On the Urbanism of Roman Harbours: the Evolution of Space Organization in Harbours of the Aegean Sea

Catherine Bouras (1)

1 EfA - École française d'Athènes

This paper attempts an overview of the evolution of Aegean harbours in the Roman period. Most harbours were developed in earlier periods for the needs of the cities.Some of these, in the Classical and Hellenistic period, had a powerful naval fleet, housed in shipsheds built around the basins of closed, military harbours. Via some examples, the evolution of urbanism in this particular harbour area of the city will be illustrated, showing that while shipsheds and other military constructions went out of use after the pax romana, such areas developed in a different way, opening towards the sea and to commerce and meanwhile becoming a new monumental area of the city.

Domaines: Archéologie et Préhistoire

Catherine Bouras. On the Urbanism of Roman Harbours: the Evolution of Space Organization in Harbours of the Aegean Sea. Häfen und Hafenstädte im östlichen Mittelmeerraum von der Antike bis in byzantinische Zeit. Neue Entdeckungen und aktuelle Forschungsansätze / Harbors and Harbor Cities in the Eastern Mediterranean from Antiquity to the Byzantine Period: Recent Discoveries and Current Approaches, May 2011, Istanbul, Turkey. pp.669-682. ⟨hal-03561618⟩