BYZANTINE MARITIME TRADE with the EAST (4Th-7Th Centuries.)

ARAM, 8 (1996), 139-163 139

BYZANTINE MARITIME TRADE WITH THE EAST (4th-7th centuries.)

MARLIA MUNDELL MANGO

The following paper will re-examine the evidence for the continuation of Roman trade with the East into the Byzantine period, ie after AD 300. Essentially, it will focus attention on the movement of Byzantine goods eastward from the Empire, and of oriental goods westward into the Empire, irrespective of the iden- tities of their carriers or middlemen – Auxumites, Himyarites, Persians: many being Nestorian Christians. Recent archaeological work or study of material at Alexandria, in the Red Sea area, the Yemen, Sri Lanka, at Merv and Begram, in Russia's Kama Valley and in China provides new evidence to consider.

ROMAN TRADE WITH THE EAST

Routes Earlier Roman trade with the East was conducted by a northern land route via Persia into Central Asia and by a southern sea route which offered cheaper and, for some products safer, transport from the Red Sea via the Indian Ocean to India and Sri Lanka. Ultimately all routes led to China: the sea route carried on to southeast Asia, or, via the Indus Valley, up into Central Asia. The key Mediterranean city for this sea trade was Alexandria which had a special store- house for eastern goods, while at Rome there were “apothekai for Egyptian and Arabian cargoes”. North terminal ports on the Red Sea were Clysma and Aila; Adulis was its main southern port1.

Products (1st-2nd centuries) As we know from the Periplus and other Roman sources, the two most important products of the Roman trade with the East were spices and silk, fol- lowed by precious stones and ivory.

East-West: From China and other countries east of India came silk, cinnamon, aloes wood and cloves; from India came three types of pepper, sandalwood,

1 E.H. Warmington, The Commerce between the Roman Empire and India, (2nd ed. London and New York, 1974); M.G. Raschke, “New Studies in Roman Commerce with the East” in H. Temporini, and W. Haase, (eds.), Aufsteig und Niedergang der römischen Welt, Geschichte und Kultur Roms im Spiegel der neueren Forschung, II.9.2 (Berlin and New York, 1978), 604-1378. 140 BYZANTINE MARITIME TRADE WITH THE EAST indigo, pearls, rock crystal, haematite and some ivory; from north of India via the Indus River came spikenard, lapis lazuli and agate; from Sri Lanka came five types of amethysts and from Arabia, incense, musk and myrrh2.

West-East: Western goods shipped east included Tyrian purple which was delivered to Barygaza; to the Indian ports of Barbaricon, Barygaza, Muziris and Nelcynda went Mediterranean coral (from Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, etc.), linen clothing from Egypt, Laodicean and Italian wine, Spanish tin and lead, and (probably) Cypriote copper. Egyptian papyrus likewise went to India. Syr- ian storax and henna, and Roman silver, bronze and glass vessels (some at least probably made at Alexandria or nearby) were also traded in the East. (Finds of export glass at the Red Sea port of Leukos Limen and at Begram have recently been studied.) Amber probably went east from the Baltic via south Russia. Frankincense and myrrh were bought in Arabia and taken to Barbaricon and traded for Chinese silk3.

CHRONOLOGY

This Roman trade with the East flourished in the 1st to 2nd centuries and is thought to have waned thereafter, despite coin evidence to the contrary4. The Roman imports into Begram have recently been redated back from the 3rd century to the 1st and early 2nd by D. Whitehouse who has also written that the Sasanians became masters of Persian Gulf trade by the 6th century5. This chronology presumes a gap. Was there one? In this later period, between 500 and 640, the land route which led through what had become hostile Persia had obvious disadvantages for Byzantine trade and a land route which led via the Caucasus and the Caspian, skirting Persia was perferred. Marcian's securing of Lazica in the mid-5th century is seen as an early step in opening up this more northerly land route. From 530 Justinian made a dual attempt at both develop- ing a new northern land route and securing the southern sea route. Yet it is now generally thought that commerce with the East continued but moved inexorably northwards and that the sea route was abandoned in despair to the Sasanians6. In fact, while northern trade routes from the Byzantine Mediterranean, via either Persia or the Steppe, have been the subject of scholarly discussion, the

2 Warmington, Commerce, 162-260. 3 Warmington, Commerce, 261-272. 4 See BYZANTINE TRADE WITH THE EAST: INDIA and SRI LANKA, below. 5 D. Whitehouse, “Begram, the Periplus and Gandharan art”, Journal of Roman Archaeology, 2 (1989), 93-100; D. Whitehouse, and A. Williamson, “Sasanian Maritime Trade”, Iran, 11 (1973), 29-49. 6 K. Hannestad, “Les relations de Byzance avec la Transcaucasie et l'Asie Centrale aux 5e et 6e siècles”, Byzantion, 25-27 (1955-1957), 421-456; Whitehouse and Williamson, “Sasanian Trade”, 44. M.M. MANGO 141

