Byzantine trade

This article examines the merchant and commodity networks of Trebizond as well as routes at the regional, interregional, and international levels that connected the city to Constantinople, the rest the Black Sea, Armenia, the Near East and the Caucuses in the early Middle Ages. After a brief survey of the commercial history of Trebizond from the late antique period to the eleventh century, the economy of the Pontic region and its commercial exchanges with various regions are investigated in detail. The available evidence shows that the list of commodities exchanged between Pontos and its neighbours were longer, and the networks of merchants and routes were more complex than assumed thus far. Trebizond's advantage as a port town for landlocked territories to its south and east (especially the large Iranian and Iraqi markets at the end of the Silk/Spice Route), as well as its close ties with Constantinople and the rest of the Black Sea, established the Pontic capital as a vital emporium. Benefiting from the increasing economic development in Byzantium and its neighbours, the prosperity of the Pontic region and is main city Trebizond is most visible in the period from the mid-ninth to the mid-eleventh centuries.

Nos connaissances sur les aspects typologiques des amphores de Méditerranée orientale durant l’Antiquité tardive ont en quelques années évoluées d’une manière spectaculaire. Ces progrès font, qu’aujourd’hui, ces amphores sont devenues des traceurs particulièrement fiables dans l’élaboration des séquences chrono-stratigraphiques de nombreux sites méditerranéens. L’apparition de nouveaux types d’amphores révélés par les fouilles récentes, ainsi que leur intégration à des classements typologiques de plus en plus complexes, soulignent le dynamisme de production des régions orientales et plus particulièrement proche-orientales (Cilicie, Syrie, Phénicie, Palestine).
Le succès commercial que connaissent certains produits orientaux dès le début du Ve s., principalement le vin, largement diffusé dans l’ensemble des régions qui participent au grand commerce tardif, témoigne d’une réorientation des modes de production et d’une conversion commerciale réussie.
Définir avec précision les lieux de production d’amphores est le nouveau défi qui est lancé aux spécialistes s’intéressant à l’organisation des centres de productions agricoles en Orient. La tache ne semble pas aisée à appréhender tant les données sur la localisation des ateliers de fabrication d’amphores demeurent lacunaires, tributaires du hasard des découvertes archéologiques. Cependant, la conjonction de plusieurs types d’informations (littéraires, iconographiques, typologiques) permet de circonscrire les zones de production et d’évaluer leurs implications respectives dans les mécanismes d’échange et de diffusion.

Gerasimos merianos literary allusions to trade and merchants: the 'Great merchant' in late twelfth-century byzantium Aspects of Byzantine social stratification are a rather common subject to discuss, although views are restricted by sparse evidence and the vagueness of testimonies. As in the case of the Roman legal and social terms honestiores and humiliores, which denoted the respectable elite on one hand and the ordinary poor on the other, 1 the middle-Byzantine terms dynatoi and penetes reflected first and foremost an elite conception of society, and were used as a means to express inclusion in, or exclusion from, the ruling class. What remained outside the elite was indifferently thrown into a vast homogenized group. The criterion for classification into these groups was not absolutely economic. However, the economic expansion of the eleventh and the twelfth century must have rendered this binary classification obsolete or, at least, less precise. Wealth was not to be disregarded as a standard of social classification in an era of economic growth. The term mesoi, or relevant descriptive others, continued to echo an aristocratic view of society, which was forced by circumstances to recognize the existence of an intermediate social group that was visible in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, particularly in Constantinople but in other cities as well. 2 Of

Analysis of the 7th-14th century amphora evidence from present-day Bulgaria points out that trade with luxurious goods from the Far East
was the main factor inлuencing amphora distribution. Shifts in the distribution patterns reфлected political and economic changes in Byzantium and the neighboring countries that resulted of shifts in the main trade routes. Amphorae were found exclusively in territories under Byzantine control that were close to important trade arteries, and were almost absent in areas belonging to the Medieval Bulgarian state. Amphorae were distributed in two main ways – via free trade and via the system of government control over the food supplies.

Aus früh-und mittelbyzantinischer Zeit sind zahlreiche Metallstempel 1 verschiedenster Formen erhalten, deren Verwendungszweck man in der Regel nicht durch das zugehörige bestempelte Objekt rekonstruieren kann. Oft werden sie als Brotstempel interpretiert 2 , doch die zahlreichen Stempel, die Eigennamen, Monogramme oder kurze, oft religiöse Legenden tragen, gehören meistens nicht dem liturgischen Bereich an, sondern dürften, wie Gary Vikan bereits 1988 formuliert hat, aus dem Bereich des Handels stammen 3 . Da sich die Materialbasis solcher Metallstempel durch Auktionskataloge 4 , Sammlungspublikationen 5 und Ausstellungskataloge 6 langsam, aber zunehmend erweitert, veranlasste dies den Versuch, diese materiellen Hin-1 Stempel aus Metall und anderen Materialien (Stein, Ton, Holz) kennt man seit prähistorischer Zeit, s.

Paper given at the International Medieval Congress 2016
(University of Leeds, 4th-7th July 2016)

The aim of this paper is to correlate the evolution of trade in the Adriatic area in the twelfth century, with the conflicts in which the powers from this region were involved in the same chronological range.
In particular, I shall analyse how much the conflicts in which the Adriatic political entities were involved hampered commercial communications.

