Archaeology of Mediterranean Trade

The economic importance of raw material exploitation, especially metal mining, for communities in antiquity has long since been addressed, but only during recent decades have scholars increasingly focused the material remains. These include not only the primary mining remains such as underground workings, process residues and installations for beneficiation, but also habitational sites and infrastructural remains that emerged in the course of exploitation.
In view of the fact that mining can contribute or even stimulate changes of a given economic system of a society, a perspective beyond technological aspects in order to better understand these interrelations seems necessary. Consequently, taking into account also the secondary structures, such as agricultural installations, burial sites, sanctuaries or infrastructural remains may display the networks that contributed to the success of ancient mining operations. Also, the occupation of raw material deposits by foreign communities has left traces in the literary and archaeological record. Such operations necessitated the introduction of new technologies as well as administrative measures. To identify and describe indications of this process in the archaeological record by, for example, addressing questions of technological transfer seems a promising approach. Moreover, on a landscape level the question of the ecological imprint and thus of the sustainability of raw material production in antiquity may be addressed.
The intention of this panel is to provide an insight on existing and emerging research on landscapes that were distinctly transformed by mining. It aims, furthermore, at discussing how mining could affect not only the natural but also the cultural landscape. By focusing on select case studies the intention is to identify the material characteristics of such areas, to highlight and explain differences and to discuss possible recurring infrastructural and organisational patterns.

The fact that Aegean type pottery is found in Italy is of great importance when we consider the cultural contacts between the Apennine peninsula and the southern Balkans in the late Bronze Age. Ever since the 19th Century its interpretation has been subject of great controversy, the colonization with the permanent presence of Aegean groups have been taken into consideration as well as the modes of exchange and the significance of imports. Given that indigenous peoples were able to imitate the Aegean vases the interpretation becomes more complicated, requiring scientific analysis.
This study, developed from a thesis for the Master of Arts, aims at the contextualization of the Aegean type pottery in its indigenous environment, considering the precise context of discovery and analyzing the distribution of find spots, taking into account their geographical and chronological distribution. In the past, such an approach has often been neglected.
Characteristics of a site, where Aegean type pottery was found, is not only the quantity of finds, but also aspects of the palaeoenvironmemt and the integration of the site into a network of prehistoric trade routes have to be taken into account. This is confirmed by the examination of the seven main sites (Vivara, Lipari and the Aeolian Islands, Monte Grande, Thapsos, Broglio di Trebisacce with the Sybaritis, Coppa Navigata, and Rocavecchia). A multitude of parameters together led to the assumption that close contacts with the eastern Mediterranean existed. Beside the location in the vicinity of potential trade routes and access to important raw materials, an early prominent role within the regional settlement hierarchy is also relevant. At some sites the imports appear in connection with advanced forms of social organisation (evolving élites). Some theories in the context of economic history, such as the introduction of viticulture and of the cultivation of olive trees from the Aegean to southern Italy already in the Bronze Age, should be critically examined.
More than a hundred find spots of the Aegean type pottery are listed in the catalogue, including information about finds, the chronology of the site, important features and conditions of the surrounding landscape. All places of discovery have been marked on maps which are chronologically divided.
Despite the relatively large number of the above mentioned sites, the idea that the Apennine peninsula was colonized by the Mycenaeans should be rejected. Most of the sites provided only a small number of fragments of Aegean type pottery and these are spread over several centuries. A few sites - first of all Scoglio del Tonno, Thapsos, and recently Rocavecchia - stand out by the large numbers of finds of Aegean origin and by other particularities unique in the Italian context and therefore suggest the presence of merchants or craftsmen of Aegean origin in these indigenous settlements.