Byzantine use of the southern sea route has been largely dismissed or neglected. The significance for Byzantine sea trade of the accounts of Cosmas Indo- copleustes has been minimised and the role of Sasanian Persia emphasised7. Yet there is evidence that the southern sea route continued to be used for Byzantine trade at least up to the Sasanian takeover of Himyar in 570, then of Auxum in 599, when, it could be argued these takeovers resulted in more expensive trade rather than no trade. For example, evidence from Byzantine commercial seals has an eastern and southern bent (see the map Fig. 1). Foreign trade tax of 12 1/2% was collected by the comites commerciorum, that for Red Sea and Indian trade being controlled at Clysma and Iotabe8. The later 6th- and early 7th-century seals of commerciarii name, or have been found mostly at, sites in the East, particularly Antioch and Tyre (rather than, for example, in the Crimea or on the Danube); later 7th-century seals name commerciarii attached to Cyprus and Cilicia. The apotheke known at Tyre was probably similar to those at Alexandria and Rome devoted to earlier eastern trade9. Other archaeological evidence will be considered in the course of a tour of the eastern world (see maps Figs. 1, 10, 15, 18), departing from Alexandria, going down the Red Sea and the Nile into Auxum, to Himyar, India, Sri Lanka, up into Central Asia and on to China. But first a detour for a rapid glance at inter-regional trade within the Empire and Byzantine trade with the West.

INTER-REGIONAL TRADE WITHIN THE EMPIRE

It can be said that trade within the Empire was vigorous in the period under consideration. An inscription stating tarifs imposed on traded goods in the 5th- 7th centuries at Anazarbus in Cilicia illustrates the diversity of goods being brought into an early Byzantine city. It once listed at least 42 items of which only 15 survive on the inscription. These include food (namely wine, salt, garlic, garum, saffron, fenugreek, gourds, vegetables, other plants, cattle), as well as rope and nets, silk, tin and lead, and slaves. Some of these, such as wine, saffron, possibly tin, are known to be local products, while silk would have been ultimately a foreign import10. The dynamics of the movement of varied goods is

7 Whitehouse and Williamson, “Sasanian Trade”; Cosmas Indicopleustes, The Christian Topography (ed. and trans. W. Wolska-Conus), (Paris, 1962-1973), I, 16-18; III, 318 note 32, 344 note 152. 8 A.H.M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire 284-602, (Oxford, 1986), 826-827; P. Mayer- son,“The Island of Iotabê in the Byzantine Sources: A Reprise”, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 287 (1992), 1-4. 9 C. Morrisson, and W. Seibt, “Sceaux de commerciaires”, Revue Numismatique, (1982), 222- 241; J.-C. Cheynet, and C. Morrisson, “Lieux de trouvaille et circulation des sceaux” in N. Oikonomides, (ed.), Studies in Byzantine Sigillography II, (Washington, D.C., 1990), 127-128. 10 G. Dagron, and D. Feissel, Inscriptions de Cilicie, (Travaux et Mémoires du Centre de Recherche d'Histoire et Civilisation de Byzance, Collège de France, Monographies 4), (Paris, 1987), 170-185; on tin in the Taurus Mountains see K.A. Yener, “Göltepe and Kestel” in J. Sas- son, (ed.), Civilisations of the Ancient Near East III, (New York, 1995), 1519-1521. 142 BYZANTINE MARITIME TRADE WITH THE EAST

Fig. 1: Map of Late Roman/Byzantine Empire and adjacent areas with names mentioned in text (drawing author). partly deciphered by amphora (see Figs. 2, 15 for important eastern amphorae) studies and shipwrecks. For example, analysis of amphora sherd deposits at Carthage in the West has revealed prolonged agricultural trade with the eastern regions of northern Syria, Asia Minor, Palestine, Egypt and the Aegean, into the M.M. MANGO 143

7th century. Other findspots plotted together with amphora kiln sites establish the circulation of particular amphora types and their contents, as illustrated here for one type (Fig. 2). And the Black Sea ship carrying over 800 amphorae, wrecked at Yassi Ada off the southwest coast of Asia Minor, likewise testifies to inter-regional trade in the first half of the 7th century11

