoan harbor town of Kommos, and the site of Plakias where the aforementioned lithics tentatively dated to the Middle Paleolithic were discovered. Interdisciplinary land-based surveys conducted in the Messara Plain provide a strong basis of interpretation for the social dynamics of the region. The proposed underwater survey, through simultaneous collection of cultural and environmental data, will help clarify processes of colonization and trade, as well as provide a fuller picture of maritime landscapes as they existed in different periods. This project will bring together scholars and professionals from the United States, Turkey, Greece, Canada, and Israel, and will involve collaboration between the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA), the Greek Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities, and the Joukowsky Institute of Archaeology and the Ancient World located at Brown University. Using INA’s newly built Virazon II, the first vessel anywhere in the world to be classed as an Archaeological Research Vessel, the team will collect data of various types, including multibeam sonar data, bathymetry, sub-bottom profiles, and core samples. Our research will contribute to the humanities by investigating the variety of human responses over time to a changing landscape. In addition to producing environmental and archaeological data to that effect, this project will also help contextualize the conception of place in the past by providing possible explanations for depictions in literature of the Gulf of Messara as a hazardous waypoint. The dissemination of our results will target both professionals and the public using both digital and print media. We will share our work with colleagues around the world at various conferences and symposia, submit articles for publication to top peer-reviewed journals, and produce video documentation of our progress over the course of all three field seasons. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Maritime Landscapes of Southern Crete from the Paleolithic to Modern Times: The Gulf of Messara Underwater Survey Cover Sheet ...................................................................................................................................... i Statement of Significance and Impact ............................................................................................ ii Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... iii List of Participants ......................................................................................................................... iv Project Narrative Substance and Context Justification ..........................................................................................................................1 Research Questions ..............................................................................................................5 The Survey Area ..................................................................................................................8 Contributions of the Humanities ........................................................................................11 Collaborators ..........................................................................................................................12 Methods ..................................................................................................................................15 Work Plan ...............................................................................................................................18 Final Products and Dissemination ..........................................................................................18 Project Budget Budget Form ...........................................................................................................................20 Budget Justification ................................................................................................................23 Appendices Appendix A: Bibliography .....................................................................................................26 Appendix B: Permitting Procedures .......................................................................................29 Appendix C: Figures...............................................................................................................30 iii LIST OF PARTICIPANTS Project Director Krusell, Karl Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown University Project Co-PI Köyağasıoğlu, Orkan Bodrum Research Center, Institute of Nautical Archaeology Project Co-PI Collaborators Goodman, Beverly University of Haifa Geoarchaeological Specialist Lawall, Mark University of Manitoba; American School of Classical Studies at Athens Ceramics Specialist Littlefield, John Bodrum Research Center, Institute of Nautical Archaeology Diving Safety Officer, Archaeological Consultant Theodoulou, Theotokis Non-Independent Office of the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities, Crete Remote Sensing Specialist, Archaeological Consultant Additional Team Members Gül, Zafer Bodrum Research Center, Institute of Nautical Archaeology Virazon II Captain Snowden-Smith, Susannah Freelance professional Photographer and Videographer iv PROJECT NARRATIVE Maritime Landscapes of Southern Crete from the Paleolithic to Modern Times: The Gulf of Messara Underwater Survey Substance and Context Justification Crete, the largest of the Greek islands, separates the Aegean and Libyan Seas, and is in many respects like a miniature continent (Fig. 1). This relatively small land mass contains the full range of Mediterranean topography, including snow-capped mountains, sandy beaches, fertile plains, and arid valleys. Crete’s placement within the Mediterranean has led to its role as a cultural crossroads between Europe, Asia, and Africa for at least the past several millennia. The island also lies at the crossroads of history and myth. When Sir Arthur Evans discovered the oldest known European civilization at the turn of the 20th century, he named the people and their culture Minoan after the legendary king Minos of Crete. The ancient historian Thucydides, writing in the 5th century BCE, reported that Minos, who is mentioned in the Homeric epics (Il. 13.450; Od. 11.321), established the first navy, extinguished piracy in the Aegean, and colonized the Cyclades (Thuc. 1.4). Though this notion of Minoan thalassocracy (i.e. naval supremacy) is certainly exaggerated, evidence exists that the Minoans were trading goods and exchanging skilled craftsmen with the Egyptians,1 and that they were colonizing or at least exporting their cultural traditions and artistic conventions to Thera and other Cycladic islands.2 Our only evidence for 1 Wachsmann 1987; Bietak et al. 2007. 2 Doumas 1992. 1 Minoan ships survives in the form of wall frescoes, boat models,3 and the monumental ship sheds at Kommos.4 The discovery of a Minoan shipwreck has long been the “holy grail” for scholars like Shelley Wachsmann of Texas A&M University,5 who directed the Danaos Deepwater Survey Project (2007–2009) which searched along a hypothesized trade route between Crete and Egypt.6 The Danaos Project failed to yield any Minoan artifacts, but the team recorded numerous ceramic vessels on the seabed, both in isolation and as part of supposed trails of jettisoned cargo. While this project was nominally diachronic, its primary goal was to look for evidence of contacts between Crete and Egypt during the Bronze Age, and so it resembled more of a “search” than a “survey.”7 A more