斯里兰卡 听印度洋眼泪中的石头故事

正斯里兰卡,听名字就是一个非常美丽的地方,它是印度南面的一个岛国,地图上就在印度的下面,岛的形状像一滴眼泪,所以它被称为"印度洋的眼泪"。那是一个海洋的国度,蓝天白云映衬的金沙碧海装扮着那里,如同一颗眼泪荡漾在印度洋上。而当你以为水的温柔便是它的全部时,它却用石头的坚硬诉说起古老的故事,那故事里,有传奇,有信仰,更有着人们的生活。带着那份向往一步步走进斯里兰     

塞舌尔 印度洋上的伊甸园

正塞舌尔是我到达的第一个非洲国家,却也是最不像非洲的非洲国家。当碎玉一般晶莹剔透的海浪翻滚着打湿我裤脚的时候,当斑斓的五色海水流动在我眼底的时候,我已经深深中了毒。几天之后,岛上丰富多彩的动植物,神奇的国宝海椰子,还有当地热情的克里奥尔人,更让我相信,这里就是传说中那个快乐的伊甸园。我的脸紧紧地贴在舷窗之上,俯瞰着飞机下面的这片海,朵朵白云之下,是湖蓝色的海水,那是印度洋的颜色。墨绿色的岛屿出现在印度洋之中,周围艳丽的海水和白色的浪花、沙滩为它镶上一圈美丽的花边。更近了,那斑斓的浅滩像是它的霓裳羽衣。塞舌尔,我终于来了。     

Sewn Boats in Oman and the Indian Ocean

Sewn boats have been ubiquitous across the globe throughout history (Greenhill and Morrison, 1995: 118) and fibre and wood were the fundamental boatbuilding materials in the Oman peninsula for millennia. Evidence for their use appears in the archaeological record in the 3rd millennium BCE but the level of technical development plus the archaeological record of international trade, suggest a much longer history. This paper reviews elements of the information from historical texts, ethnography, and archaeology in a synthesis to broadly outline the development and characteristics of sewn boats in the Indian Ocean.     

East Africa and Madagascar in the Indian Ocean world

The Indian Ocean has long been a forum for contact, trade and the transfer of goods, technologies and ideas between geographically distant groups of people. Another, less studied, outcome of expanding maritime connectivity in the region is the translocation of a range of species of plants and animals, both domestic and wild. A significant number of these translocations can now be seen to involve Africa, either providing or receiving species, suggesting that Africa’s role in the emergence of an increasingly connected Indian Ocean world deserves more systematic consideration. While the earliest international contacts with the East African coast remain poorly understood, in part due to a paucity of archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological studies, some evidence for early African coastal activity is provided by the discovery of early hunter-gatherer sites on offshore islands, and, possibly, by the translocation of wild animals among these islands, and between them and the mainland. From the seventh century, however, clear evidence for participation in the Indian Ocean world emerges, in the form of a range of introduced species, including commensal and domestic animals, and agricultural crops. New genetic studies demonstrate that the flow of species to the coast is complex, with more than one source frequently indicated. The East African coast and Madagascar appear to have been significant centres of genetic admixture, drawing upon Southeast Asian, South Asian and Middle Eastern genetic varieties, and sometimes yielding unique hybrid species. The biological patterns reflect a deeply networked trade and contact situation, and support East Africa’s key role in the events and transformations of the early Indian Ocean world.     

“过洋牵星术”用于印度洋考释

过洋牵星作为一种海上导航技术,在《郑和航海图》、《顺风相送》等明清有关航海的书籍中只见用于苏门答腊以西的印度洋海域,对此许多前辈学者都曾提出疑问或推测,一直是学界难以解答的问题。随着近年来海洋史研究越来越受关注,此疑问的解答更显必要。本文试图从汉唐以来中国海上导航法的自身发展出发,通过比较过洋牵星术与更路导航的不同应用特点和局限性来解答这一问题。过洋牵星术只见用于印度洋,山形水势于这两种导航技术的抉择中是重要因素。同时,更路导航却能够不断完善脱颖而出,在中国帆船的海洋活动中占据主导地位。     

Australia and the challenges of order-building in the Indian Ocean region

This article considers the regional order-building challenges that Australia presently confronts in the Indian Ocean region (IOR). The author argues that while regional stability within the IOR constitutes an increasingly important Australian security interest, policy makers will struggle to translate the order-building strategies they have previously pursued in East Asia into an Indian Ocean context. In East Asia, Australia has historically pursued a ‘dual track’ order-building strategy centred on its participation in a US-dominated ‘hub and spokes’ alliance system alongside multilateral regional engagement. The absence of an equivalent alliance system or an established tradition of multilateral security diplomacy conversely precludes an extension of this strategy into the IOR. Growing tensions between the USA and China and between China and India, meanwhile, further complicate IOR security dynamics, while underscoring the urgent need for a more coherent approach to regional order-building. With these challenges in mind, the author concludes by proposing a range of bilateral, minilateral and multilateral initiatives that Australia should pursue to stimulate the emergence of a more cooperative IOR security environment.     

Indo-Arabian stone anchors in the western Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea

This paper describes the current state of knowledge in the study of Indo-Arabian stone anchors in the western Indian Ocean, Red Sea and Arabian Gulf, and speculates on what they may be able to tell us about the provenance, size and handling of Arab and Indian ships and shipping during the period sixth-sixteenth centuries AD.     

The Thaikkal-Kadakkarappally Boat: an Archaeological Example of Medieval Shipbuilding in the Western Indian Ocean

Recent excavations at Kadakkarappally in Kerala, south-west India, have unearthed the remains of an iron-fastened boat, believed to predate the earliest known records for the use of iron in South Asian boatbuilding. The design departs significantly from the traditional view of Indian watercraft, although the use of locally available timber and the suitability of the design for use in the backwaters that characterise the region suggest that it was built and used in India. This is the first excavation of its type to take place in Kerala and contradicts the belief, widely held in Kerala, that the survival of organic remains has been negated by the tropical climate of the region.
© 2004 The Nautical Archaeology Society