Resumen: Este trabajo examina los equipos cerámicos de distintas unidades estratigráficas correspondientes a contextos domésticos o zonas de vertido vinculadas a actividades cotidianas de la Neápolis de Emporion, fechadas en el periodo c. 425-375 a. C. El estudio se centra en el análisis de los equipos domésticos cerámicos-vasos de almacenamiento, cocina y consumo-y los analiza desde el punto de vista de sus tradiciones de manufactura y de su uso en prácticas cotidianas. Los resultados del análisis muestran la existencia de una fuerte imbricación cultural que invita a rechazar las interpretaciones tradicionales que propugnan la presencia de una estricta dualidad étnica en este enclave con la presencia de dos comunidades distintas y segregadas en el espacio, una interpretación basada fundamentalmente en informaciones transmitidas por las fuentes clásicas. Este trabajo rechaza el uso simplista de la cultura material como marcador étnico y enfatiza el rol jugado por algunos objetos cotidianos en estrategias sociales relacionadas con la construcción de la distinción social, así como con otras identidades que van más allá de la etnicidad. Palabras clave: comunidades mixtas; asentamientos griegos; prácticas cotidianas; prácticas de consumo; tradiciones culinarias; identidades sociales; contacto cultural. Abstract: This paper analyses the ceramic assemblages in several stratigraphic units from domestic contexts or dumps related to everyday activities in the Neápolis of Emporion, dating ca. 425 to 375 bc. The main aim of the study is to examine the domestic ceramic assemblages-kitchen ceramics, tableware and domestic storage-and to analyse them focusing on their manufacturing traditions and their use in daily practices. The results of this study show the existence of strong cultural entanglements. This invites us to reject traditional interpretations, largely based on written classical sources, that have argued for the occurrence of a strict dual division in the enclave along ethnic lines, with two neatly segregated communities that never overlapped in this urban landscape. This study argues against the simplistic use of material culture as an ethnic marker, emphasising instead the role of some daily-use objects in the construction of social distinction, as well as other social, intersectional identities that go beyond ethnicity.

The period between the end of the 3rd and the mid-2nd c. BCE is a crucial moment for the history of economic and social life in Rome. In fact, for the first time, thanks to Plautus’ and Terence’s comedies, as well as Cato’s treatise De Agri Coltura, it is possible to reconstruct an articulated picture of the productive and commercial activities that took place inside the city and of the people (producers, traders, consumers) who took part in it. A framework within which even important members of the nobilitas played an important role, if it is true that in 218 BCE, after the promulgation of Claudius’ plebiscite, they could no longer own commercial ships – at least from the formal point of view. But what is the material evidence for this period? A few years ago this question would have hardly received an answer. The situation however has considerably changed over the last decade. In particular, recent research carried out in the city and its suburb examined important stratigraphies and contexts, which allow us to have first hand evidence of the material culture relating to those ‘roaring years’ and to reconstruct the transition between the Mid- and Late Republican periods.

Have epidemics changed the history of the Near and Middle East? How did societies from this region react to this phenomenon?

This serie of podcasts wants to look back at the history of epidemics in a region which has been regularly affected during the past, relying on the work of historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, linguists and philosophers.

Episode #4 “The Black Death: Venice and the Creation of the Lazzaretto” (with Lara Meneghini), discusses about how the city of Venice, leader of the Mediterranean trade during the Middle Ages and Early Modern History, reacted to the threat of the plague in order to guarantee its economic interests in the Eastern Mediterranean. Lara Meneghini discusses about the creation of the lazzaretti and their role in preventing the spread of epidemics. Through an historical and archaeological perspective, she presents the material evidence of these quarantine structures and of the passage of goods and merchants coming from the Near and Middle East.

https://www.ifporient.org/a-history-of-epidemics-in-the-near-and-middle-east/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7ypBvwGG2o&t=722s

Congresso Internazionale di Studi - International Conference of Studies Catania -febbraio 2021

Scopo del Congresso è l'approfondimento delle conoscenze scientifiche e metodologiche, nonché l'aggiornamento dei dati sulla preistoria siciliana intesa come nodo centrale delle relazioni culturali e biologiche nel Mediterraneo, dalle origini del popolamento umano e animale al fenomeno della colonizzazione fenicia e greca.
La Sicilia, intesa come vasto arcipelago comprendente l'isola maggiore, con funzione di continente, e le isole minori che la circondano, e le masse continentali ad essa prossima come la Calabria a sud dell'Aspromonte o la penisola di Kelibia in Tunisia, costituisce lo spartiacque tra i due mari che compongono il Mediterraneo e un naturale collegamento tra Europa e Africa.
La natura di "ponte filtrante" di questo arcipelago, talora definito "crocevia", è archeologicamente nota dal XIX secolo, da quando Paolo Orsi impostò per primo i termini delle relazioni tra Sicilia e Mediterraneo orientale durante la preistoria. Ma è nel Secondo dopoguerra, con lo scavo sull'acropoli di Lipari di Luigi Bernabò Brea, che l'arcipelago ha dimostrato appieno il suo ruolo di mediazione nelle relazioni ad ampio raggio tra le diverse parti del Mediterraneo. Tali relazioni sono state suc-cessivamente approfondite, anche in convegni dedicati, che tuttavia non hanno mai focalizzato il tema nella sua globalità cronologica e geografica.
Il Congresso punta, pertanto, ad una analisi aggiornata e complessiva di queste relazioni, sia attra-verso l'esame di aspetti generali, sia mediante la conoscenza di fenomeni puntuali e circoscritti, per cronologia, per tema o per territorio.

