Laurons 2 - Research on the potential and intensity of Roman maritime trade with a special emphasis on performance and capabilities of reconstructed Roman seagoing merchant vessels.

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Christoph Schäfer
• Subject Area: Ancient History ; Economic and Social History
• Term: from 2016 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 290046200

This project will attempt to make a fundamental contribution to research into the organization, the intensity and the impact of ancient maritime trade on the ancient (especially Roman) economy in general. The results from this research will have a significant impact on the ongoing dispute between primitivists and modernists and thus also on the general assessment of the Roman economy. Many assumptions about the specific nature of Roman sea trade are founded on incomplete data and conjecture, as there is no reliable information on the performance of Roman trading ships. This, however, is the conditio sine qua non of further quantifying and analysing Roman sea trade. We propose to adopt a novel approach that will permit us to transcend the limitations of incomplete and difficult source material, by first undertaking the first ever life-sized reconstruction of a Roman merchant ship and its subsequent testing in field conditions. The data gathered from these tests will then be fed into a database and adapted for further analysis. It will then be used in conjunction with specialized nautical navigation software and precise meteorological data to develop a reliable digital model of Roman sea trade in the Mediterranean. This quantifying research will be flanked by traditional historical research into the organization and infrastructural basis of Roman sea trade and thus arrive at a new understanding of this important part of the Roman economy. The data gathered in this project will be made accessible to other scholars and will be presented and stored in such a way as to be available for further research (e.g. for the use in digital geographic information systems). In conjunction with the physical reconstruction, a digital reconstruction will be undertaken that will result in a three-dimensional model of the vessel, which can then be subjected to similar (and more far-reaching) tests, primarily for asserting the effects of water flow on the ship hull but also including destructive stress tests that would be cost-prohibitive to undertake with the actual reconstruction. This methodology allows us to cross the traditional limitations of experimental archaeology and may be replicated by other projects in the future. The project as a whole may serve as a model for similar research in other areas of history (e.g. on mediaeval trade utilizing reconstructed mediaeval vessels) and thus open up new avenues of research for (ancient) economic history.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants