Mare Internum

Dubrovnik, Croatia
18:13, June 22, 2009
















This summer I will be spending 10 weeks around the Mediterranean.

June 11-June 21 in Lebanon
June 21-July 30 in Croatia
July 31-August 4 in Turkey
August 4-August 21 in France


The name Mediterranean comes from the Latin, "medius" meaning middle and "terra" meaning land, so, Mediterranean means literally "in the middle of the earth." The Romans called the Mediterranean Mare Nostrum, "Our Sea" or Mare Internum, "Internal Sea". In the Bible it is called "The Great Sea" or simply "The Sea." The Arabs knew it as لبحر الأبيض المتوسط: "the white middle sea." In Hebrew it is named Hayam Hatikhon: "the middle sea."

All of these names for the sea emphasize it being in the "middle" or "interior." Just by looking at a map, one can see the crucial dominant role that the Mediterranean has played in the shaping of Western civilization. Its centrality is not merely geographic. The fact that it lies at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa, both connecting and dividing the lands around it, means that it has determined every aspect of our foods, languages, religions, and ideas.

I started this trip last week in Lebanon, the site of the Phoenician who flourished on the Levantine coast three thousand years ago, by being the first to the Mediterranean their From the cities of Byblos, Sidon and Tyre (which are all still there; I saw them with my own eyes) the Phoenicians established colonies all around the Mediterranean, from Carthage in North Africa, to Genoa in Italy, and Gadir (Cádiz) in Spain. One Phoenician expedition, led by Hanno the Navigator, sailed down the West African coast to Guinea.

Perhaps the most important legacy of the Phoenicians however, was their alpahabet: the first linear (non character-based) alphabet in the world. Every script in use in the world today, with the exception of Chinese and its derivitives, can be traced back to the Phoenician. The prosperity of the Phoenicians, and endurance of their alphabet, was made possible by their mastery over the Mediterranean. They were the first to fully utilize the potential of the inner sea as a conduit for the flow of goods and ideas. Take for example bronze.

Bronze, one of the most innovative inventions of ancient times, involves the smelting together of copper and tin. Since these two metals almost never appear together in the same place (except for one site in Iran and one in Thailand) its creation has always involved long-distance trade. From their colonies in France and Spain, the Phoenicians traded for British tin, which they then smelted together with copper from Cyprus to produce the first bronze in the world outside of Iran. The spread of this metal led to the Bronze Age, and significant advances for Western civilization: all thanks to the Mediterranean.

That was probably too long-winded, but I hope I have impressed the reasons for my interest in this place. The Mediterranean is integral to the history of many aspects of our modern world, and the mixing and building of the innumerable cultures and civilizations that have lived around its shores, make them among the most complicated and multifaceted on the planet.

In this blog I look forward to providing future insights into the ways these themes have evolved and express themselves today. Alongside this, I will post pictures and notes about I'm up to and what I'm seeing. I hope some of you follow my adventures, and comment with your thoughts, ideas and suggestions. As they say in Croatia, Dobrodošli! (or in English, Welcome!)


Pigeon Rocks, Raouché, Beirut