Paul Reynolds
Universitat de Barcelona, Secció de Prehistòria i Arqueologia, Department Member
- ICREA, Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies, Department Memberadd
- Hellenistic Pottery, Roman Pottery, Ancient Roman economy, trade and commerce, Roman provincial administration, Hellenistic and Roman cuisine, Roman Law, Taxation, and 26 moreRoman Frontiers (Archaeology), Classical Archaeology, Late Antiquity, Mediterranean archaeology, Archaeology of Mediterranean Trade, Late Roman Pottery, Amphorae (Archaeology), Islands, Roman Economy, Port cities, Maritime History, Mediterranean, Insularity, Seafarers, Archaeology of Roman Hispania, Maritime Trade Ceramics (Archaeology), Pottery studies, Byzantine Studies, Archaeology of Arab Magreb, Early islamic pottery, Lavorazione del pesce, Visigothic Spain, Rehydroxylation Dating (RHX), Graeco-Roman Egypt, Pompeii (Archaeology), and Phoeniciansedit
- The principal aim of my research is the study of the economy of the Classical to early Medieval Mediterranean and bey... moreThe principal aim of my research is the study of the economy of the Classical to early Medieval Mediterranean and beyond through the analysis of the regional distribution of ceramics on coastal sites/major ports. This focuses on the long-distance movement of fine table-wares, amphorae (containing oil, wine, fish products, etc.) and cooking wares. I have worked primarily in Alicante, SE Spain (my PhD on the Vinalopo Valley) and north Africa (Carthage, Utica, Leptis Magna) in the western Mediterranean and in Beirut, Butrint (Albania) and in Greece (Athens, Corinth, Nicopolis-Actium) in the eastern Mediterranean.edit
Research Interests: Late Antique and Byzantine Studies, Post-Roman Britain, Roman Pottery, Late Roman Empire, Archaeology of Roman Hispania, and 15 moreLate Roman Pottery, Amphorae (Archaeology), Visigothic Spain, Vandals, Late Roman Spain, Roman ports, Roman Spain, Later Roman Empire, Late Roman Amphorae, Archaeology of pilgrimage, Ancient Roman economy, trade and commerce, Late Roman Cooking Ware, Roman Archaeology, Roman Fish Sauce Trade, and Late Roman Shipping Routes
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Levantine Archaeology, Early Medieval Archaeology, Medieval Archaeology, Crusader Archaeology, Abbasid History, and 15 moreEarly Islamic Archaeology, Medieval Glasses (Archaeology), Amphorae (Archaeology), Crusades and the Latin East, Medieval Economy, Islamic pottery, Islamic History and Muslim Civilization, Beirut, Ottoman Pottery, Medieval Glazed Pottery, History of Sugar, Medieval Islamic Ceramics, Early Islamic Egypt, Ummayads, and Venice and Its Maritime Empire
Amphorae are key materials in the investigation of the production and transport of goods in ancient times. For the Roman period, many typologies of amphorae are standardised and there are hypotheses concerning their uses and contents... more
Amphorae are key materials in the investigation of the production and transport of goods in ancient times. For the Roman period, many typologies of amphorae are standardised and there are hypotheses concerning their uses and contents mainly based on the shape, provenance, tituli picti and, when preserved, the solid contents. However, there are still many amphora types that have to be investigated in order to better understand the economy of the regions where they were produced and filled. This is the case of the amphorae object of this paper: the so-called ovoid amphorae of Hispania Ulterior/Baetica. This paper presents new results of an interdisciplinary investigation aimed to discover the commodities contained in ovoid amphorae. This amphora type and its specific use have never been investigated, except for a preliminary test. Here, organic residues analysis of twenty-four amphorae produced in two different locations in Hispania Ulterior/Baetica (Bay of Cadiz and the Guadalquivir Valley) and excavated at the site of El Olivillo in Cadiz (Spain), are presented. The findings suggest that the majority of the amphorae were coated with abundant pitch derived from Pinaceae trees and that most of them contained grape derivatives, although other products were also identified. Not only is this documentation of Hispania Ulterior/Baetican wine production in the late Republican period important, but the use of ovoid amphorae for carrying wine is somewhat unexpected because it is usually thought that amphorae of this type in southern Italy and in the Corinthia probably carried olive oil.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This paper offers a typology of the development of the 'Beirut amphora' (the most common amphora type produced in the city and its territory from the 2nd century BC to the 7th centiury AD. The forms that mark its continuous stages of... more
This paper offers a typology of the development of the 'Beirut amphora' (the most common amphora type produced in the city and its territory from the 2nd century BC to the 7th centiury AD. The forms that mark its continuous stages of development are presented (Beirut 1 to Beirut 8).
