International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

THE BYZANTINE SEA
Chairs:
 Maria Dourou Eliopoulou, Georgios Leveniotis
Amelia Robertson Brown
, 
Seaside and Shipboard Evidence for Byzantine Maritime Religion
Dominik Heher 
The Maritime Infrastructure of Byzantine Dalmatia and Albania
Grigori Simeonov
, 
Tracing the Impact of Environmental Changes and Political Transition 
on the Harbours at the Western Black Sea Coastline
Georgios Leveniotis
, 
Abydos of Hellespont: 
Organizational Changes in an Important Port and Customs Station of Byzantium
Marcin Böhm
, 
The Konstostephanos Family-Worst or the Best Mega Dukes of Komnenian Navy in the 12
th
Century
Marcin Böhm
, 
Some Remarks on the History of the Navy of the Empire of Nicaea 
in the Light of the 
Chronicle
of Georgios Akropolites
Daniele Tinterri
, 
The Giustiniani of Chios and Byzantium as a Means of Validation
Maria Dourou Eliopoulou
, 
The Mediterranean Policy of the Angevins and the Aragonese in the 14
th
Century. 
A Documentary Evidence (Survey)

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Amelia Robertson Brown
University of Queensland, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, 
Brisbane QLD, Australia; 
[e-mail]
Seaside and Shipboard Evidence for Byzantine Maritime Religion
Byzantine seafarers took to the sea in ships both large and small for many different purposes: 
fishing, trade, pilgrimage, warfare or piracy. Yet whether they sailed from the grand Theodosian 
Harbor or a remote island cove, all Byzantine sailors shared one thing in common: they practiced 
both seaside and shipboard religious rituals to request a safe return to shore. Recent harbor-side and 
underwater excavations provide important new evidence for Byzantine maritime religious practices, 
from pre and post-travel votives deposited ashore, to prayers or icons engraved on ships and cast 
overboard with their anchors. In this paper I report on preliminary results from a new survey of 
material evidence for Byzantine maritime religion, from remains of harbor-side churches in major 
Mediterranean port cities to votive inscriptions at dangerous promontories and protective amulets 
retrieved from shipwrecks. This evidence is significant for understanding the distinctive material 
culture of both the practical and ritual activities of Byzantine mariners, from Late Antiquity up to the 
First Crusade. However it also casts light on the long-term development of the Byzantine maritime 
network, which even in the ‘dark ages’ transmitted innovative technologies, exotic trade goods and 
successful techniques of obtaining divine favor far afield from Constantinople. One of the main 
drivers of continued maritime trade was the Church, which benefitted from material goods and the 
sailors who brought them. Most ships carried images and relics of maritime protector saints, while 
the entire bodies of saints Mark, Nicholas and Spyridon were eventually carried off by sea to lend 
blessings to new harbors. Ruins of seaside shrines and wrecks of humble fishing boats alike can help 
to reconstruct the harbor-side festivals, shipboard rituals and religious culture which Byzantine 
mariners once disseminated all around the medieval Mediterranean.