Ancient Roman ports project

CONGRATULATIONS TO PROFESSOR KEAY: Honour for expert on Roman ports (Southern Daily Echo).

HE IS the man at the forefront of unearthing Europe’s Roman ports.

Professor Simon Keay, of the University of Southampton, was awarded €2.49 million of European Research Council funding to study a large network of Roman ports in the Mediterranean – stretching from Turkey in the east, to Spain in the west.

Now Prof Keay has has been elected a fellow of the British Academy in recognition of his groundbreaking research.

In total, the Roman Mediterranean Ports project is examining 31 ports in nine different countries including Ephesus, Pitane and Kane in Turkey, Gades and Tarraco in Spain and Portus and Putroli in Italy.

The project will use satellite imagery and archaeological data to study the remaining 23 ports in France, Egypt, Tunisia, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Libya, Israel and Greece.

Prof Keay is leading the project in very close collaboration with ancient historian professor Pascal Arnaud from the Université de Lyon La Lumière, France, and will analyse key Greek and Latin texts to find out more about the ports. His 15 years of re-search into Roman ports has culminated in this project.

Research will last until 2018 and will concentrate on the first two centuries AD, considering the layout, activities, hierarchies and commercial and social connections made between Roman ports.

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