Research Interests:
The production of polychrome decorated ceramics began in Ifriqiya in the 9th century under Aghlabid rule, with continuity during the 10th century under the Fatimids. These comprised finely painted brown and green designs with a... more
The production of polychrome decorated ceramics began in Ifriqiya in the 9th century under Aghlabid rule, with continuity during the 10th century under the Fatimids. These comprised finely painted brown and green designs with a characteristic yellow background (a transparent lead glaze containing iron oxide). This production was substituted in the 11th century by a polychrome production over a white tin opaque glaze. The hypothesis stating that tin glazes were introduced in Tunisia after the Fatimids took over Egypt has been recently proposed. However, polychrome ceramics with a white opaque background have been found in 10th century archaeological sites which might indicate otherwise. A ceramic assemblage found at the site of Bir Ftouha dating from the Fatimid-Zirid period which contains polychrome with both transparent yellow and white opaque backgrounds has been analysed. The white opaque glazes do not contain tin but were opacified by the addition of large quartz particles. This study supports the theory that tin glazes reached Tunisia after the Fatimid occupation of Egypt and is the first step to answering many open questions regarding the spread of tin glaze in the Mediterranean, the role of the Fatimids and the connections of Ifriqiya with Islamic Spain and Sicily.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This is a print out in reverse white letters on black from the microfiches at the back of my BAR 588 (1993) volume on the Settlement and Pottery of the Vinalopó Valley (Alicante, Spain). It includes the full catalogue of pottery and glass... more
This is a print out in reverse white letters on black from the microfiches at the back of my BAR 588 (1993) volume on the Settlement and Pottery of the Vinalopó Valley (Alicante, Spain). It includes the full catalogue of pottery and glass finds, as well as the provisional study of the bones by Benito Ibarra (which he later published in his book) and the flotated organic-charcoal finds studied by Richard Hubbard (UCL), from my excavations in 1983 of the extant section of the dump which could be seen in an open building site in the barrio of Benalúa (Alicante) (a section drawing gives a good idea of the lenses of charcoal, ash and pottery, also reproduced in my book (1987) on the fine wares of the 1971 excavations of the much larger pottery dump excavated by Enrique Llobregat, found close by (Site 42.4).
Research Interests:
Prof. Richard Hodges' profile of my life and career - academic and non-academic - for this popular British archaeological magazine.
Research Interests:
The Beirut amphora type was the principal amphora produced primarily in Beirut, but also in its territory, from the late 2nd century BC to the 7th century AD. Traces of staining inside and running down the outer neck, as well as... more
The Beirut amphora type was the principal amphora produced primarily in Beirut, but also in its territory, from the late 2nd century BC to the 7th century AD. Traces of staining inside and running down the outer neck, as well as occasional finds of vessels pierced through the neck suggested that this type carried wine. Samples of Beirut amphorae and the base of one south Phoenician type (Reynolds AM 14) were analysed in an attempt to identify organic residues and the presence or not of a pitch lining. The results confirm that wine was the principal content of the vessels and all of which were lined with pitch derived from the pine family (Pinaceae).
Research Interests:
This paper offers an overview of the supply of olive oil to the provinces of the Roman and early Byzantine East (1st to 7th centuries) and the possible western and eastern amphorae and other containers (e.g. dolia, other large jars, glass... more
This paper offers an overview of the supply of olive oil to the provinces of the Roman and early Byzantine East (1st to 7th centuries) and the possible western and eastern amphorae and other containers (e.g. dolia, other large jars, glass vessels, barrels) that may have carried this prime commodity. Whereas mainland Greece and the Aegean Islands were prominent producers and suppliers in the early and late Empire for local consumption and export in specific amphorae (Dressel 24 and related forms, Dressel 25, Agora M 235, LRA 2 and successors), other regions produced oil for local needs (Egypt, Lebanon, NW Syria), whereas other regions (the Lower Danube, Crimea) were unable to grow olives for climatic reasons. The role and mechanisms of the State, the Army and the annona in the supply of oil here and in other regions (e.g. Egypt, Syria) are discussed. In the course of this typological revision, other amphorae and possible contents (e.g. wine, fish products, dried fruit) are also discussed and illustrated. New data on amphora contents based on organic residues analyses are noted.