BYZANTINE INTERNATIONAL TRADE WITH THE WEST

Among thousands of pottery sherds excavated at Tintagel in Cornwall, southwest Britain, are many from eastern Mediterranean amphorae (see Fig. 2) and Late Roman B (North Africa) and C (Asia Minor) Wares, which, it is plausibly suggested, derived from trade in Cornish tin for Mediterranean oil and/or wine via the Atlantic. (Written evidence from Alexandria confirms this type of trade in the early 7th century; see below.) The same 5th-7th-century pottery types have been found at altogether 30 sites in southwest Britain and Ireland12. South- east Britain and northwest continental Europe have yielded evidence of other Mediterranean trade, this time possibly conducted via the Rhine. Figure 1 shows the findspots of 120 Byzantine copper-alloy wares exported to western Europe ca. 600, which include basins, ewers, etc. for domestic use. The 13 pieces of Byzantine silver in the royal Sutton Hoo burial in southeast Britain of the 620's, may have reached Britain as diplomatic gifts, but two other Byzantine silver objects could have travelled by trade. One, a bowl with dated imperial control stamps (of 491-518), was found at Voronia in Latvia, near the Baltic-Black Sea route for the amber trade; the other, a plate stamped 641-651, was found close to the important Frisian trading post of Dorestad near the mouth of the Rhine, where numerous objects of the 7th century have been excavated13. Often buried with the cast copper-alloy objects were amethysts, cowrie shells and elephant ivory rings – all transported from India or Africa, undoubtedly via Byzantium. The amethysts – over 100 were found at Faversham in Kent alone – are all drilled in the Byzantine manner (Fig. 3; in Byzantium they served as pendants; in Europe they were strung)14. (It has been suggested that garnets used as inlay in Migration Period ornament also came from Indian [almandine] rather than

11 See most recently R. Tomber, “Quantitative approaches to the investigation of long-dis- tance exchange”, Journal of Roman Archaeology, 6 (1993), 142-162; and G.F. Bass, and Van F.H. Doorninck, Yassi Ada I, A Seventh-Century Byzantine Shipwreck, (College Station, 1982). 12 C. Thomas, Tintagel, Arthur and Archaeology (London, 1993), 93-96; C. Thomas, A Pro- visional List of Imported Pottery in Post-Roman Western Britain and Ireland, (Institute of Cor- nish Studies Special Report no. 7), (Redruth, 1981). 13 M. Mundell Mango, “The archaeological context of finds of silver in and beyond the East- ern Empire” in N. Cambi, and E. Marin, (eds.), XIII Congressus Internationalis Archaeologiae Christianae, Split, 25.09-1.10.1994, (Split, in press). 14 B. Arrhenius, “Ein Amethystanhängen aus Haithabu” in K. Schietzel, (ed.), Das archäol- ogische Fundmaterial III der Ausgrabung Haithabu XII, (Neumünster, 1978), 12-14. 144 BYZANTINE MARITIME TRADE WITH THE EAST

Fig. 2: Late Roman Amphora 1: map showing area of origin (near Antioch) and known distribution pattern (drawing A.A. Wilkins after C. Thorpe and T. Croft for C. Thomas).

Fig. 3: Amethysts cut and drilled in Byzantium; exported to Europe (after B. Arrhenius, “Ein Amethystanhängen aus Haithabu” in K. Schietzel [ed.], Das archäologische Fundmaterial III der Ausgrabung Haithabu, XII [Neumünster, 1978], fig. 5). M.M. MANGO 145

Bohemian [pyrope] sources15.) In other words, Byzantine trade with the West incorporated Byzantine trade with the East.

BYZANTINE TRADE WITH THE EAST: THE PRODUCTS

We have just seen that eastern items such as amethysts from Sri Lanka, cowrie shells from the Indian Ocean, and ivory from Africa or India were among the goods arriving in Europe presumably via Byzantium in ca. 600. Evidence from within the Byzantine Empire for the arrival there of other eastern goods such as silk, ivory, stones and spices may be summarised as follows.

1. Silk Raw silk imported into the Empire was woven into cloth, Berytus and Tyre being the two most important centres in the 6th century in an industry which was partly state monopoly, partly in the private sector. Silk tinted by murex purple, originally restricted to imperial use, was eventually made available to women by Justinian, no doubt to increase state revenues. After silkworms had been brought into Byzantium from China in 552, the Empire continued to import silk from the East, as the embassy to Sogdia in 568 makes clear. That the use of silk within the Empire was not restricted to the imperial court, is proven by its excavation in relatively obscure places, such as Nessana (see Fig. 4) and Oboda in the Negev and Zenobia on the Euphrates. The non-elitist use of silk, both in the Empire and in China, has been stressed by Raschke16.

2. Ivory A large amount of ivory was used in the Byzantine Empire. Mass produced, yet elaborately carved consular diptychs, annually issued by the hundreds, mea- sured up to 40 cm. in height (see Fig. 5). Cylindrical caskets, likewise mass produced and cut from sections across the tusk cavity, reached over 14 cm in diameter. The material used for plaques and caskets is thought to have derived from the larger African rather than Indian tusks. Large pieces also went into furniture, such as a 6th-century post carved as the figure of Ariadne and the episcopal chair of the archbishop of Ravenna, Maximianus (AD 545-54)17.

