Palaeoportology, Ancient Harbours and Coastal Geomorphology: What Can We Learn?

This presentation aims to analyse ancient port structures, hoping that the ancient can tell us something useful for the modern, with special focus on breakwaters and quay walls. Archaic ships and the oldest known port structures are briefly presented. Vertical breakwaters and quays, large concrete blocks called pilae, arched breakwaters and rubble mound breakwaters are described in the ancient world. Some geomorphological aspects of a few coastal harbours are also reviewed. It is concluded that the Romans mainly used natural coastal shelters, but some major ports were built in places without any natural shelter, for strategic or economic reasons. Most of today’s concepts for maritime structures were already existing in Roman times and it seems that little progress was made until the 18th c. when large maritime structures started to be built again. The combination of concrete and steel enables modern engineers to build higher, deeper, and larger than Roman engineers could dream of, but some modern structures may not last as long as some Roman structures, especially in salt water ...