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Ancient History

Ancient Port Structures - Parallels between the ancient and the modern.

Profile image of Arthur de GraauwArthur de Graauw

2022, Roman Ports in Time and Space: Reflections upon Issues raised by the PortusLimen Project

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56 pages

Abstract

This paper aims to compare ancient and modern port structures hoping that the modern can help us in a better understanding of the ancient, with special focus on breakwaters and quay walls. The oldest known port structures are briefly presented. Vertical breakwaters and quays, large concrete blocks, pilae and arched breakwaters, piling walls, cofferdams, rubble mound breakwaters and river training walls are described in the ancient and in the modern world. A few geomorphological aspects of coastal harbours are also reviewed. It is concluded that most natural shelters were used in Roman times, but some major ports have been built in places without any natural shelter, for strategic or economic reasons. Most of today’s concepts for maritime structures were already existing in Roman times and it seems that little progress was made until the 18th c. when large maritime structures started to be built again. The combination of concrete and steel enables modern engineers to build higher, deeper and larger than Roman engineers could dream of, but some modern structures may not last as long as some Roman structures, especially in salt water …

Key takeaways
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  1. Modern maritime structures largely replicate ancient techniques, indicating limited innovation since Roman times.
  2. Vertical breakwaters and quay walls were fundamental to ancient ports, constructed primarily with ashlar blocks.
  3. The oldest known breakwater is the Wadi al-Jarf, dating back 4,500 years and measuring approximately 325 m long.
  4. Around 12% of ancient coastal settlements featured port structures, with most relying on natural shelters.
  5. Modern concrete and steel allow for larger constructions, but some may not endure as long as Roman structures.

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  46. Portus Iulius (Suetonius, Augustus, 16)
  47. Puteoli (Strabo, Geography, 5, 4)
  48. Brindes (Caesar, Civil War, 1, 25)
  49. Hereum Promontorium (Fenerbahce, Chalcedonia) (Procopius, Buildings, 1, 11) Hellespont crossing by Xerxes (Herodotus, History, 7, 34-37)
  50. Ephesos (Strabo, Geography, 14, 1)
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  53. Caesarea Maritima (Flavius, Jewish War, 1, 21)
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  58. Carthage (Appian, Libyca, Book 8: The African Book, chap. 96) And a few more general texts: Poliorcetica (Philo of Byzantion, chap. 3-4)
  59. Harbours (Vitruvius, de Architectura, 5, 12)
  60. Sand (Vitruvius, de Architectura, 2, 4)
  61. Lime (Vitruvius, de Architectura, 2, 5)
  62. Pozzolana (Vitruvius, de Architectura, 2, 6)
  63. Pozzolana (Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 35, 47)
  64. Mortar & lime (Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 36, 52-54)
  65. Iron (Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 34, 39-43)
  66. In addition to this corpus of textual information, we also have an iconographic corpus consisting of over 260 depictions of ports during the Imperial period on coins, mosaics, paintings, ceramics, etc., as provided by Stéphanie Mailleur (2020). Modern pictures of the Puteoli arched breakwater 1: Castrum Puteolanum in the 17th c. (?) (detail) (source: http://www.archeoflegrei.it/i-castra-flegrei/).
  67. Paoli (1768) (source: http://www.archeoflegrei.it/portodiputeoli/). 3: Morghen (1769) (source: https://www.e-rara.ch/zut/content/pageview/14428247). 4: Hamilton (1776) (source: https:// commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Hamilton_-_Campi_Phlegraei,_Pozzuoli.jpg). 5: Smargiassi (ca. 1840) (source: http://www.artvalue.com/). 6: Leitch (1840) (source: http://
  68. Paolo Antonio PAOLI, provided the dimensions of the ancient arched structure in his "Antichita di Pozzuoli" in 1768 (with some later editions, including Giuliano DE FAZIO in 1828). Ancient Port Structures Méditerranée , Paléo-environnements, géoarchéologie, géohistoire
  69. See : http://www.archeoflegrei.it/portodiputeoli/ CIL X 1641 : "The Colonia Flavia Augusta Puteoli (honours the emperor) because in addition to his other favours, as promised by his divine father, he restored to its former splendour the structure with twenty pilae, collapsing through the force of the sea, and added a protective embankment.", transl. Oleson, 2014, p 24.
  70. VITRUVIUS, ca. 20 BC, "de Architectura", 5, 12, provides a description of this construction method using a cofferdam: "Double dams are constructed, well connected with planks and chain pieces, and the cavity between them is filled up with clay and marsh weed well rammed down. When rammed down and squeezed as close as possible, the water is emptied out with screw pumps or water wheels, and the place is emptied and dried, and the foundations excavated", transl. Lacus Curtius.
  71. PLINY the YOUNGER, Letters, 6, 31, to Cornelianus: "a broad barge brings up a number of immense stones, which are thrown into the water, one on top of the other, and these are kept in position by their own weight, and gradually become built up into a sort of breakwater. […] Subsequently, concrete (pilae) will be added to the stones", transl. J.B. Firth (1900).
  72. The island and its port are mentioned by HOMER, Odyssey, 4, 353: "Now there is an island in the surging sea in front of Egypt, and men call it Pharos, distant as far as a hollow ship runs in a whole day when the shrill wind blows fair behind her. Therein is a harbor with good anchorage, Ancient Port Structures Méditerranée , Paléo-environnements, géoarchéologie, géohistoire
About the author
Arthur de Graauw
Université Lumière Lyon 2, Department Member

