Ithaca beyond the Odyssey

Hear about new maritime archaeological research into the Greek island of Ithaca, the famed homeland of Odysseus. There has been much discussion about Ithaca in recent months thanks to Christopher Nolan’s film The Odyssey. But there is much more to the island’s important maritime history than just Homer. In this lunchtime talk, Nick Flynn speaks about his detailed analysis of our current knowledge of the Island of Ithaca in relation to ancient trade routes and its position along them. To do this Nick has been reviewing existing archaeological and ancient textual evidence. He will provide an overview of his findings of Ithaca’s role in ancient maritime movements. In the absence to date of any maritime survey or excavation off the island’s coast, this research also mounts a case for the need for a carefully designed programme of underwater investigation. Our speaker Nicholas Flynn is a University of Sydney Masters by Research candidate in Archaeology researching his ancestral home of the island Ithaca and her role in ancient maritime trade networks. He visited the island in June of this year to conduct a coastal field survey of some of Ithaca’s natural harbors after receiving the Carlyle Greenwell and Stella Kalitsounaki Vaughan Scholarships. With a professional scuba instructing and technical diving background he has explored large sections of the island’s coastline over the last decade. This has motivated him to champion the prospect of a complete maritime survey of the Island which may for the first time shed some light on Ithaca’s maritime past.