Bridging Disconnected Seas

This chapter is a review of how the challenges to the interchange between the Mediterranean and Red Seas were met during Antiquity. Over the centuries, the need to overcome the logistical problems posed by navigating the Red Sea, crossing the desert, and sailing the Nile in order to link the Mediterranean and Red Seas resulted in a series of different strategies for each stage of the journey. The fact that each combination could be deemed more suitable to a particular kind of business explains why, over time, one was chosen over another or why several were practised simultaneously. When the texts of the Muziris papyrus were written, Roman trade in the Indian Ocean was evolving from its Early Imperial forms to those of Late Antiquity. As in all transitional periods, there was a mix of old and new, of past and future. The past forms are attested by the Muziris papyrus itself, which still envisages a commercial enterprise involving a direct sea route to Muziris and a connection to the Mediterranean that comprises a limited Red Sea sailing, a desert crossing to Coptos, and a voyage down the Nile to Alexandria. The future forms were heralded by the opening of Trajan’s Canal.

Ancient history · Archaeology · Bridging (networking) · Desert (philosophy) · Geography · Mediterranean climate · Mediterranean sea · Papyrus · Political science · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Computer Science · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Law · Maritime and Coastal Archaeology