In ancient Egypt, the Nile was both a lifeline and a highway. In addition to its crucial role for agriculture and water resources, the river united an area nearly five hundred miles in length. It was an avenue for asserting imperial authority over the vast expanse of the Nile valley River transport along the inland waterways was also an integral aspect of daily life and was employed by virtually every class of society; the king and his officials had ships for commuting, as did the landowner for shipping grain, and the 'marsh men' who lived in the northernmost regions of the Nile Delta. Considering the role of water transport in ancient Egypt we know surprisingly little about the maritime environment along the inland waterways of the Nile Delta. The physical interface between man and river is frequently obscured by the dearth of evidence for Delta waterways and fluvial harbors, and a lack of awareness for ancient hydrological conditions. This thesis provides a preliminary reconstruction of the maritime cultural landscape of one Egyptian city, Thmuis, located in Egypt's eastern Nile Delta during the Hellenistic and Roman periods. It will demonstrate how the inhabitants of Greco-Roman Thmuis perceived, utilized, and interacted with their maritime environment, by incorporating available archaeological, material, geological, and textual evidence from Tell el- Timai (Thmuis). These sources indicate that the Egyptians developed numerous ways to harness the dynamic riverine landscape of the eastern Nile Delta. Methods of irrigation were employed to divert and control the fruitful waters of the flood. Canalization enhanced the connectivity of the Nile Delta when the primary branches of the river were not suitable for sailing. Harbors were specially adapted to the shifting riverine conditions. When physical effort would not suffice, gods and goddesses were invoked to assist in the perils associated with life along the Nile, but also to ensure favorable conditions for navigating the inland waterways and the seas. After three thousand years of interaction with the Nilotic landscape, the Delta people developed a rich and complex relationship with their riverine environment that is evident in the Mendesian ideology, infrastructure, and history.

The development of the medieval city of Angkor (802-1431 CE) in the floodplains of the Tonle Sap Lake has lead researchers to believe that Angkor made use of its extensive river network; however, little attention has been given to Angkor's relationship with its watery environment. Previous studies have presented a fragmentary view of the subject by analyzing different components in a compartmentalized way, placing the focus on nautical technology or neglecting discussion on water transport in academic works on land transport. This work aims to provide a more comprehensive study on Angkor's specific cognitive and functional traits that could be construed as a distinctive form of fluvial and cultural landscape. This is done by examining the environment, nautical technology, and the cultural biography of boats within the theoretical framework of the maritime cultural landscape and using a cross-disciplinary approach that integrates data from archaeology, iconography, history, ethnography, and environmental studies. A new topological map of Angkor's landscape of communication and transport is presented, as well as new insights on the use of boats as liminal agents for economic and political activities.

There is a tendency in archaeology dealing with watercraft landing sites in a wider context to assume a direct relationship between sites in coastal and shore-bound areas and the practise of landing, without any deeper practical or theoretical exploration of the reality of any such relationship. This problem has its origins in the poor archaeological and conceptual definitions of watercraft landing sites obstructing any real understanding of the role of these sites in the maritime cultural landscape. Landing sites are taken for granted and they are undervalued as an archaeological source of explanation; notwithstanding, the concept of the landing site is readily used in archaeology in order to underpin archaeological interpretations on the maritime activities of past societies. In order to break away from the simplified understandings of past water-bound strategies based on the undefined concept of the landing site, this dissertation suggests a definition of watercraft landing sites in a wider social sense as water-bound contact zones; places of social interaction that can be archaeologically identified and investigated. This perspective integrates the understanding of the intentional character of human activity related to watercraft landing with the remaining archaeological traces. Archaeological definitions of landing sites that can be tested against the archaeological data are provided, and thereby, the dissertation contributes with the possibility to archaeologically evaluate and approach the social function of watercraft landing sites. This dissertation demonstrates that there can be an archaeology of landing sites.