Research Interests:
The paper traces the divergent trends in imports (fine wares, amphorae and cooking wares) through the 1st to late 6th/early 7th centuries to the major ports of Beirut (Lebanon) and Butrint (former Greek Epirus, now Albania). A major break... more
The paper traces the divergent trends in imports (fine wares, amphorae and cooking wares) through the 1st to late 6th/early 7th centuries to the major ports of Beirut (Lebanon) and Butrint (former Greek Epirus, now Albania). A major break in the supply of Aegean and Levantine goods from East to West can be detected in the mid-3rd century, correlating with a redirection of Levantine supply to Alexandria and shift to a more restricted closer regional-Levantine network that becomes even more self sufficient by the 6th century. It is not until the mid 4th century that western imports pick up again, but without Eastern goods returning. Levantine cities trade intensively between each other during the 4th century and it is only in the 5th century that Levantine goods return in increasing numbers to western ports. Another important observation is the quite different range of Aegean (amphorae and cooking wares) and Black Sea amphorae (Crimean, Sinopean) that were supplied to Butrint and Beirut in the 4th-7th c.
This is a shorter version of my paper in the LRCW 3 conference (2010) which provides more details of the range of ceramics. Here, however, there are maps which attempt to illustrate the main ceramic phases for each site.
This is a shorter version of my paper in the LRCW 3 conference (2010) which provides more details of the range of ceramics. Here, however, there are maps which attempt to illustrate the main ceramic phases for each site.
Research Interests: Late Antiquity, Roman Pottery, Late Roman Empire, Roman Economy, Late Roman Archaeology, and 12 moreArchaeology of Roman Hispania, Late Roman Pottery, Amphorae (Archaeology), Black Sea Region Archaeology, Late Roman and Early Byzantine Pottery, Roman trade, commerce and the economy, Black Sea ancient history and archaeology, Later Roman Empire, Late Roman Amphorae, Byzantine Amphorae, Roman Lusitania, and Late Roman Cooking Ware
This paper reflects the two seasons of fieldwork undertaken in 2005 and 2006 by a small team in part of the Shin basalt region, or Wa'ar, as it is known locally, to the north-west of Homs. It builds upon initial work undertaken in... more
This paper reflects the two seasons of fieldwork undertaken in 2005 and 2006 by a small team in part of the Shin basalt region, or Wa'ar, as it is known locally, to the north-west of Homs. It builds upon initial work undertaken in the basalt region as part of the Settlement and Landscape of the Homs Region Project (SHR Project). The work is focussed on understanding the development of the deserted village variously known as Khirbet Deir Salam or more usually Dar es-Salaam ('House of Peace'or 'Place of Peace').
Research Interests:
En este artículo presentamos una tipología y cronología de la cerámica tardo-romana modelada a mano de carácter local, regional y de importación en los yacimientos del valle del Río Vinalopó (Alicante). Se trata de la producción y... more
En este artículo presentamos una tipología y cronología de la cerámica tardo-romana modelada a mano de carácter local, regional y de importación en los yacimientos del valle del Río Vinalopó (Alicante). Se trata de la producción y distribución de la cerámica de los distintos centros, con referencia particular a los paralelos etnográficos modernos. Proponemos la continuidad de ciertas formas tardo-romanas durante época islámica, y examinaremos brevemente la cronología de los yacimientos y la cerámica islámica en esta región hasta el siglo XI.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This insula, which lay on the western margin of the earlier Iron Age city, was uncovered during post-war reconstruction work carried out in Beirut during 1994–6. Laid out in the Hellenistic period, the insula was filled out with a series... more
This insula, which lay on the western margin of the earlier Iron Age city, was uncovered during post-war reconstruction work carried out in Beirut during 1994–6. Laid out in the Hellenistic period, the insula was filled out with a series of small courtyard houses after the Roman annexation. A public portico was added along a main street in the second quarter of the second century, before a period of relative inactivity. The district was revived and rebuilt in the middle of the fourth century and was home to a series of handsome town houses in the fifth century, before being devastated by earthquake in AD 551. The site was then left derelict until the early nineteenth century. This interim report sets these findings within their broader historical and archaeological context, as well as summarizing the results of recent work on the site's ceramics and stratigraphy.
Research Interests:
Reynolds, P. and Ikäheimo, J. 2019. Late Hellenistic and Roman Pottery from the Tower Deposits of Agios Donatos, in B. Försén (ed.), Thesprotia Expedition IV, Papers and Monographs of the Finnish Institute at Athens 24, Helsinki:... more
Reynolds, P. and Ikäheimo, J. 2019. Late Hellenistic and Roman Pottery from the Tower Deposits of Agios Donatos, in B. Försén (ed.), Thesprotia Expedition IV, Papers and Monographs of the Finnish Institute at Athens 24, Helsinki: 317-386.
