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Ambiguous wonders part two: the Mediterranean's precious red coral
By Roxani Margariti and Dimitra Mylona In our previous post on corals , we followed the convoluted attempts to classify corals,...
archivesofthesea
Apr 1820 min read
Ambiguous wonders, part one: the nature of corals
Corals. Stunningly beautiful, in all shapes and colors, alive or petrified they have much impact on our planet and our imagination...
archivesofthesea
Dec 17, 202414 min read
From shores to high mountains: our common salt and its many paths in culture
Sea salt: a commodity with so many attributes. Precious and common, life giving but also corroding and destructive, ordinary and mundane...
archivesofthesea
Aug 14, 202423 min read
Garum: Fishy transformations (1)
In May 968 a diplomat from the Kingdom of Pavia in northern Italy, Liutprand of Cremona, arrived in Constantinople to meet Emperor...
archivesofthesea
Mar 12, 202417 min read
From Tortoiseshell and the Turtle Eaters to the Beastly Turtle Island: Transformations of a Lovable Marine Reptilian
In a class on Indian Ocean commodities, economy, and materiality, every year my students and I come across this scribe’s desk at the...
archivesofthesea
Jan 21, 202416 min read
Showing off the exotic, the bizarre and the marvelous in your sitting room: marine life in cabinets of curiosities and their precursors
Roxani and I have often reflected on the nature of our fascination with marine creatures and the people of the sea...
archivesofthesea
Oct 17, 202314 min read
Glimpses of sharks’ fins around Arabia
My first encounter with detached sharks’ fins was at a fishing village near Ra’s al-Khaymah in the homonymous emirate on the Persian Gulf...
archivesofthesea
Apr 24, 20239 min read
Fish that became drums, shields, pouches, shoes, and dazzling garments
In a nightmarish scene from Saudi director Shahad Ameen’s remarkable short film Eye and Mermaid, a group of fishermen have entrapped...
archivesofthesea
Jan 24, 202310 min read
Seagoing ships, tunas, and tassels in the Aegean Sea of the 3rd millennium BCE
As the 19th century was coming to a close, Christos Tsountas, a charismatic and dynamic curator of antiquities in Athens, excavated the...
archivesofthesea
Dec 1, 202210 min read
Dogs, Boats, Shells, and Goats: Musings on the Decorations of the Musandam battil
Many years ago, as an archaeology student in the early 1990s, I had the amazing luck and privilege of participating in a project entitled...
archivesofthesea
Oct 30, 20227 min read
Pinna Goldilocks and the philosopher’s stone
In the past, when people snorkeled in the Mediterranean, in its shallow protected coves, chances were that they would see colonies of...
archivesofthesea
Jul 30, 202210 min read
The pearls of others
here was much rejoicing last November in Atlanta, the great city of the new American South. The Atlanta Braves won the Super Bowl!!...
archivesofthesea
Jun 23, 202211 min read
Octopus the magnificent and its Aegean Bronze Age connections
This post was born out of awe at a piece of kirie art, by Japanese artist Masayo Fukuda. Fukuda created a magnificent paper-cut octopus...
archivesofthesea
Apr 30, 20229 min read
The strange allure of ambergris and other whale wonders
“When they catch sight of one [a dead whale filled with ambergris], they haul it ashore with iron grapnels attached to stout ropes...
archivesofthesea
Sep 17, 202111 min read
Abalone of East Asia and Minoan Seashells: unexpected resonances
Abalone is a name for the many members of a large family of marine molluscs, the Haliotidae. Haliotidae translates into “the ears of the...
archivesofthesea
Jul 13, 20219 min read
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