History Now: Technological Innovation, Human Connectivity, and the Maritime World: From the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean

History Now:

Technological Innovation, Human Connectivity, and the Maritime World: From the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean

(in-person and online)

Maritime archaeology reveals how ships functioned as vehicles of transport and instruments of technological innovation and human connectivity. 

Whether wrecked or historically known, seafaring vessels embodied advances in shipbuilding, including frame-first construction, multiple masts, the development of the full ship rig, double-planking, metal sheathing applications that allowed people to sail and connect to foreign cultures farther away than their ancestors had done. From the Kyrenia (4th century BC) in the Hellenistic Mediterranean to the early modern Dufyken ship (1606) in the Indian Ocean, these ships stand testimony to human connectivity and technological innovations. 

These innovations were not merely technical achievements; they reflect the ingenuity of shipwrights responding to practical challenges of long-distance trade, naval protection, and the safe movement of goods and people. Cargoes, agricultural produce, raw materials, and everyday items illustrate the deeply human dimension of seafaring, with ships acting as nodes of exchange that bound communities together across cultural and political boundaries. The translation of such technologies and practices beyond the Indian Ocean underscores the adaptability and global resonance of ancient maritime traditions. As knowledge systems travelled over oceans, shipbuilding expertise merged with local traditions in the Mediterranean, Red Sea and Indian Ocean, generating hybrid forms that combined Mediterranean structural principles with indigenous techniques, materials, and sailing strategies. These vessels sustained extensive commercial and cultural networks linking the Aegean, Indian Ocean and the Pacific, facilitating not only the movement of commodities but also the circulation of ideas, skills, and belief systems. By situating shipwrecks within a wider narrative of technological transfer and human interaction, we can see how ocean worlds were part of a connected maritime continuum. Shipwrecks thus stand as enduring archaeological testimonies to humanity’s capacity for innovation, adaptation, and intercultural exchange across seas that both separated and united distant communities. 

This presentation is part of the History Council of New South Wales’s 2025 History Now series presented with support of Create NSW. and is the keynote lecture for the University of Sydney and Australian National Maritime Museum’s Sea Changes Symposium: Power, Money and Technology in the Maritime World (27–28 November 2025). It will be followed by a reception sponsored by the Sydney South East Asian Centre.

History Now is presented by the History Council of NSW, the Chau Chak Wing Museum and the University of Sydney's Vere Gordon Childe Centre. 

About our speaker

Professor Wendy van Duivenvoorde (Flinders University), a global authority on maritime archaeology. She is a recognised authority in seafaring, shipbuilding, technology and knowledge transfer, cultural contact, and maritime cultural heritage.

Her research primarily examines global seafaring, including historical and archaeological studies of Western Australia's early European shipwrecks and shipbuilding in the Australian colonies. Additionally, she is passionate about ancient ships and seafaring, having contributed to the 3rd-century Kyrenia Ship project for over 20 years. Her regional focus spans Australasia, the Indian Ocean, and Europe, and she holds specialized expertise in legacy data, maritime landscape studies, archaeological artefacts, maritime museum collections, waterlogged and in-situ conservation, dendrochronology, archaeometallurgy, and archaeometry. Professor van Duivenvoorde will also facilitate the Masterclass for students and ECRs, bringing with her a wealth of experience in mentoring emerging scholars, including in her previous role as Associate Director of the Australasian Consortium of Humanities Researchers and Centres.

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The History Council of NSW has been supported by a grant from the NSW Government through Create NSW.