Ancient Roman Trade Routes

This thesis focuses on the site of Vada Volaterrana in modern day Tuscany in the context of its Mediterranean connectivity. In this study, Mediterranean connectivity in the ancient Roman world addresses how harbor sites interacted with their hinterlands and other coastal sites. To analyze Vada Volaterrana's place within the Roman world I compare it to other harbor sites, large and small, through a diachronic approach that addresses technological advancements and economic prosperity. Though it is a smaller harbor complex, larger sites are used for comparison to juxtapose the differences between urban and rural settlements and their roles within the Roman world. It also highlights the discrepancy between our knowledge of small and large port systems. Vada Volaterrana is an example of a small harbor complex that served the needs of its hinterlands. I propose that Vada is an example of the norm in the ancient Roman world. Harbors were small to moderate in size and accommodated similarly sized vessels. Despite this, Vada Volaterrana shares technological and economic trends with other Roman sites which reflects the idea that harbors were centers of culture and trade. By sharing this study, I hope to inspire an interest in Mediterranean connectivity leading to studies regarding the functionality of smaller Roman harbor sites.

This article follows, ten months later, the release of the new edition of the book Sull'antica Lupatia, in which, among other things, there are also presented the hypotheses about the subject of this article.

Since in the meantime, other researchers have presented their proposals on the subject, I have the obligation to update the subject and to respond to these proposals.

Worlds Apart Trading Together sets out to replace the outdated notion of ‘Indo-Roman trade’ with a more informed perspective integrating the new findings of the last 30 years. In order to accomplish this, a perspective focusing on concrete demand from the ground up is adopted, also shedding light on the role of the market in long-distance exchange. Accordingly, the analysis conducted demonstrates that an economically highly substantial trade took place between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean in the 1st–6th cen. CE, altering patterns of consumption and modes of production in both India, South Arabia and the Roman Empire. Significantly, it can be documented that this trade was organised at the centres of demand and supply, in Rome and India, respectively, by comparable urban associations, the transport in-between being handled by equally well-organised private networks and diasporas of seagoing merchants. Consequently, this study concludes that the institution of the market in Antiquity was able to facilitate trade over very long distances, acting on a scale which had a characteristic impact on the economies of the societies involved, their economic structures converging by adapting to trade and the market.
NB: See uploaded addenda in paper below 'Worlds Apart Trading Together – addenda'
Available reviews:
—J. Simmons in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2018.09.59 (http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2018/2018-09-59.html).
—R. Tomber in Journal of Roman Archaeology 31, II (2018): 948–52.

EN- In addition to being the most difficult to understand, the history of ancient times has been a subject that human beings are curious about. One of the first questions that a reader interested in this history will ask is what people fed or earned their livelihood in ancient times. Most of the peoples living in the Mediterranean countries in antiquity were communities engaged in agriculture, especially under the conditions offered by the climate and geography of the period, who produced grain or imported and exported. Considering the position of human beings in history and their efforts in relation to this, it has a wide research subject, so it has been narrowed and the Late Republic Period, Pax Romana Period and B.C . III. From the first starting point, especially on the basis of Rome, in the 19th century, it is necessary to examine and examine the maritime nations or, in other words, the coastal cities of the Mediterranean, and how they carry out grain agriculture, production, where they are in the food chains and how they make their deliveries in exports or imports.

TR- Antikçağ tarihi anlaşılması en güç tarih olmasının yanı sıra insanoğlunun merak ettiği de bir konu olmuştur. Bu tarihle ilgilenen bir okuyucunun soracağı ilk sorulardan biri de antik dönemde insanların ne ile beslendiği veya geçimlerini ne ile sağladıklarıdır. Antikçağda Akdeniz ülkelerinde yaşayan çoğu halk tarımla uğraşmış, özellikle dönemin iklim ve coğrafyasının sunduğu şartlar altında tahıl üretiminde bulunmuş veya ithalat ve ihracatını gerçekleştirmiş topluluklardır. İnsanoğlunun tarihteki konumu ve buna ilişkin uğraşları baz alındığında oldukça geniş bir araştırma konusuna sahip olduğundan dolayı daraltmaya gidilerek Geç Cumhuriyet Dönemi, Pax Romana Dönemi ve M.S. III. yüzyıl içerisinden özellikle Roma baz alınarak ilk başlangıç noktasından itibaren denizci ulusları veya diğer bir deyimle Akdeniz’e kıyısı kentlerini ele alıp, incelemek ve tahıl tarımını, üretimini, besin zincirlerinde nerede yer aldığını ve ihracat veya ithalatta sevkiyatlarını nasıl gerçekleştirdiklerini adım adım izlemek gerekir.

