Wednesday, April 29, 2020
12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
Webinar – https://kaust.zoom.us/j/96427815930
Shipwrecks and Red Sea navigation in the first half of the 18th century
By Prof. Chiara Zazzaro, associate professor of Maritime Archaeology at the University of Naples “L’Orientale”
Abstract:
In the 18th century, three large sailing merchant ships shipwrecked on the return route to Egypt. The cargo of precious porcelain, silverware, spices, coffee and exotic products, which was to be dispatched in the markets of Alexandria, dispersed.
The three shipwrecks, which were recorded by underwater archaeologists in the 1970s and 1990s and from 2015 to 2017 in the Northern Red Sea, operated in the dense and articulated commercial network that connected the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean during the Ottoman Empire. If, on the one hand, it is possible to discern the event of the wreckage and to trace the problems of navigation in the Northern Red Sea, on the other hand, we still have very little knowledge of the nautical technology in use at that time. Together with the excessive load, this may have caused the wreckage. In fact, an Ottoman document dating to the same time period attests to the replacement of existing ships with more resistant, reliable and cheap Indian ships that also shuttled the Red Sea during that time.
In reconstructing the life of the three ships and their environmental context, it is possible to observe the social, economic, political and religious aspects of the 18th century Red Sea.
About the speaker:
Chiara Zazzaro is associate professor of maritime archaeology at the University of Naples “L’Orientale.” Her research interests concern ancient navigation and contacts between the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean and ancient and traditional boats, ports and activities related to the maritime and underwater environment, with particular reference to the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf/Persian Gulf. Her research has taken her to many places, including Egypt, Eritrea and various part of the Middle East. In 2015 and 2016, she co-directed a joint underwater project of the SCTH and “L’Orientale” University that took place offshore from UmmLajj (Red Sea, Saudi Arabia). Since 2016, she has been coordinating research on a collection of traditional Arab and African boat models of the Museum L. Pigorini in Rome. She recently co-edited the book “Stories of Globalisation: The Red Sea and the Persian Gulf from Late Prehistory to Early Modernity” (Brill, 2018), and she co-authored the article From Boatyard to Museum: 3D laser scanning and digital modeling of the Qatar Museums watercraft collection, Doha, Qatar (IJNA 47.2, 2018).
The Cultural Heritage Event Series is organized by Dr. Laurence Hapiot, archaeological research and cultural outreach fellow, Academic Affairs
Photo credit: Chiara Zazzaro 
Photo credit: Chiara Zazzaro
