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

在政治不稳定和世界日益分裂的情况下，随着既定秩序的消失，古代晚期的社区是如何相互作用的？在这个项目中，我将展示古代晚期地中海西部经济发展的新图景，这一地区经常被学术界忽视，而倾向于关注更明显繁荣的东方。本项目将重点放在经常被忽视的新证据上，论证当地和区域贸易网络在保持前罗马帝国不同地区相互联系方面发挥了至关重要的作用，当时地中海航线正在衰落。为了证明这一点，我将结合北非、意大利、西班牙和高卢这三个经济区域内部和之间的贸易的文学和考古证据，展示在政治分裂时期，新的联系和网络是如何发展起来的。审查的证据将包括布道记录和法律法典，以阐明当代小商人活动的感知范围及其看似有利可图的性质。我将通过对沉船的研究来调查船舶设计和海事技术的发展，以表明滑行和跋涉对后期古董商人越来越重要，他们越来越多地使用临时港口来逃避关税和进入新市场。最后，我将使用所有三个地区的陶瓷调查，以表明随着长途散装进口的减少，当地产品开始越来越多地出现在考古记录中，小规模运输逐渐变得更加突出。通过分析这些区域及其经济趋势，该项目将使人们对当地海上贸易对西地中海经济的相对地位有新的认识，并确定这不仅仅是一项基本活动，而是一个动态部门，它根据不断变化的局势而扩大，并在一个更加分散的世界中具有新的重要性。这个时代对中世纪欧洲和北非的发展非常重要，并将为一系列至关重要的过程提供新的启示，这些过程不可逆转地塑造了地中海的历史，至今仍有共鸣。

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.