Mémoire de Master 1 - Archéologie Université Paris 1 2011 - 2012 Sous la direction de François Villeneuve

Le rôle du port égyptien de Rosette entre le Xe et le XIIe siècle est méconnu. A l'ombre d'Alexandrie, les auteurs de la période médiévale ne s'y intéressèrent que très peu et les chercheurs modernes n'ont consacré que très peu d'études à ce port. Pourtant, quelques documents permettent de se faire une meilleure idée de son rôle notamment à l'époque fatimide où cette cité côtière joua un rôle non négligeable dans le trafic commercial entre Fustât et Alexandrie.

This publication is part of highly dynamic research carried out on Roman ports, developed thanks to interdisciplinary studies led in fluvio-lagoonal environments that had previously remained unexplored. The Antique port is considered in all its complexity: as an area of exchange connecting the sea with inland areas and a place subject to constraints and environmental changes. Indeed, this subject area is instrumental in the study of human interaction with the environment and requires ambitious research projects. The notion of a port system has been highlighted many times over, and is a concept that takes into account the transhipment areas, especially infrastructures on a territorial scale. Despite the constraints linked to these port environments (navigability, shifting of the rivers and coastlines), ancient societies both managed and improved vast areas in order to raise the economic stakes represented by a port. The study of literary sources, shipwrecks, palaeoenvironmental data and the exploration of port zones are all elements called upon in order to better understand these port areas - the construction and exploitation of which led to technical innovations and an unprecedented development in exchanges during the Roman era. In order to epitomize the latest research and the richness of the themes raised by the study of the ports, the publication is comprised of three parts: the first relates to the port system of Antique Narbonne, the second brings together several syntheses on the fluvio-lagoonal and fluvio-maritime ports and the third part presents several geomorphological and palaeoenvironmental perspectives. This publication brings together 26 contributions and constitutes a foundation upon which to pursue further research on the ports during Antiquity.