Research Interests:
The concerted efforts of Paul Reynolds focusing on the pottery analysis of the Beirut assemblages (BEY 006, 015 and 045 and Julian Henderson and Yvette Sablerolles analyzing the glass finds of BEY 015, have encouraged the architectural... more
The concerted efforts of Paul Reynolds focusing on the pottery analysis of the Beirut assemblages (BEY 006, 015 and 045 and Julian Henderson and Yvette Sablerolles analyzing the glass finds of BEY 015, have encouraged the architectural and stratigraphic analysis of the site by its excavators. BEY 015 has provided clear evidence for primary production of glass in Beirut in the first half of the first century CE. Subsequently, between 50 and 150CE, among others the manufacture of the Beirut Amphora Reynolds type 3 and the so-called 'carrot amphora' took place in a kiln complex.
Research Interests:
This paper is a first attempt at the review and 'seriation' of the main pottery contexts used for the dating of the ARS, LRC and LRD from c. AD 200 to c. AD 700. A series of 105 key contexts from sites scattered across the Mediterranean... more
This paper is a first attempt at the review and 'seriation' of the main pottery contexts used for the dating of the ARS, LRC and LRD from c. AD 200 to c. AD 700. A series of 105 key contexts from sites scattered across the Mediterranean are summarised and discussed on the basis of the working document prepared in 2008 for the first session of the LRFW1 workshop.
Research Interests:
A Fourth-Century Deposit from a Newly Discovered Building behind the small Nymphaeum at Nicopolis, in V. Di Napoli et al (eds) What's new in Roman Greece? Recent Work on the Greek Mainland and the islands in the Roman Period. Proccedings of a Conference held in Athens, 8-10 Oct.2015, pp. 195-204more
Research Interests:
This paper offers the detailed catalogue and illustration of two Beirut contexts of the first half of the 2nd ccentury AD. Further comments and illustration of ceramics of the 3rd century and a typology of Beirut amphorae are also... more
This paper offers the detailed catalogue and illustration of two Beirut contexts of the first half of the 2nd ccentury AD. Further comments and illustration of ceramics of the 3rd century and a typology of Beirut amphorae are also presented.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Typology and archaeometry of local (Beirut) and imported Palestinian cooking wares. Some non-Beirut vessels are in kaolinitic fabrics (source unknown, but probably still in Lebanon). The Palestinian products ('Workshop X'-Keisan? are the... more
Typology and archaeometry of local (Beirut) and imported Palestinian cooking wares. Some non-Beirut vessels are in kaolinitic fabrics (source unknown, but probably still in Lebanon). The Palestinian products ('Workshop X'-Keisan? are the same class found as exports in the western Mediterranean, e.g. Marseille, Tarragona. These are often as thin-walled and hard fired as the so-called 'brittle wares' of Syria.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This paper presents an overview of ceramics, economy, and trade in North Africa from the Vandal to the early Arab periods (up to the early eleventh century), tackling both the transition from the Byzantine to Arab occupation and the first... more
This paper presents an overview of ceramics, economy, and trade in North Africa from the Vandal to the early Arab periods (up to the early eleventh century), tackling both the transition from the Byzantine to Arab occupation and the first centuries of Arab rule. Whereas the excavations at Bir Ftouha (Carthage) and at Ṣabra al Mansūriyya provide fairly solid insight into the late tenth and eleventh centuries, and the fifth to seventh centuries have considerable archaeological documentation with respect to North Africa and its economic connections with the rest of the Mediterranean and beyond, it was clear from the outset that bridging the eighth to mid-tenth centuries is problematic. This essay will demonstrate that part of the difficulty is a lack of coherent excavation strategies and an overly synthetic, selective publication of the ceramics and it will outline some of the themes that would be fruitful to investigate in the future.
Continuities and discontinuities within Africa-Ifrīqiya of ceramic production, diet, cuisine, and culinary practices are explored here, the last illustrated by the distinctive ceramics repertoires necessary for the processing and cooking of food; so are possible links between contemporary Arab cultures manifest in Ifrīqiya, al-Andalus, and Sicily, across the water. It is with the mapping of culinary culture and its accessories that I believe we shall best be able to understand the Arab (and Berber) communities of North Africa, with respect to their origins, development, and interaction across the Maghreb and
the Islamic West.
Continuities and discontinuities within Africa-Ifrīqiya of ceramic production, diet, cuisine, and culinary practices are explored here, the last illustrated by the distinctive ceramics repertoires necessary for the processing and cooking of food; so are possible links between contemporary Arab cultures manifest in Ifrīqiya, al-Andalus, and Sicily, across the water. It is with the mapping of culinary culture and its accessories that I believe we shall best be able to understand the Arab (and Berber) communities of North Africa, with respect to their origins, development, and interaction across the Maghreb and
the Islamic West.
