Geodatabase of Ancient Ports and Harbours

This database presents work done by Arthur de Graauw to collect, identify and locate ancient harbours and ports. It is based on a study of existing documentation and does not aim to find unknown ports. The result is a list of around 2900 ancient ports based on the writings of 66 ancient authors and a few modern authors, incl. the Barrington Atlas. A harbour is a place where ships can seek shelter. In the concept of "shelter" must be included anchorages, landing places on beaches and ports with structures like, access channels, breakwaters, jetties, landing stages, quays, warehouses for storage of commodities and equipment, shipsheds and slipways for ships. Shelters of interest for this catalogue include all places which may have been used by seafarers sailing over long distances. This means that shelters for e.g. local fishermen who may have landed their boats on the beach in front of their homes, are of lesser interest. Only maritime harbours are listed, but some river ports that could be reached by deep sea ships are also included. EDITOR'S NOTE: Mr. de Graauw is a coastal-civil engineer specializing in ports and maritime infrastructure, and has considerable first-hand knowledge of Mediterranean and other ports and sailing conditions. The written sources in the database have been used in translation, mostly into French, as noted in the author's extensive annotations and commentaries in the complete form of his database and Catalogue. The DARMC Team thinks you will find his work as useful as we do, and therefore are pleased to share it with you on DARMC and in the more complete downloadable spreadsheet version. For more information, see his website: http://www.ancientportsantiques.com/.