Modeling distance with time in ancient Mediterranean seafaring: a GIS application for the interpretation of maritime connectivity

•GIS allows environmental and technological modeling of ancient sailing.•Durations of voyages provide a scale for analyzing maritime archaeological remains.•One model of Archaic exchange focused on distances of one to three days' sail.

Investigations of Mediterranean connectivity have increasingly turned toward maritime landscape models to frame questions of seaborne exploration, marine resource exploitation, trade and exchange, and seafaring culture. Environmental and technological parameters are consistently acknowledged as crucial for understanding when and why different relationships developed across the sea, but their formal employment in the modeling and interpretation of maritime space remains quite limited. The methodology outlined here utilizes Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to integrate environment and technology as analytical tools for exploring the complexity of seaborne connectivity. Focusing on sailing days as practical units of distance and using an Archaic Greek shipwreck off Turkey as a case study, this preliminary model demonstrates how a more nuanced spatial approach can inform the human geography and socioeconomic structures of ancient maritime interaction.