Research Interests:
This paper offers an overview of the wide range of material culture of 6th and 7th century Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearics), a period covering the Visigothic settlements and expansion as well as the Byzantine reconquest... more
This paper offers an overview of the wide range of material culture of 6th and 7th century Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearics), a period covering the Visigothic settlements and expansion as well as the Byzantine reconquest of Spain and the Balearics: vestimenta, armamenta and agricultural tools, liturgical objects, textiles, ecclesiastical furniture and ornament, imported and local pottery (table wares, amphorae, kitchen wares) and glass. Long distance Mediterranean and Atlantic trade as well as the role of the Church, Byzantine Carthage and eastern traders in the economy are discussed.
Research Interests: Late Roman Archaeology, Late Roman Pottery, Early Medieval Pottery - Visigotic period, Visigothic Spain, Archaeology, Historical Archaeology. Medieval Archaeology, Anthropology, Social Identities, Material Culture, Artefact Studies, Diaspora Studies, Trade and Exchange, and 7 moreLate Antiquity, Visigothic Spain, Late Roman Amphorae, Late Roman Glass, Barbarians and Romans in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages, Barbarian Kingdoms, Barbarians societies, Late Antiquity, Ethnogenesis, Funerary World, Goths, Vandals, Sueves, Alans, and Roman Archaeology
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The paper offers a summary of trends in fine wares, amphorae, cooking wares and brick-tile in Beirut for the 6th to 7th centuries.
Research Interests:
An imposing amount of studies and researches in the second half of the twentieth century has focused on the productivity in Roman Africa of a variety of consumer products, along with the analysis of regions, cities and their economies.... more
An imposing amount of studies and researches in the second half of the twentieth century has focused on the productivity in Roman Africa of a variety of consumer products, along with the analysis of regions, cities and their economies. The success of African goods during the Caesarian-Augustan age and up to the late antiquity, recorded in the written tradition and confirmed by the stratigraphy of many sites in the Mediterranean, has been the subject of a substantial amount of contributions that have accompanied for more than sixty years the study of material culture of the Roman imperial age. This session, which can not consider every product of the Maghreb, will focus mainly on the ceramic, not only on account of its large diffusion, the fossil marker for dating contexts all around the Mediterranean and well inside Europe for several centuries, but also because the evidence is more consistent than that found for other types of sources, and reflects the ability of African regions to develop a high yield agriculture, and manufacturing activities related to fisheries, as shown by transport amphorae (carrying oil, olives, wine, fish sauces), as well as crafts tied to the production of more or less valuable objects, aimed - at various levels - at regional, inter-regional and inter-provincial markets.
If during a more or less recent past most studies were mainly focused on data collected at the sites of consumption (and thus on the indestructible ceramic), centered on the type and histories of each production (fine table ware, lamps, kitchenware and coarse ware), recent studies have been, on one hand, directed towards a review of the known types and towards a more thoughtful analysis of the contexts of discovery, perfecting the production framework and anchoring to a trustworthy time frame certain types and classes in circulation; on the other hand they have focused on the production centers in order to get a better geographic characterization of those same types and classes, applying a wealth of suitable methodologies, surveys of large tracts of land, surveys and excavations of old and new workshops, laboratory analysis. The results draw a scenery in which a great variety of productive facies and distribution models reflect the complexity of the cultural, social and economic contexts, both micro- and macro-regional, both at the provincial and inter-provincial levels. This session aims to describe these lines of research, focusing on the organization of production and commerce in the region, their similarities and differences, and on a list of questions still unsolved, the solution of which will call for a further revision of published data, and for brand new information.
If during a more or less recent past most studies were mainly focused on data collected at the sites of consumption (and thus on the indestructible ceramic), centered on the type and histories of each production (fine table ware, lamps, kitchenware and coarse ware), recent studies have been, on one hand, directed towards a review of the known types and towards a more thoughtful analysis of the contexts of discovery, perfecting the production framework and anchoring to a trustworthy time frame certain types and classes in circulation; on the other hand they have focused on the production centers in order to get a better geographic characterization of those same types and classes, applying a wealth of suitable methodologies, surveys of large tracts of land, surveys and excavations of old and new workshops, laboratory analysis. The results draw a scenery in which a great variety of productive facies and distribution models reflect the complexity of the cultural, social and economic contexts, both micro- and macro-regional, both at the provincial and inter-provincial levels. This session aims to describe these lines of research, focusing on the organization of production and commerce in the region, their similarities and differences, and on a list of questions still unsolved, the solution of which will call for a further revision of published data, and for brand new information.