Medieval Japanese Ports: Exploring the Seto Inland Sea’s Maritime Cultural Landscape

Summary

This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

During the late medieval period (14th – 16th c), Japan’s Seto Inland Sea became the locus of a robust maritime trade network. Smaller island ports were integral to this maritime trade, but have often been overlooked in larger studies of this area. This paper will look at the intersection of environment, transport, and commodity production to consider the impact on port infrastructure and categories. I will argue that the environment of the medieval inland sea produced distinct “production ports,” smaller ports that functioned mostly as a departure point for locally sourced commodities, and “shipping ports,” larger ports that served as hubs for multiple commodities from various locales.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• 2020 SHA General Sessions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

Keywords

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 991