A note on the care and handling of triremes

The authors of'Effects of shipworm on the performance of ancient Mediterranean warships'(Steinmayer & Turfa, 1996) theorise that extensive shipworm damage to warships of the ancient Mediterranean was unavoidable and would have affected naval operations and the outcome of naval battles. However, there is a significant amount of literary evidence for the care and handling of warships and for the battles in which they engaged that they have not taken into account. The purpose of this note is to bring the missing evidence into the discussion and to suggest that ancient seafarers were better able to protect their ships than Steinmayer and Turfa have allowed.     

The archaeology of medieval and early modern battlefields in Flanders

The first pre-modern battlefield survey in Flanders was a pilot study at Oudenaarde in 2007. Three projects followed, between 2011 and 2013, funded by the Flemish Heritage Agency: an assessment of battlefields for inclusion on the Archaeological Inventory; a survey of Oudenaarde battlefield (1708); and an assessment of Lafelt battlefield (1747). This article reviews these projects in a wider context to reveal the current state of pre-modern battlefield archaeology in Flanders. It discusses the chronology, type and scale of battlefields, the character of the evidence, the methodology for its investigation, and threats to the sites and their conservation management needs.