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List of contributors
VESNA BIKIC is a Principal Research Fellow at the Institute of Archaeology, Belgrade. Her research and publications focus on Medieval and Early Modern archaeology of the Balkans, including regional, Byzantine, Central European and Ottoman cultural phenomena, with an emphasis on pottery studies. She directs the Scientific Research Project for the Belgrade Fortress, and participates in several national and international projects and networks. Among her many publications, the most recent one is ‘Pottery assemblages and social contexts in the Early Middle Ages: Examples from Serbian archaeology’, in: V. Ivani8evic, V. Biki¢ and I. Bugarski (eds.), The Medieval World of Fortresses, Towns and Monasteries. Hommage to Marko Popovic (Belgrade 2021), 287-307.
ARCHIBALD DUNN is Research Fellow in Byzantine Archaeology at the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham; PI in collaboration with the Ephoreia of Antiquities of Thebes in the Survey of Thisve-Kastorion; and Acting Director of the excavations of ‘Saranta Kolones’ (Byzantino-Frankish Paphos, Cyprus). He has published numerous reports and studies about his surveys in Greece (The Strymon Delta; Thisve/Kastorion), and is member of the editorial board of the journal Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies. His forthcoming publications include Byzantine Greece: Microcosm of Empire (editor); The Byzantine and Frankish Seals from the Excavations of Corinth (editor, The American School of Classical Studies at Athens).
NIKOS D. KONTOGIANNIS has studied Archaeology and History of Art at the Universities of Athens (Greece) and Birmingham (UK). He has worked as archaeologist at the Hellenic Ministry of
Culture, as lecturer at the University of Peloponnese, and as associate professor at Kog University, Istanbul. Since 2021, he is the Director of Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection (Washington, DC). His recent work includes The Venetian and Ottoman Heritage in the Aegean: The Bailo House in Chalcis (Turnhout, 2020; co-editor S.S. Skartsis); and Byzantine
Fortifications: Protecting the Roman Empire in the East (Barnsley 2022).
PHILIPP NIEWOHNER has surveyed and excavated the city of Aezani in Phrygia, the pilgrimage site of St Michael in Galatia, and the city of Miletus in Caria (Turkey). Minor research projects include various other sites and monuments in Asia Minor, at Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), and in the Balkans. After Istanbul and Oxford, Philipp is currently teaching at Gottingen University in Germany. Recent publications include reference books on the Archaeology of Byzantine Anatolia (Oxford, 2017) and on Byzantine Ornaments in Stone: Architectural Sculpture and Liturgical Furnishings (Berlin e& Boston 2021).
NATALIA POULOU is Professor of Byzantine Archaeology at the School of History and Archaeology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece). Since 2014, she is Director of the University of Thessaloniki excavations at the Byzantine site of Loutres, Mochlos/Crete and since 2019 she is the Director of the University of Thessaloniki excavation at Philippi. Among her many publications, she co-edited LRCW4: Late Roman Coarse Wares, Cooking Wares and Amphorae in the Mediterranean 1-11 (Oxford 2014; co-editors E. Nodarou, V. Kilikoglou).
STEFANIA S. SKARTSIS is currently Head of the Department of Large-Scale Works, Hellenic Ministry of Culture (Athens). Her interests lie in the fields of Byzantine archaeology, ceramics, and commercial networks in the eastern Mediterranean. Her most recent publications include The Venetian and Ottoman Heritage in the Aegean: The Bailo House in Chalcis (Turnhout 2020; co-editor N.D. Kontogiannis), as well as studies on the Medieval and Post-Medieval material culture of Euboea and Boeotia, on Chalcis as a major ceramic production and distribution centre in the Byzantine and Frankish periods, and on the finds from excavations for the Transadriatic Pipeline in northern Greece.
EVELINA TODOROVaA is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Medieval Archaeology, National Institute of Archaeology with Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Presently, she is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Contributions to Bulgarian Archaeology. Her most recent publication is ‘One amphora, different contents: The multiple purposes of Byzantine amphorae according to written and archacological data’, in: $.Y. Waksman (ed.), Multidisciplinary Approaches to Food and Foodways in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean (Lyon 2020), 403-16.
ELLI TZAVELLA is Archaeologist at the Ephorate of Antiquities of Boeotia, Hellenic Ministry of Culture (Thebes). Both her monograph Byzantine Atiica: An Urban and Rural Landscape in the Early and Middle Byzantine Period, 4th.-12th Century AD, Medieval and Post-Medieval Mediterranean Archaeology v (Turnhout, forthcoming) and the co-authored volume The Christianization of Athens, Attica, and Adjacent Areas: From Paul to the End of the Reign of Justinian 1 (527-565) (Leiden e New York forthcoming) are currently under publication. Recent contributions include ‘Material culture from Early Byzantine to Ottoman times’, in: Y. Lolos (ed.), Sikyon 1. The Urban Survey, Vol. r: Text, Mehetyuata Series 82 (Athens 2021), 234-306; ‘Defence in Early Byzantine Attica (4th-7th centuries): Fortified towns, forts, and guard posts’, in: H. Saradi (ed.), Byzantine Athens: Proceedings ofa Conference, October 21-23, 2016 (Athens 2021), 154-69.
MYRTO VEIKOU is Researcher at Uppsala University within the Project Retracing Connections - Byzantine Storyworlds in Greek, Arabic, Georgian, and Old Slavonic, ca. 950-ca. 1100 (Dir. I. Nilsson, UU/Riksbankens Jubileumsfond), and cooperation partner within the project ‘Medieval Smyrna/izmir: The Transformation ofa City and its Hinterland from Byzantine to Ottoman Times’ (Dir. A. Kiilzer, 6aw/fwf). She has published a wide range of studies on spatial topics in the Byzantine period, including Medieval settlement theory and practice, among which Byzantine Epirus: A Topography of Transformation: Settlements of the Seventh-Twelfth Centuries in Southern Epirus and Aetoloacarnania, Greece (Leiden & New York 2012); Byzantine Spatialities: From the Human Body to the Universe (co-editor I. Nilsson; Leiden e New York 2022).
GIANNIS VAXEVANIS has worked as an archaeologist at the Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities at Chalkida, and is currently a PhD student at the Department of Archaeology and History of Art of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. His publications include ‘Investigating the origins of two main types of Middle and Late Byzantine amphorae’, Journal of Archaeological Reports: Science 21 (2018), 1111-21 (co-author).
JOANITA VROOM is Professor of the Archaeology of Medieval and Early Modern Eurasia at the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University (NL), specializing in Medieval and Post-Medieval archaeology in the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East (including the Byzantine, Islamic, Crusader and Ottoman periods). She takes a particular interest in the socio-economic (production and distribution) and cultural aspects (cuisine and eating habits) of ceramics in these societies. Currently, she is Head of the World Archaeology Department of the Faculty of Archaeology at Leiden University, as well as Scientific Director of the ‘Hinterland of Medieval Chalcis Project’ (HMC).
Preface
Joanita Vroom
Throughout the history of the Byzantine Empire, with its various periods of expansion and stagnation, Constantinople remained in every sense of the word its capital. Apart from being the political and military heart of the empire, the city on the Bosporus was also a prime hub ina trading and exchange system which extended across large parts of Eurasia and North-A frica. The nodal points in this commercial network consisted of provincial cities and towns, which functioned as foci of Byzantine urban civilisation and of economic activity, being both centres of production and of consumption in their respective regions.
After the focus had been quite some time on the production side of the economy, in recent decades an increasing interest has been devoted to the study of consumption in the Byzantine world, both of the consumptive demands of cities and their hinterland in general, and of the functioning of the supply of goods to urban and rural areas in particular. There existed in fact a wide range of these Byzantine consumption goods, varying from durable products (e.g., furniture, ornaments) to non-durable products (e.g., food, beverages, clothing, footwear, perishable objects) as well as to services (work done by one person or a group that benefited others).
