Entre mers – Outre-mer. Spaces, Modes and Agents of Indo-Mediterranean Connectivity (3rd Century BCE – 18th Century)

Entre mers – Outre-mer. Spaces, Modes and Agents of Indo-Mediterranean Connectivity (3rd Century BCE – 18th Century)

Organizer
Prof. Dr. Nikolas Jaspert, Historisches Seminar, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
Venue
Heidelberg, Alte Universität - Senatssaal (27.11.) / Heidelberg Center for American Studies (28.11.)
Location
Heidelberg
Country
Germany
From - Until
27.11.2014 - 28.11.2014
Website
By
Sebastian Kolditz

Historical research on seascapes in the pre-modern age has recently been flourishing. Due to the long-lasting impact of Fernand Braudel’s opus magnum, the Mediterranean has often been considered a paradigmatic case. Braudel’s model also influenced the dynamic research on connective structures within the pre-modern Indian Ocean and its adjacent seas from the Red Sea to the East Asian waterscapes.
These major maritime spaces of the Old World thus offer many chances for comparative approaches, for the exploration of new methods in maritime studies and for research on the multiple relations between various parts of this Indo-Mediterranean maritime world, reaching from early contacts in the Ptolemaic age to the European expansion of the 16th-18th centuries.
The international workshop aims at developing new perspectives on transmarine relations, on their changing modes, their agents and principal spatial patterns. It will especially focus on two aspects of crucial importance: the role of transition zones and passages between seas (entre mers) and the formation of firm links between distant coasts which were instrumental in the creation of spaces outre-mer. To what extent did trade relations, migration or the exercise of sea power contribute to such developments?
Viewing seascapes from this perspective will contribute to embedding both terrestrial and maritime subspaces into more comprehensive structures of connectivity within the Indo-Mediterranean.

Programm

27 November (Alte Universität, Senatssaal)

14.00: Opening and Introduction
Nikolas Jaspert / Sebastian Kolditz (Universität Heidelberg, Historisches Seminar)

Section I - Connecting Lands and Seas: Concepts, Agents and Commodities (Chair: Joseph Maran)

14.30: Joachim Friedrich Quack (Universität Heidelberg, Insititut für Ägyptologie)
Incense, the Alphabet and other Elements. On the Move of Persons, Commodities and Ideas between Egypt and Arabia

15.10: Break

15.30: Søren Michael Sindbæk (Aarhus University, Section for Archeology)
Maritime Networks and Urbanism: Comparing Early Medieval Emporia in East Africa and Northern Europe

16.10: Ranabir Chakravarti (JNU New Delhi, Centre for Historical Studies)
Two Maritime Merchants of the 12th Century CE: Ali Mansur b. al Fawfali and FDYR: Gleanings from the Cairo Geniza

16.50: Break

17.10: Daniel König (Universität Heidelberg, Cluster Asia and Europe)
From East to West and West to East. Reflections on the Medieval Arabic-Islamic Documentation of Western Europe

17.50: Christoph Mauntel (Universität Heidelberg, Cluster Asia and Europe)
Bounded by Waters. Oceans and Seas as Means of Ordering the World

19.00: David Abulafia (University of Cambridge, Faculty of History)
Mediterranean Islands and the Meaning of Mediterranean History
Public Evening Lecture, Hörsaal 14, Neue Universität

28 November (Heidelberg Center for American Studies, Hauptstraße 120)

Section II - Long Distance Maritime Communication and its Effects (Chair: Susanne Enderwitz)

9.30: Alexandra von Lieven (FU Berlin, Ägyptologisches Seminar)
Trade Contacts and Cultural Exchange between Egypt and India in the Ptolemaic and Roman Period

10.10: Raimund Schulz (Universität Bielefeld, Abteilung Geschichte)
Oceanic Sea Routes to India – the Western World´s Great Dream from Antiquity to Columbus

10.50: Break

11.10: Mona Kirsch (Universität Heidelberg, Cluster Asia and Europe)
Expansion in the Mediterranean: Sicily’s Role in the Foreign and Economic Policies of the Angevins and Aragonese

11.50: Gita Dharampal-Frick (Universität Heidelberg, Südasien-Institut)
Transcultural Networks from the Arabian Sea to the South China Sea, 1000-1800: Continuities and Transformations

12.30: Break

Section III - Maritime Hubs: Straits, Harbours and Islands (Chair: Gerrit Jasper Schenk)

14.00: Andrea Jördens (Universität Heidelberg, Institut für Papyrologie)
Roman Alexandria – Queen of the Mediterranean and the Arabian Seas

14.40: Iván Armenteros Martínez (Université d'Aix-Marseille, Laboratoire d'archéologie médiévale et moderne en Méditerranée)
The Canary Islands as a Space of Inter-connectivity between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic

15.20: Break

15.40: Luís Adão da Fonseca (Universidade do Porto, Departamento de História)
Straits, Capes and Islands as Points of Confluence in the Organization of the Portuguese Ocean Route between the Atlantic and the East

16.20: Susan Richter (Universität Heidelberg, Historisches Seminar)
The Street of Malakka – Interdependent Cultures of Trade Law

17.00: General Debate and Conclusion

Contact (announcement)

Sebastian Kolditz
Universität Heidelberg
Historisches Seminar
Grabengasse 3-5
69117 Heidelberg
E-Mail: sebastian.kolditz@zegk.uni-heidelberg.de
Tel: +49 (0)6221 547859


Editors Information
Published on
14.11.2014
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