Sessions > Session 6

HOMER 2020 - Session 6: Navigation, circulation and port installations

This session aims to offer a reflection on the movement of people and goods in the Atlantic north of the equator, as well as addressing the issue of the artificial and/or natural facilities designed to accommodate ships and their crews as their patterns of travel required. Thus the choice between a beaching zone or the provision of an artificial facility (dock, slipway, jetty) will depend on the morphology of the shoreline and proximity to an urban centre. New insights offered by historical studies of Atlantic ports and navigation in classical, medieval, and post-medieval times underline the need to adopt a diachronic approach, from the first human settlement to the 20th century, and to question, cross-reference and integrate results from other disciplines such as archaeology, history, geography, oceanography, archaeometry, geoarchaeology and geomorphology. The development of networks of ports operating at local, regional and international scale can also be addressed. Ocean navigation is governed by a set of maritime practices that evolve over time and are sometimes specific to a given geographical area. It will be considered here in its entirety, both at the scale of coastal cabotage and of transatlantic open sea voyaging. This session will consider the characteristics of the ships, their functions, and their versatility as well as their interactions with the port networks and connections with the hinterland beyond. Three geographic zones will be considered: the coastline, the foreshore (land/sea continuum) and the open ocean.