Imported pottery and glass is of fundamental importance in assessing the chronology and function of sites in Atlantic Britain and Ireland in the period AD 400–800, but these have not previously received detailed publication. This monograph gives an integrated discussion of the finds, covering not just their provenance, typology, dating, and distribution, but also their function in society. The text is supplemented by an interactive Web-based database giving full details of all finds, including their stratigraphic context, which will be updated as new finds occur.

The study shows that two successive trading systems brought this material to Insular sites. The first of these brought Late Roman amphorae (LR1–4) and fine red-slipped tablewares from the eastern Mediterranean and North Africa in a restricted period from the late 5th to mid 6th centuries. The second system brought glass vessels, finewares and coarsewares from western France in the later 6th and 7th centuries. Both trading systems were sustained rather than haphazard, but neither seems to have been fully commercial market trading. The Mediterranean trading system shows direct links with Byzantium, and it is suggested that there was Imperial involvement, perhaps centred on the acquisition of tin, lead and silver from mines in South-West England. The later Continental system also has peculiarities which suggests the involvement of Merovingian elites, though the motives are less clear.

Material from almost 150 sites is listed, including around 370 Mediterranean and 600 Continental pottery or glass vessels. A new classification of the glass is presented, Groups A–E, which will enable more accurate dating of sites. Scientific analysis suggests that the Continental coarsewares (Class E) were used as transport containers for luxury goods such as purple dyes.

Novel methods of analysing small assemblages are introduced (most sites produce only a few vessels), based on taphonomic study of the finds from key sites such as Dinas Powys, Glamorgan, Wales, and Whithorn Priory, Galloway, Scotland. An analysis of the characteristics of all the sites on which imports are found suggests that the main sites were royal, and that the elites on these sites controlled re-distribution of exotic luxury goods to their client sites in order to bolster their social position. The nature of the return trade is unclear, but metals and slaves are likely to have been the major goods traded.

This book is intended both for British and Continental specialists who wish for full details of the pottery and glass, but also for anyone with an interest in how trade and exchange influenced the development of Insular society at a time of transition from the late Roman/ late Iron Age period to the emerging kingdoms of the Middle Ages.

The Etnean region comprises a large area that extends from the Ionian sea to the hinterland of Mt Etna and thus includes a mountainous landscape and the plain of Catania, one of the largest in Sicily. This area, between the second half of the 3rd and the first half of the 2nd millennium BC, was occupied by several small communities belonging to the Castelluccio culture that, although considered to be of Aegean origin, has been traditionally presented as the expression of a very closed farming society with almost no connections with the external world.
Recent researches have changed this picture clarifying that coastal communities were in direct contacts with people from overseas and were responsible for the internal re-distribution of imports across the island. Following the recent discovery of an inland site at Valcorrente, on the south-west slope of the volcano, in this paper it will be argued that also in the Etnean region, as has been already demonstrated for the southern part of the island, some inland sites, due to the special function, experienced forms of direct contacts with Aegean people.

The evolution of Iberian Atlantic façade’s coastline due to geomorphological causes and eustatic variations throughout the Holocene is a key-point to enable any ancient settlement analysis. Actually without an essay, even hypothetical, of former coastline reconstruction according to the the geomorphological available data, one cannot really understand the littoral location of some settlements and its relationship with rivers, back then way more open to the Ocean then nowadays.
Thus, set upon some of the published information, the article discusses regional proto-historic settlement, focusing in particular some coastal sites and pointing out the import and circulation of some prestigious goods, like certain ceramic, metal and glass objects. Albeit those cultural and commercial dynamics link this Western European’s finisterra to the Mediterranean as well as to the Atlantic consumption and distribution roots, this article refers only to meridional contacts.

For this article, the starting point was the historiographic problem posed by this settlement. Its renewal raises questions about the use of our theoretical concepts
and their application in the field of archaeology. We can then reconsider the operational logic of Pithekoussai. Is this a unique experiment, or is it a specific variation of a more
general form of organisation, examples of which can be found in other parts of the Mediterranean world? Is there anything specific about the “precolonial” period? Asking questions about Pithekoussai thus raises fundamental topics, from the most traditional ones to those which, over the last thirty years, have been asked in the scientific literature and even led to an important reorientation of our approaches, mainly because of postcolonial research (middle ground, ethnicity, hybridisation, Mediterranean connectivity).