Human groups use similar routes of communication to travel between two points in the long-term, not because of the influence of geography, but because geography involves a knowledge-scape that is passed on through generations of travellers. Thus, geography is not an entity that eliminates human agency, but rather it is the place where the practical and technical knowledge necessary to travel between two points is passed down between generations of voyagers which, subsequently, causes them to use similar itineraries. To explore these ideas, pre-modern travelling around the Bay of Biscay, between northern Iberia and western France, is employed as a case study. The interval analysed is placed between the Bronze Age, when the coasts of the bay started to resemble those of today, to Late Antiquity, when pre-modern orientation methods started to be replaced by modern ones (2300 BC–AD 1000). This study focuses on sea routes, which are analysed using archaeological evidence and written sources, although the same ideas could be applied to land routes.

Κατά τη διάρκεια των ανασκαφών της ΚΑ΄ΕΠΚΑ στην Αγία Κυριακή και το Παλιοχώρι Μήλου, την πενταετία 1985-1989 (υπό τη διεύθυνση της Εφόρου ε.τ., κας Ισμήνης Τριάντη), αλλά και κατά τη διάρκεια παράλληλων επιφανειακών ερευνών στην περιφέρεια των ανασκαπτομένων χώρων – συλλέχθηκαν, φωτογραφήθηκαν και σχεδιάστηκαν λεπτοφυή αγγεία (" fine-wares ") των ρωμαϊκών αυτοκρατορικών χρόνων. Η συχνή –και σε ποσότητες-παρουσία αυτού του τύπου κεραμικής σε χώρους λιμένων / σε χώρους παραγωγής – εμπλουτισμού της μηλιακής «στυπτηρίας γής», κάνει ελκυστική την υπόθεση ότι ένα σημαντικό μέρος της αποτελούσε «συνοδό φορτίο» των μηλιακών ορυκτών προϊόντων, αλλά και του μηλιακού οίνου, προς τις αγορές της Μεσογείου. DRAFT PAPER.

The Roman city of Olisipo (Lisbon) was one of the main harbours on the Atlantic façade, with a major role in the circulation of Mediterranean products to the northern provinces. In the Julio-Claudian period it emerged as a major producer of fish products that were packed in amphorae. To analyse and discuss Lusitanian amphorae from this specific period, eight well-dated contexts from excavations in Lisbon (some published, others unpublished), dating from Tiberius to Nero, will be presented. The study of these contexts shows, on the one hand, that amphorae of early Lusitanian type were a major presence, certainly from Claudius or the early days of Nero, and, on the other hand, that the first amphorae presenting the characteristic forms of typical Dressel 14 appear in the stratigraphy only from the AD 60s onward. As far as their petrography and provenance are concerned, the macroscopic characteristics of the fabrics of these amphorae reveal that the majority of them must be assigned to the Tagus/Sado basins. Nevertheless, amphorae from other areas of the province, namely Peniche (on the western Atlantic coast) are also present, mainly from the principate of Claudius onwards. KEYWORDS: LISBON; EARLY IMPERIAL CONTEXTS; LUSITANIAN AMPHORAE; EARLY LUSITANIAN TYPES; MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION.

Peu etudie par le passe, le mobilier en plomb romain decouvert dans l’estuaire de la Seine possede un vaste potentiel de recherche. Les problematiques liees a la comprehension des pratiques artisanales, de la circulation du metal dans la region et des pratiques funeraires caletes et veliocasses touchent ici des collections archeologiques anciennes et recentes. Une approche pluridisciplinaire melant archeologie et archeometallurgie est susceptible de repondre a ces questions, qui s’inscrivent dans une dynamique de recherche commune a plusieurs laboratoires francais et allemands. Coordination du PCR : Malina Robert (Universite de Nantes & Caux Seine Agglo).