The focus in this volume is on the Byzantine city and its hinterland as centres of consumption in the broadest sense, although the production side of Byzantine life is never out of sight, as there is no consumption without production. Some of the questions which will be discussed are: can long-term patterns of consumption be established, or did consumption change fundamentally over time? What do the archae-ological, literary and iconographical sources reveal about consumption behaviour in Byzantine cities and towns? May provincial towns such as Caricin Grad, Miletus, Corinth, Athens or Chalcis be compared with the metropolis Constantinople as far as their function as centres of consumption and manufacture is concerned? How was the day-to-day distribution of goods from and to the Byzantine cities organized?
And is it possible to determine the consumptive reasons why in one category of goods some objects were apparently more desired by Byzantine town dwellers than others? Originally these questions — and many more — were addressed at a round table session with the title “New Perspectives on the Byzantine City as Consumption Centre’, which was held at the 23rd International Congress of Byzantine Studies on the 23rd of August 2016 at Belgrade. Most contributors to this volume did participate in that session, and they have set out to answer these questions here in more detail, from various perspectives, using and comparing different sources of information, such as archaeological artefacts, literary texts and visual arts.
Throughout the contributions special attention is paid to the developments and changes of urban consumption behaviour over time during the rise and fall of the Byzantine Empire. One instance of this approach is by comparing the centralized economy of the Early Byzantine society, characterised by its heavy handed state interference, with the flourishing of long-distance trade and the growing appetite for luxury goods in the Middle Byzantine and Late Byzantine world after the 9th and roth centuries.
The volume Feeding the Byzantine City: the Archaeology of Consumption in the eastern Mediterranean (ca. 500-1500) starts with a general introduction by Archibald Dunn, aptly titled “Ihe Medieval Byzantine town: Producers, suppliers, and consumers’. Initially, this contribution started out as a shorter paper written for a plenary session at the 22nd International Congress of Byzantine Studies, which was held in the week of 22-27 August 2011 at Sofia (Bulgaria), but was unfortunately never published since then. As I happened to be the one asked to read the text of Dunn (who was unable to be present in person at this conference) to a clearly very interested audience, I knew the content of the paper very well and was convinced that it would be perfect as a general introduction to the other chapters in this volume.
In fact, in the current (extended and updated) version of his text Dunn explores characteristics of Byzantine provincial urban markets, the products which were available there, and the wide range of potential suppliers on the basis of literary sources (among which Byzantine and Ottoman records of regional products and exported merchandises). He discusses not only provincial markets as regional importers and inter-regional exporters in the Byzantine world, but also sheds light from a more mundane viewpoint on villagers and pastoralists as suppliers of foodstuffs, raw materials and ar-tisanal goods. His case-study concentrates mostly on records of towns in south-eastern Macedonia, in particular on Thessaloniki and the twin skalai (ports) of Krysoupolis and the Strymon Delta from Middle Byzantine to (Late) Ottoman times.
After this thought-provoking introduction by Dunn on demand and supply in a Byzantine provincial rural economy, mainly based on literary sources, the following contributions mostly cover archaeological regional case studies, and are therefore presented as much as possible in a chronological order. The locations in the Byzantine world of the regions discussed in these case studies, as well as their province-specific consumption patterns, are indicated in Fig. 1 (by the red numbered circles in this map). Although various types of material culture are discussed, the focus in this volume is primarily on ceramic finds (because these are ubiquitous in most archaeological projects in the Mediterranean).
The first part of Feeding the Byzantine City encompasses both the Early Byzantine and the Middle Byzantine periods, and contains four chapters. In the first one, titled ‘Caritin Grad (Justiniana Prima) as a market: Searching for an Early Byzantine model of pottery production and consumption’, Vesna Biki¢ discusses the 6th-century Byzantine provincial town Cari¢in Grad which was situated in the vast Prefecture of Illiricum (western Balkans). The town was also known as ‘Justinana Prima’, a name which referred to the fact that the settlement was founded as a ‘Neustiftung’ by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian 1 near his birth-place.
