Movements and Markets: Analysis of Regional Maritime Economies in the Late Antique Western Mediterranean between 300 and 700 CE

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In the face of political instability, and a world that was increasingly divided, how did communities in Late Antiquity interact with each other as the established order disappeared? In this project I will present a new picture of the economic development of the western Mediterranean in Late Antiquity, an area frequently neglected by scholarship in favour of focusing on the more obviously thriving East. Focusing on new and often overlooked evidence, this project will argue that local and regional trade networks played a crucial role in keeping the different parts of the former Roman empire interconnected, at a time when Mediterranean-wide routes were in decline. To demonstrate this, I will combine literary and archaeological evidence for trade within and between three economic areas, North Africa, Italy, and Spain and Gaul, showing how new connectivities and networks were developed at a time of political fragmentation. The evidence examined will include records of sermons and legal codes to illuminate the perceived extent of small merchant activity during the contemporary era and its seemingly lucrative nature. I will investigate the development of ship design and maritime technology through the study of shipwrecks in order to show that coasting and tramping were becoming increasingly important to late antique traders who were increasingly using ad hoc ports to dodge tariffs and access new markets. Finally, I will use ceramic surveys of all three regions in order to show that as long-distance bulk imports declined, local products begun to be increasingly represented in the archaeological record and small-scale cabotage became progressively more prominent. By analysing these regions and their economic trends, this project will shed new light on the relative position of local maritime trade to the western Mediterranean economy and establish that it was not simply a baseline activity, but a dynamic sector that expanded in response to changing situations and claimed a new importance in a more fragmented world. This era is hugely important to the development of medieval Europe and North Africa and will shed new light on a vital series of processes that irrevocably shaped Mediterranean history and still have resonance today.