Nocturnal Seafaring: the Reduction of Visibility at Night and its Impact on Ancient Mediterranean Seafaring. A Study Based on 8–4th Centuries BC Evidence
The practice of nocturnal navigation in the Mediterranean Sea could be inferred from both archaeological and written records. While there is sufficient proof that the ships and their crew were quite familiar with nighttime sailing, current scholarship has not satisfactorily investigated how the redu...
| Autores: | , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2023 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) |
| Repositorio: | Docta Complutense |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/100734 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/100734 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Historia antigua Arqueología Óptica y optometría 5504.01 Historia Antigua 5505.01 Arqueología 2209 Óptica |
| Sumario: | The practice of nocturnal navigation in the Mediterranean Sea could be inferred from both archaeological and written records. While there is sufficient proof that the ships and their crew were quite familiar with nighttime sailing, current scholarship has not satisfactorily investigated how the reduction of visibility could have affected the nautical practice. For this reason, the aim of this contribution is twofold: (1) to evaluate to what extent visibility was reduced at night, and (2) to understand what kind of strategies (if any) could be put in place to overcome the difficulties of a low level of visibility. Amongst the strategies, we will also assess the impact on visibility of fixed and portable lighting devices, such as torches and pierced amphoras, as documented by the archaeological and literary evidence. |
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