Tuesday, January 10, 2006

More Conference Joy

Hot on the heels of TAG, I've had a paper accepted for the Symposium On Mediterranean Archaeology conference in Ankara on March 9-11. My chance to impress other Mediterranean archaeologists and/or contract Avian Flu. Here's the abstract for my paper:

Sackers Of Cities, Rowers of Ships: Eastern Mediterranean Naval Warfare

The importance of Mediterranean seafaring to the development of Bronze Age cultures around that seas shores has long been acknowledged, particularly in terms of trade and cultural contact. Discussion of the military uses of the sea in this ear, has, however, been limited, with the alleged scarcity of evidence often being put forward as an explanation. Indeed, scholars such as Starr (1994) have claimed that there was no such concept as “sea-power” prior to the rise of Athens in the 5th Century BC. Given the aforementioned importance of the sea, such claims must be investigated. This paper will examine the evidence for military uses of the sea in the eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age. It will demonstrate that not only is there a variety of evidence to suggest the use of sea-power in the Bronze Age, and will suggest the nature of war at sea in that era.

There should now be a comments feature on this blog, so you can tell me what you think.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Stephen! I take the chance to post the first comment on your blog. Congratulations on this new feature. I also like your abstract, very interesting. Good luck with the conference. Regarding the bird flu- don't you think it gives the whole thing a bit of an Indiana Jones feeling? Dangerous animals and an invisible hazard that can strike unexpectly...

Jen said...

I read lizard... 'dangerous animals and an invisible lizard that can strike unexpectedly.'
I know, I know. But wouldn't it be *great?*
Stephen, I've long wanted a comments feature on your blog. Happy New Year and thanks for adding it.

Stephen said...

I'm glad people are enjoying the comments feature. I now notice that there are a couple of typos in that abstract - I'm not talking about Trieremes in people's ears, honest!

The Bird Flu shouldn't be that dangerous. I'll just have to make sure I don't come into any intimate contact with any birds...

Anonymous said...

Great new feature, Steve - though who is to compete with your rhetoric virtuosity? Happy new year! Timo