This presentation examines how coastal communities in antiquity conceived of the sea not merely as a physical environment, but as a powerful, living force endowed with agency. Such perceptions became especially vivid in the aftermath of coastal catastrophes. The Gulf of Cádiz, on the southwestern edge of the Iberian Peninsula, serves as the primary case study. Its broad floodplains and pronounced tidal regimes made it highly vulnerable to extreme events, including storm surges and tsunamis, which repeatedly reshaped both the landscape and human experience. By tracing how societies from antiquity to the present have responded to episodes of catastrophic marine flooding through religious practice and ritualized forms of engagement, the paper explores the complex interplay between human action and the more-than-human agency of the sea.

Manuel Álvarez-Martí-Aguilar is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Málaga (Spain) and currently a Getty Villa Scholar. His research interests include modern historiography of the ancient world and the cultural intersections between local Iberian communities—especially Tartessos—and the Phoenicians. His recent work focuses on the impact of earthquakes and tsunamis on coastal communities of the Iberian Peninsula, as well as their resilient responses to these kinds of environmental shocks with often catastrophic consequences. He has co-edited, with Francisco Machuca Prieto, the volume Historical Earthquakes, Tsunamis and Archaeology in the Iberian Peninsula (Springer, 2022) and co-organised the workshop Fluid Horizons: Charting Ancient Environmental History and Blue Humanities (University of London, 2024).

Co-sponsored with the Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures and the Kershaw Chair of Ancient Eastern Mediterranean Studies