@article{article_614855, title={Iconography of Marine Vessels Depicted in Mosaics and Its Importance to Marine Archaeology}, journal={Journal of Mosaic Research}, pages={63–73}, year={2019}, DOI={10.26658/jmr.614855}, author={Grossmann, Eva}, keywords={Ship construction,Mediterranean Sea,mosaics,vessels,Classic and Byzantine Period}, abstract={<p>This article deals with the iconography of ancient ships, depicted in mosaics of the Eastern Mediterranean </p> <p>coast, from Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel to Egypt. As shipping was one of the most important transports for </p> <p>trade, and not only in the Mediterranean Region, artists frequently used ships as a subject of their artworks. </p> <p>Ships are depicted on frescoes (e.g. a drawing of a sailing boat in the Church of St. Vartan in the Church of </p> <p>the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Gibson 1994: 34-42), mosaics, coins, even engraved on walls, such as on the </p> <p>wall at the crusader castle in Akko Israel. It is important to mention that in ancient times artists tried to convey </p> <p>a precise image of the objects they represented, thing that helps us to understand the exact appearance of the </p> <p>researched boats; a trend not common in contemporary mosaic art. </p> <p>The mosaics we are referring to here were predominantly made from tesserae cubes measuring 1 sq. centimeter, </p> <p>but often smaller cubes were used to depict faces (Figs. 11, 12). Mosaics depicting ships have been discovered </p> <p>in various places such as churches (Fig. 12), public and private houses (Figs. 8, 11, 12), even under a threshing- </p> <p>floor (Fig. 5). In buildings, they were frequently included in stories (Fig. 8) often from Greek mythology </p> <p>(Thesaurus on a boat with Ariadne, Daszewski 1977: pl. 30) and in churches in medallions (Fig. 13). </p> <p>The earliest mosaic we describe in this article is the reed boat from El-Amarna, Egypt (Fig. 14), from the 1st </p> <p>century BC. Unlike wooden boats, remains from ancient reed boats have not been found, since they decay with </p> <p>time. Nevertheless, their uses are known to us from literature and artworks. Furthermore, from the 2nd century </p> <p>AD and onwards, decorating churches (Fig. 13) and rich houses (Figs. 8, 11, 12) with mosaic floors started to </p> <p>become a common custom in this region. </p>}, number={12}, publisher={Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi}