Re-Evaluating the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea

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Using the framework provided by the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a major maritime testimony dating from AD 40-70, this volume brings together philologists, historians and archaeologists to look closely at the interactions between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean world.

Centered on the antiquity but with a long-term approach and designed as a contribution to the French commentary on the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, this collection of papers relies on recent advances made in the field of ancient geography and text editing. It also takes advantage of ongoing fieldwork, both in terms of the archaeology of the establishments themselves, as well as the history of the techniques employed.

They reveal the dynamics of commercial, religious and military networks, while granting full importance to the sui generis nature of the text: a continuum in the tradition handed down to us by classical antiquity and a major source on the relations between the Mediterranean and South-East Asia.

Marie-Frangoise Boussac, Professor in Greek history, Nanterre University, is an historian and archaeologist working in Egypt, Greece and Bangladesh.

Jean-Francois Salles, Senior Researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research, former head of the Amman branch of the French Institute in the Near East, is an historian and archaeologist. He has written extensively on exchanges between the Mediterranean world and India.

Jean-Baptiste Yon, Senior Researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research and former member of the French Institute in the Near East, is an historian and epigraphist. He is the director of the French archeological team at Tyre (Liban).

About the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea*

The Median programme, funded by the National Agency for Research (Agence Nationale de la Recherche) (2009-12), brings together philologists, historians, historians of science and archaeologists. The aim of the programme was to shed new light on the knowledge during the first wave of globalization carried 275 out by the Portuguese, by considering it in the wider context of the longstanding interactions between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. This new perspective also draws from the history of science; the knowledge and techniques specific to a pluricultural classical and medieval Mediterranean world; the impact of commercial, religious or military networks on the 311 production of a knowledge about the Indian Ocean; and the role of cultural interactions with societies belonging to the Mediterranean region.

Within this framework, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea is a major testimony. In our documentation, this maritime itinerary dating from AD 40-70 is the earliest direct account that covers most of the coasts that stretch from 325 today's Gulf of Suez to the Bay of Bengal. It enables a study of the links between classical texts from the Mediterranean tradition and contemporary archaeological sources from the Red Sea up to the Bay of Bengal.

In order to prepare the commentary and its publication in the Collection 341 des universites de France, M.-F. Boussac, J.-F. Salles and J.-B. Yon organized 359 an international seminar in Lyon in December 2010. This volume presents the majority of the contributions, supplemented by those that could not be presented 369 during the sessions in Lyon (B. Fauconnier and A. Rougeulle's in particular).

These studies allow us to update the ongoing fieldwork, both in terms of the archaeology of the establishments themselves, as well as the history of the techniques employed. They reveal the dynamics of commercial, religious or military networks, while granting full importance to the sui generis nature of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea as a text: a unicum in the tradition handed down to us by Classical Antiquity and within, the prolific genre of geographical works. As we will see, there is not always a consensus on the different ways in which this work should be interpreted and one of the advantages of the seminar was precisely the opportunity to confront viewpoints that are sometimes difficult to reconcile. For this reason we did not attempt to unify the work and to systematically harmonize the different contributions.