The Coastal Infrastructures of Skiathos as a Reflection of Byzantine Harbour Traditions, lecture by Alkiviadis Ginalis, King’s College London, February 3, 2015, 5:30-6:30 pm

Due to its strategic geographical position off the northern entrance to the Euboean and Pagasetic gulf, the island of Skiathos played a significant role in the Mediterranean Sea trade. Forming a decisive junction of the N-S and E-W axis in the Aegean, it constituted an important station for the regional and supra-regional trading routes and shipping lanes throughout Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Since 2012 the coastal and underwater archaeological survey project at Skiathos has been revealing a rich archaeological heritage, which reflects major alterations in harbour traditions from the Imperial Roman to the Late Byzantine periods, allowing to draw a clear historical picture of architectural developments, port networks and changes in the socio-economic connectivity of the area.

Alkiviadis Ginalis is a Byzantinist and underwater archaeologist, specializing in Byzantine harbour and shipwreck studies. He finished his doctorate at the University of Oxford in 2014. As a cooperative field director of the Skiathos coastal and underwater research project, Alkiviadis is currently working on Byzantine ports of the Aegean. However, his research field also includes the seafaring, shipbuilding, harbour architecture and maritime trade of the entire Mediterranean, the Black Sea and the Red Sea.