Trade Relations in the Eastern Mediterranean from the Late Hellenistic Period to Late Antiquity


Book Description

In the studies of ceramics, the archaeological research tradition divides the Mediterranean into a Western and an Eastern region. The research tradition in these two regions differs, which has caused several problems in the understanding of Western and Eastern ceramics. This book compares the two traditions and discusses the very important question of whether ceramics can give us a better understanding of economic, social and cultural contexts.




Economy and Exchange in the East Mediterranean during Late Antiquity


Book Description

The results of recent archaeological excavation, systematic rural survey and detailed studies of pottery distributions have revealed the extent and complexities of the economy in the eastern empire. The eight papers in this volume demonstrate this complexity and prosperity, examining several types of product and how the economy evolved over time. Contents: New Rome, new theories on Inter-regional exchange: East Mediterranean economy in Late Antiquity ( Sean Kingsley and Michael Decker ); Urban Economies of Late Antique Cyrenaica ( Andrew Wilson ); The economic impact of the Palestinian wine trade in Late Antiquity ( Sean Kingsley ); Food for an empire: wine and oil production in North Syria ( Michael Decker ); Beyond the amphora: non-ceramic evidence for Late Antique industry and trade ( Marlia Mundell Mango ); The economy of Late Antique Cyprus ( Tassos Papacostas ); LR2: a container for the military annona on the Danubian border? ( Olga Karagiorgou ); Specialization, trade and prosperity: an overview of the economy of the Late Antique Eastern Mediterranean ( Bryan Ward-Perkins ).




Pilgrimage and Economy in the Ancient Mediterranean


Book Description

Pilgrimage and Economy in the Ancient Mediterranean brings together diverse scholarship to explore the socioeconomic dynamics of ancient Mediterranean pilgrimage from archaic Greece to Late Antiquity, the Greek mainland to Egypt and the Near East.




Across the Ocean: Nine Essays on Indo-Mediterranean Trade


Book Description

Across the Ocean contains nine essays, each dedicated to a key question in the history of the trade relations between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean from Antiquity to the Early Modern period: the role of the state in the Red Sea trade, Roman policy in the Red Sea, the function of Trajan’s Canal, the pepper trade, the pearl trade, the Nabataean middlemen, the use of gold in ancient India, the constant renewal of the Indian Ocean ports of trade, and the rise and demise of the VOC.




Karia and the Dodekanese


Book Description

Karia and the Dodekanese, Vol. II, presents new research that highlights cultural interrelations and connectivity in the Southeast Aegean and western Asia Minor over a period of more than 700 years. Throughout antiquity, this region was a dynamic meeting place for eastern and western civilizations. Modern geographical limitations have been influential on both archaeological investigations and how we approach cultural relations in the region. Comprehensive and valuable research has been carried out on many individual sites in Karia and the Dodekanese, but the results have rarely been brought together in an attempt to paint a larger picture of the culture of this region. In antiquity, the sea did not constitute an obstacle to interaction between societies and cultures, but was an effective means of communication for the exchange of goods, sculptural styles, architectural form and embellishment, education, and ideas. It is clear that close relations existed between the Dodekanese and western Asia Minor during the Classical period (Vol. I), but these relations were evidently further strengthened under the shifting political influences of the Hellenistic kings, the Roman Empire, and the cosmopolitan late antique period. The contributions in this volume comprise investigations on urbanism, architectural form and embellishment, sculpture, pottery, and epigraphy.




Once upon a Time in the East


Book Description

Provides analysis of production trends and complex, quantified distribution patterns of the principal traded sigillatas and slipped table wares in the Roman East, from the early Empire to Late Antiquity.




Across the Corrupting Sea


Book Description

Across the Corrupting Sea: Post-Braudelian Approaches to the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean reframes current discussions of the Mediterranean world by rereading the past with new methodological approaches. The work asks readers to consider how future studies might write histories of the Mediterranean, moving from the larger pan-Mediterranean approaches of The Corrupting Sea towards locally-oriented case studies. Spanning from the Archaic period to the early Middle Ages, contributors engage the pioneering studies of the Mediterranean by Fernand Braudel through the use of critical theory, GIS network analysis, and postcolonial cultural inquiries. Scholars from several time periods and disciplines rethink the Mediterranean as a geographic and cultural space shaped by human connectivity and follow the flow of ideas, ships, trade goods and pilgrims along the roads and seascapes that connected the Mediterranean across time and space. The volume thus interrogates key concepts like cabotage, seascapes, deep time, social networks, and connectivity in the light of contemporary archaeological and theoretical advances in order to create new ways of writing more diverse histories of the ancient world that bring together local contexts, literary materials, and archaeological analysis.




Transport Amphorae and Trade in the Eastern Mediterranean


Book Description

Transport amphorae were chosen as the theme of this colloquium because of their great potential for elucidating ancient economic history. As Peacock and Williams have noted, amphorae provide us not with anindex of the transportation of goods, but with direct witness of the movement of certain foodstuffs which were of considerable economic importance.... It is hard to conceive of any archaeological material better suited to further our understanding of Roman trade. The same could be said with equal conviction about Hellenistic trade. However, while the study of transport amphorae was already an established discipline in the 19th century, it has traditionally focused on amphora stamps. Even in the 1970s, excavators in the eastern Mediterranean were still disregarding-and even discarding-unstamped fragments. Yet if amphora studies remain somewhat in the realm of epigraphy, they have also seen a great deal of activity in the last decade and drawn increasing attention from archaeologists, historians and other researchers. Jonas Eiring and John Lund are both classical archaeologists. Lund is a curator at the National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen.




Technology in Transition A.D. 300-650


Book Description

This book is the first general work to be published on technology in Late Antiquity. It seeks to survey aspects of the technology of the period and to respond to questions about technological continuity, stagnation and decline. The book opens with a comprehensive bibliographic essay that provides an overview of relevant literature. The main section then explores technologies in agriculture, production (metal, ceramics and glass), engineering and building. Papers draw on both archaeological and textual sources, and on analogies with medieval and early modern technologies. Reference is made not only to the periods which preceded it, but to the transition to the Early Middle Ages and to the technological heritage of Late Antiquity to the Islamic world. Several papers focus on Italy, whilst others consider North Africa, Asia Minor, and the Near-East.




A Study of the Circulation of Ceramics in Cyprus from the 3rd Century BC to the 3rd Century AD


Book Description

This is the first monograph devoted solely to the ceramics of Cyprus in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods. The island was by then no longer divided into kingdoms but unified politically, first under Ptolemaic Egypt and later as a province in the Roman Empire. Submission to foreign rule was previously thought to have diluted - if not obliterated - the time-honoured distinctive Cypriot character. The ceramic evidence suggests otherwise. The distribution of local and imported pottery in Cyprus points to the existence of several regional exchange networks, a division that also seems reflected by other evidence. The similarities in material culture, exchange patterns and preferential practices are suggestive of a certain level of regional collective self-awareness. From the 1st century BC onwards, Cyprus became increasingly engulfed by mass produced and standardized ceramic fine wares, which seem ultimately to have put many of the indigenous makers of similar products out of business - or forced them to modify their output. Also, the ceramic record gradually became less diverse during the Roman Period than before - developments which we today might be inclined to view as symptoms of an early form of globalisation.