Harbours of South Marmara (propontis): Parion and Priapos

ABSTRACT This Masters thesis focuses on the harbours of two important cities located on the southern shore of the sea of Marmara (Ancient Propontis), namely Parium and Priapus. The harbours of these two important cities were important for the seafearing during the classical antiquity. The fact that no investigations were carried out there so far to reveal information on the use and nature of the harbours of these cities was one of the reasons that tempted me to carry out investigation on this subject. This is because Parium and Priapus were located on a maritime route following the coast that tied the Aegean and the Black sea worlds. I attempted to obtain as much archeological information as possible about these harbours. These harbours contributed much to the development of these two cities durin their use. In particular, the surface data documented arount the harbour of Parium demonstrated that it was used for a long period of time from the late Archaic to the Hellenitic period.Moreover, I obtained information on the nature of the harbor of Parium by carrying out underwater research during the course of my study. Ancient harbours and their associated structures have always been viewed important by those archaeologists dealing with the study of issues such as the ancient seafaring, seamanship and ship-building technology. In terms of their evelotion, the harbors were first contructedon location that are suitable against the currents an winds. Then, with the advance of construction technology, the harbours investigated in this thesis are good material manifestation of the development observed on the development of ancient harbours and related structures.