I am a French/Dutch coastal engineer living in Grenoble (France) and I was employed by a large French Consulting firm named SOGREAH (now ARTELIA) until 2015. I graduated from Delft University of Technology in 1976 and my field of knowledge is civil engineering of coastal structures and areas. In this job we use a lot of hydraulic scale models and mathematical models. As part of my engineering activities, I worked on many projects related to coastal erosion, industrial ports and marinas in the Mediterranean area (e.g. Lebanon, Gaza, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and France). I also have been sailing and diving in a few place of the Mediterranean area. I managed the Port Revel shiphandling training centre using manned models for 14 years and I retired at the end of 2015, keeping some limited activity as a consultant. I was first involved in ancient ports in 1998 by Franck Goddio for interpretation of his underwater discoveries in Alexandria. I travelled to Leptis Magna in 2000 where I met André Laronde who showed me around on the North coast of the ancient city. I decided to make a comprehensive list of “all” ancient ports in September 2010 and came out with a web site one year later. In 2021, I became a Research Associate at Lyon 2 University, Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée, Archéorient (CNRS, UMR 5133). In addition to the catalogue of ancient coastal settlements, ports and harbours, I focus on ancient port structures like quays and breakwaters.

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Potential Ancient Harbours
Arthur de Graauw

Nearly 6000 ancient coastal settlements have been identified so far. It may be accepted that all of them had some kind of boat landing or shelter. From a nautical point of view, many of these sites are not considered very good for sheltering modern yachts, but were nevertheless used in ancient times. Conversely, would you believe that a natural shelter that is considered today as ‘excellent’ from a nautical point of view would not have been used in ancient times, at least as a bad weather refuge shelter? If such a place, in addition, provided fresh water and food, it could become more than a simple refuge. If it also had some ‘hinterland’ providing trade opportunities, it could become a bigger city with sufficient resources to build specific port structures like breakwaters and quays. The aim of the present study is to list ‘Potential Ancient Harbours’ defined as natural shelters that are considered ‘excellent’ by modern sailors but not (yet) listed as ancient harbours. The result is a list of ca. 150 places that might be further considered by historians and archaeologists to find out if they were indeed ancient settlements.

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The Development and Characteristics of Ancient Harbours—Applying the PADM Chart to the Case Studies of Ostia and Portus
Nicolas Carayon

PLOS ONE, 2016

Over the last 20 years, the geoarchaeology of ancient harbours has been a very active area of research around the Mediterranean basin, generating much palaeoenvironmental data from many sites, including estimations of sedimentation rates, the height of the ancient sealevel at different dates and palaeo-geographical reconstructions. Combining this information has proved a major challenge. This article proposes a new chart called the Palaeoenvironmental Age-Depth Model (PADM chart), that allows the researchers to combine all relevant indicators in order to estimate harbour potential of a given ancient port, and to generate comparable data between harbours in terms of degree of closure and water depth available against a synchronised chronology. This new approach, developed in the context of the ERC-funded RoMP Portuslimen project, takes into account estimations of water depths relating to differing Roman ship draughts at different periods. It is tested against the palaeoenvironmental evidence published over 10 years from two Roman harbours located at the mouth of the river Tiber: Ostia and Portus. This reveals that: (1) there has been an underestimate of the real sedimentation rates due to the margins of error of the radiocarbon dates; (2) there was effective control of the water column by dredging; (3) there were different periods of control of the sedimentation. We suggest that the navigability of the Ostia harbour by ships with shallower draughts was maintained until sometime between the 2 nd c. BC and 1 st c. AD, while at Portus it was retained until the 6 th -7 th c. AD.

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The Development and Characteristics of Ancient Harbours—Applying the PADM Chart to the Case Studies of Ostia and Portus / Open Access
Nicolas Carayon, Ferreol Salomon

PLoS One, 2016

Over the last 20 years, the geoarchaeology of ancient harbours has been a very active area of research around the Mediterranean basin, generating much palaeoenvironmental data from many sites, including estimations of sedimentation rates, the height of the ancient sea-level at different dates and palaeo-geographical reconstructions. Combining this information has proved a major challenge. This article proposes a new chart called the Palaeoenvironmental Age-Depth Model (PADM chart), that allows the researchers to combine all relevant indicators in order to estimate harbour potential of a given ancient port, and to generate comparable data between harbours in terms of degree of closure and water depth available against a synchronised chronology. This new approach, developed in the context of the ERC-funded RoMP Portuslimen project, takes into account estimations of water depths relating to differing Roman ship draughts at different periods. It is tested against the palaeoenvironmental evidence published over 10 years from two Roman harbours located at the mouth of the river Tiber: Ostia and Portus. This reveals that: (1) there has been an underestimate of the real sedimentation rates due to the margins of error of the radiocarbon dates; (2) there was effective control of the water column by dredging; (3) there were different periods of control of the sedimentation. We suggest that the navigability of the Ostia harbour by ships with shallower draughts was maintained until sometime between the 2nd c. BC and 1st c. AD, while at Portus it was retained until the 6th—7th c. AD.

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Related topics

  • Ancient Harbours
  • Ancient Harbors
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