In order to sketch the socio-economic contexts of this town, Biki¢ focuses on the organisation of the production and distribution of pottery, based on the functional analysis of the ceramics found here. The site of Cari¢in Grad (in present-day Serbia) stands out as a time capsule due to its mere 75 years-existence (it functioned only between circa 530 and 615), its extraordinary archaeological indicators (especially its precise chronology), its spatial layout and inner (architectural) structures, as well as its contextual ceramic assemblages. In her chapter Biki¢ presents unknown excavated ceramic finds (among which imported tablewares and amphorae as well as locally made cooking pots and storage jars) from this polis and uses these finds to create general models of production and consumption behaviour in an Early Byzantine provincial town.
In the second case study, ‘Geographies of consumption in Byzantine Epirus: Urban space, commodification, and consumption practices from the 7th to 12th century’ Myrto Veikou direct our attention southwards, to the Byzantine province of Epirus (present-day western Greece). Using the results of her earlier research on various types of Byzantine material culture (either still iv situ or part of museum collections) during an extensive archaeological survey project, she currently investigates ‘consumption geographies’ in this region. Veikou shows special interest in spaces and practices which can be partly considered as ‘urban environments’. Her approach is based on a comparison of archaeological evidence from these environments (such as pottery, metal and glass artefacts, art, coins, sculptures) with Byzantine texts referring to these manifestations of material culture. In this perspective, she explores the intricate relations between imported and locally produced symbolic goods, durable goods, non-durable goods and services in the region under study.
In the third contribution, ‘Production and consumption in Crete from the mid 7th to the roth century AD: The archaeological evidence’, Natalia Poulou considers in what way cities and small rural settlements in Crete participated in the commercial network of the Byzantine Empire. More specifically, she focuses on the production and consumption of specific commodities on the island, as well as on the exchange of goods between Crete and other isles in the Aegean. The objects discussed in her chapter include various types of imported pottery, among which Glazed White Wares and Polychrome Ware from Constantinople and glazed wares from the Islamic world, as well as locally made ceramics (not only amphorae but also painted ware and utilitarian vessels), metal artefacts (bronze and golden belt buckles; golden earrings) and silk textiles. It appears that during the 8th and gth centuries, even after the conquest by Andalusian Muslims in 827/28, agricultural and commercial activities in most cities on Crete continued to be linked to the Byzantine network, in particular those in the area of Heraklion (by then known as Chandax/AI-Khandaq).
In the fourth chapter, ‘Mapping Byzantine amphorae: Outlining patterns of consumption in present-day Bulgaria and the Black Sea region (7th-14th century)’, Evelina Todorova shows how plotting different find spots of amphorae and their respective quantities can be valuable to outline distribution patterns of these ceramic transport jars and their contents (mostly wine or oil). She argues that despite certain practical shortcomings the approach makes it possible to identify consumption centres which imported such vessels. To proof her point, Todorova persuasively identifies several such consumption centres by mapping quantities of published imported amphora types along the western Black Sea coast, along the Danube River, as well as in north-eastern Bulgaria (along the Maritsa and Struma rivers). Furthermore, she points to the fascinating variety of stamps and graffiti on these transport jars, and offers a new interpretation of 7th- to 14th-century amphora distribution in the eastern Mediterranean and the wider Black Sea region.
The second part of this volume deals with the Middle Byzantine and Late Byzantine periods, and consists of four chapters. In the first, titled ‘Not a consumption crisis: Diversity in marble carving, ruralisation, and the collapse of urban demand in Middle Byzantine Anatolia’, Philipp Niewohner discusses Byzantine marble carvings for churches and other buildings in present-day Turkey. Such stone carvings were employed throughout Byzantine times, and their production and distribution in towns and countryside seem to reflect settlement patterns and the way these changed over time. The Early Byzantine period was, for instance, dominated by the supra-regional production of three quarries that had already been active during the Roman period and continued to set the example for various local workshops.
These were Docimium in Phrygia for the central Anatolian High Plateau; Proconnesus/Constantinople for the Mediterranean Basin, and Sivec near Prilep in Macedonia for the central Balkan region. The Middle Byzantine production, on the other hand, was characterised by countless local workshops making products which could end up in remote rural locations. Niewohner argues that the difference between the Early and the Middle Byzantine patterns may be explained by a collapse of urban consumption, as has become apparent through his research at the city of Miletus on the western coast of Turkey.