À travers un choix de céramiques provenant de fouilles récentes en Syrie du Nord -à Halabiyye-Zénobia et à Qal'at Sem'an -ainsi que de publications, cette étude vise à caractériser le vaisselier utilisé dans le nord de la Syrie ainsi que son évolution, de l'époque byzantine au début de l'époque islamique (Ve-VIIIe siècle). Les dernières avancées archéologiques nous invitent à reconsidérer cette phase de transition, longtemps considérée comme période de récession après une ère florissante. Notre étude s'inscrit dans cette dynamique et met en lumière la prospérité de la région, à une époque où les épreuves se succèdent. Le manque de classification synthétique permettant d'appréhender l'ensemble du vaisselier de cette période charnière a motivé une étude céramologique approfondie. Au delà de son apport chronologique, la typologie établie a permis de mettre en évidence l'existence de multiples centres de production et de faciès micro régionaux. Bien qu'un vaisselier commun se dessine pour l'ensemble de la région nord syrienne, il apparaît qu'à côté des formes répandues, chaque micro-région a produit des formes particulières qui ne se sont pas diffusées. Corrélée à la typologie, l'étude pétrographique nous a orienté sur la localisation des ateliers et a constitué un apport pour la compréhension des productions potières, en soulignant la présence de centres de production majeurs, complétés par des ateliers secondaires. Enfin, la répartition des différentes formes de céramique et l'étude des flux de diffusion nous ont permis de restituer des circuits commerciaux et de redéfinir la place Syrie du Nord par rapport aux régions environnantes.

Une synthèse des données archéozoologiques sur le commerce de poissons dans la partie orientale de la Méditerranée, depuis le Chalcolithique jusqu'au temps des croisades, est présentée. Cette revue est basée sur des données bibliographiques et sur des ensembles fauniques inédits, étudiés par les auteurs, provenant de 76 sites. Des restes de poissons provenant du Nil, de la Méditerranée et de la mer Rouge sont fréquemment rencontrés sur des sites archéologiques situés en dehors de la distribution naturelle des espèces et ...

The “Venetian factor”:  The distribution and social meaning of Venetian ceramics in Frankish Thebes
AIA 2018

The Late Medieval Mediterranean (13th-15th c) was a sea of interconnected locals, characterized by economic and commercial integration which allowed people, goods and ideas to move along great distances fast and efficiently. The Venetians were at the center of these activities and have been credited with being key nodes in long-distance trade networks and cultural brokers between different political social and religious groups across the Mediterranean and beyond.
In this paper I examine the Venetians’ role in Mediterranean trade and the diffusion of ceramic products in the Aegean and in Frankish Greece in particular. I present new finds from the recent excavations at the Ismenion Hill at Thebes that included several Venetian and other Italian ceramic imports.  Through these discoveries, I investigate the overlapping local, regional and inter-regional commercial networks  that allowed Italian imports to arrive at Thebes , taking into consideration the diffusion of imports from coastal to inland cities, and from cities to their rural hinterland. My aim in tracing the movement of goods is threefold: First, to better understand processes of ceramic diffusion in the Frankish Greece and evaluate the “Venetian factor”. Second, to rethink the nature of long-distance trade,  pointing to  a chain of interconnected locals where products were sold and exchanged, rather than a linear and direct exchange between two places. Building on this idea of interconnectivity, I also consider the variety of Italian, Islamic and Byzantine vessels that Venetian merchants were possibly accumulating  and  exchanging along the Aegean, thus also reaching Thebes .
In the last part of my paper, I discuss the cultural and social implications of Venetian commercial activities in Frankish Thebes, focusing on consumption patterns and the socio-economic make-up of the markets that desired and could afford these commodities. I also explore how these Venetian products influenced people’s aesthetics, eating and dining habits and functioned as vehicles of self-presentation.

The Oxford University Byzantine Society’s XV International Graduate Conference 2013, 22-23 February 2013 

The early fourteenth-century Byzantios of Theodore Metochites, which has so far been very little commented upon, appears to be the first surviving lengthy, independent city encomium in the Greek language since the fourth-century Antiochikos of Libanios. Nevertheless, Metochites seems to be quite familiar with the late antique tradition of the extended independent city praises. This particular laus Constantinopolitana, contained in almost 70 folia of the Codex Vindobonensis phil. Gr. 95, elaborates in a balanced way all the expected praising themes that indicate power. These include the city’s location, it’s foundation, the walls, the secular buildings and other infrastructure, the occupations of its citizens, the internal and external beauty of the place, its piety and churches, the secular education, the ports and the trade, the city as a commonwealth, its cosmopolitan and ecumenical character, its role in religious history and finally a synkrisis with other famous cities.
Certain questions arise however. Can a Constantinopolitan encomium, written in the dramatic first decade of the fourteenth-century, when the Byzantine state was rapidly going bankrupt due to the Turkish expansion in Asia Minor, be a source of any representations of real power at all? Or should one reassess the encomiastic topoi and try to distinguish fact from fiction and power from illusion of power? Finally, could the more persistent analysis of particular themes by the author serve as an indication of their realistic character?