Human Interaction with the Environment in the Red Sea

Dionisius A. Agius, Ph.D. (1984), University of Toronto, is a Fellow of the British Academy, Professor of Arabic Studies and Islamic Material Culture at the University of Exeter and Distinguished Professor at the King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah. An ethno-linguist, he studies the life of the traditional watercraft, the people of the sea, their folklore and beliefs. Classic Ships of Islam: From Mesopotamia to the Indian Ocean (Brill, 2008) received an Honourable Mention from the Canadian Keith Matthews Prize and was Highly Commended by the British Keith Muckelroy Memorial Award.Emad Khalil, Ph.D. (2005), University of Southampton, is Professor of Maritime Archaeology at the Alexandria University in Alexandria, Egypt. He is the founder of the Alexandria Centre for Maritime Archaeology & Underwater Cultural Heritage, and the former president of the ICOMOS – International Committee on Underwater Cultural Heritage (ICUCH).Eleanor Scerri, Ph.D. (2013), University of Southampton, is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in Archaeology at the University of Oxford and a Junior Research Fellow at Jesus College, Oxford. She has published peer-reviewed articles on and conducts extensive fieldwork in the Saharo-Arabian belt, focusing on the archaeology of human evolution. She is the director of the Senegal Prehistory Project. Alun Williams, Ph.D. (1985), SOAS, London, lectures in medieval history at the University of Exeter. Until 2006 he had a long career as teacher and head teacher in English schools. He has been assistant editor of Al-Masãq – the Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean since 2007. His research focuses on twelfth- and thirteenth-century Iberia, medieval biblical culture and imagery in conflict narratives.

• Contributors’ profilesAcknowledgementsIntroductionDionisius A. Agius, Emad Khalil, Alun Williams and Eleanor ScerriPart One: Environmental perspectives of the Red Sea1.‘On the Red Sea the trees are of a remarkable nature’ (Pliny the Elder): The Red Sea mangroves from the Greco-Roman perspectivePierre Schneider2.Extreme Red Sea: Life in the Deep-Sea Anoxic Brine LakesAndré Antunes3.Biogeographic Provincialism shown by Afro-Arabian Mammals during the Middle Cenozoic: Climate Change, Red Sea Rifting and Global EustasyK. Christopher Beard, Pauline M.C. Coster, Mustafa J. Salem, Yaowalak Chaimanee and Jean-Jacques Jaeger 4.Bridges and barriers: The Late Pleistocene demography of the Saharo-Arabian Belt.Eleanor M.L. Scerri5.Weighing the Evidence for Ancient Afro-Arabian Cultural Connections through Neolithic Rock ArtSandra L. Olsen6THE FARASĀN ARCHIPELAGO IN THE RED SEA CONTEXT DURING ANTIQUITY Solène MARION DE PROCÉPART TWO: From harbours to historical towns7.Adulis and the seaChiara Zazzaro8.The Maritime context of Mediterranean – Red Sea – Indian Ocean trade Roman era vessels of the Red Sea – critical review and new dataAnna M. Kotarba-Morley9. The historic towns of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Coast: Tourism Development and ConservationAylin Orbaşlı10.The Geographical Nature of the Red Sea Area and its Impact on the Material culture: Case Study: Aqiq portAhmed Hussein Abdelrahman Adam11.Food Globalisation and the Red Sea: new evidence from the ancient ports at Quseir al-Qadim, EgyptMarijke van der Veen and Jacob Moralesa12Jeddah and the India Trade in the sixteenth century: Arabian contexts and imperial policyAndrew C.S. Peacock13Ancient Cultural Contact between the Somali Coast and the Arabian Peninsula seenthrough a folktaleAbdirachid Mohamed Abdirachid14The Potentials of Maritime Archaeology in the Kingdom of Saudi ArabiaEmad KhalilIndex