In the second chapter Stefania S. Skartsis and Nikos D. Kontogiannis debate in their contribution ‘Central Greece in the Middle Byzantine and Late Byzantine periods: Changing patterns of consumption in Thebes and Chalcis’ the consumptive habits of two vibrant Byzantine cities They discuss not only ceramic finds from these two urban centres (situated in Boeotia and on the Island of Euboea), but also finds of luxury products which were either produced or consumed by their inhabitants under Byzantine and Frankish rule.
The finds of precious goods included silk textiles, minor objects from burial contexts (such as religious amulets, dress accessories, jewels and jewel boxes), as well as high-quality luxury objects which apparently belonged to local magnates. Skartsis and Kontogiannis argue that these objects were often linked to the social standing and the identity of their owners, and may help to get a better understanding of social and economic circumstances, production models and consumption patterns at Thebes and Chalcis from the 11th century onwards.
In the third contribution, “Life, work and consumption in Byzantine Chalcis: Ceramic finds from an industrial hub in central Greece, ca. roth-13th centuries’ by Joanita Vroom, Elli Tzavella and Giannis Vaxevanis, the emphasis is on one specific, important production zone in an extramural neighbourhood of Byzantine Chalcis. The authors present and discuss the very significant finds from a recent rescue excavation at Orionos Street in the eastern part of this city.
During this dig remains of building structures were unearthed which seemed to have functioned as a waste dump for several workshops which were active from Middle to Late Byzantine times. The excavated material included huge amounts of ceramic finds, as well as significant amounts of bone, shell, metal and glass finds. The first processing of the extraordinarily large quantities of finds was carried out between 2013 and 2016, and the initial research already yielded fascinating insights in the development of local pottery production of Byzantine glazed and unglazed wares dated between ca. the 10th and 13th centuries in this important harbour city.
In the last chapter of the second part, Elli Tzavella explores in her contribution ‘Consumption patterns of ceramics in town and countryside: Case-studies from Corinth and Athens in central Greece’ the meaning of the term ‘consumption’ in relation to Byzantine cities and their rural surroundings. She reminds us that a considerable part of the Byzantine elite resided, or was at least also active, in the countryside. Consequently, consumption above subsistence level was an economic habit which was not exclusively linked to urban settlements. On the other hand, the lower social strata of towns (such as Corinth and Athens) consumed goods which were transported to the city from the surrounding countryside, which indicates that provisioning held a special place in the Byzantine urban economy as a whole. In addition, Tzavella raises the question to what extent the Byzantine urban centres of Corinth and Athens showed comparable developments in dining habits, food storage, and cooking.
In the third and final part of Feeding the Byzantine City, ‘Production, Exchange and consumption of ceramics in the Byzantine Mediterranean (ca. 7th-1sth centuries)’, the author of this Preface sets out to present a general outline of various levels of production, circulation and consumption of ceramic products from Early Byzantine to Late Byzantine times.
The emphasis is on two consumer goods in particular, namely glazed tablewares and amphorae, as these belong to the better traceable types of pottery in ceramic distribution systems. Some of the topics discussed in this chapter include innovations in Byzantine pottery production (exemplified for instance by Glazed White Wares from Constantinople), transmission of iconographical styles, as well as excavated shipwrecks as evidence for distribution patterns of Byzantine amphorae and glazed tablewares. The chapter finishes with ‘exotic’ ceramic imports from the Islamic world. All this makes it quite clear that throughout the entire Byzantine period changing consumer demands encouraged potters to actively investigate new techniques for potting and decoration, and thus induced new ways of production.
Last but not least, I would like to mention the operational website ‘The Archaeology of a Byzantine City’ (which was made together with some of my RMA students at Leiden University). This online forum/exhibition serves as an additional tool to the current book as it provides information on topics such as architecture, daily life, entertainment and religion in key Byzantine cities in the eastern Mediterranean (with a focus on Athens, Butrint, Ephesus and Tarsus).
Leiden, January 2022
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