15 H. Roth, “Almandinhandel und -verarbeitung im Bereich des Mittelmeers”, Beiträge zur Allgemeine und vergleichende Archäologie, 2 (Munich, 1980), 309-334; cf. B. Arrhenius, Merovingian Garnet Jewellery. Emergence and Social Implications, (Stockholm, 1985), 29-36. 16 On Nessana: L. Bellinger, “Textiles” in H.D. Colt, (ed.), Excavations at Nessana (Auja Hafir, Palestine) I, (London, 1962), 99-100, nos. 30-32, pls. XXIX-XXX; on Oboda: A. Bagin- ski, and A. Tidhar, “A dated silk fragment from ‘Avdat (Eboda)”, Israel Exploration Journal, 28 (1978), 113-115; on Zenobia: R. Pfister, Textiles de Halabiyeh (Zenobia) (Paris, 1951); on non- elitist silk: Raschke, “Commerce”, 622-637. See also Jones, Empire, 861-2. 17 A. Cutler, The Craft of Ivory. Sources, Techniques and Uses in the Mediterranean World: A.D. 200-1400, (Washington, D.C., 1985), 20-30; J. Durand, (ed.), Byzance. L'art byzantin dans les collections publiques françaises, (Paris, 1992), no. 21; C. Cecchelli, La cattedra di Massimi- ano, (Rome, 1936-1944). 146 BYZANTINE MARITIME TRADE WITH THE EAST

Fig. 4: Silk excavated at Nessana (after L. Bellinger, “Textiles” in H.D. Colt, [ed.], Excavations at Nessana [Auja Hafir, Palestine], I, [London, 1962], pl. XXX).

Fig. 5: Ivory diptych of the consul Anastasius, AS 517, Bibliothèque Nationale (after J. Durand, [ed.], Byzance. L'art byzantin dans les collections publiques françaises, [Paris, 1992], no. 15). M.M. MANGO 147

3. Stones Extant objects attest to the importation of precious stones into the 6th and 7th centuries. Rock crystal was used to carve larger items, such as the 4th-century grotto later attached to the votive crown of Leo VI, now in Venice, as well as for intaglio carved gem stones18. The famous Rubens vase of agate (see Fig. 6) is attributed to ca AD 400, and a series of agate and sardonyx ewers carved with a zoomorphic handle, to the 6th or 7th19. Agate and sardonyx continued to be used for cameo carvings into the 7th century, and haematite for amuletic intaglio cut stones into the 6th and 7th centuries20. The official imperial fibula had three pendant sapphires. The encrustation of gold belts, saddles and bridles with pearls, emeralds or sapphires was restricted by law to imperial use21. As with purple silk, women were exempted and 4th-7th-century gold necklaces, earrings, and bracelets were set with the banned stones (Fig. 7)22. Amethyst combined with green and gold glass was inlaid into columns in St. Polyeuctos built at Constantinople in the early 6th century and, as mentioned above, drilled amethysts were also used in Byzantine jewellery23.

Fig. 6: Agate vessel (the “Rubens Vase”), Fig. 7: Gold bracelet set with pearls, sapphires ca. AD 400, Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore and emerald plasma, 7th century. (after K. Weitzmann, [ed.], Age of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Spirituality, [New York, 1979], no. 313). (after K. Weitzmann, [ed.], Age of Spirituality, [New York, 1979], no. 300).

18 H.R. Hahnloser, (ed.), Il Tesoro di San Marco II (Florence, 1971), no. 92; Durand (ed.), Byzance, nos. 35-37 (attributed to Egypt). 19 K. Weitzmann, (ed.), Age of Spirituality, (New York, 1979), no. 313; D. Alcouffe, in Durand (ed.), Byzance, no. 42. 20 Durand (ed.), Byzance, nos. 39-41; Weitzmann (ed.), Spirituality, no. 398. 21 Procopius, Buildings, III.i.21; Codex Justinianus, XI.xii; Weitzmann (ed.), Spirituality, no. 300. 22 Eg Weitzmann (ed.), Spirituality, no. 286. 23 R.M. Harrison, Excavations at Saraçhane in Istanbul I, (Princeton, 1986), 129-130, 168- 169, 414, pls. 138-140; Weitzmann (ed.), Spirituality, nos. 286, 289. 148 BYZANTINE MARITIME TRADE WITH THE EAST

4. Spices and Aromatics While the importation of spices between the 4th and 7th centuries is beyond doubt, specific written evidence is scattered. However, The Book of the Prefect which regulated private trade in tenth-century Constantinople lists together as sold by myrepsoi items which repeat fairly exactly what Warmington gives as the Roman imports from the East, namely pepper (peperi), spikenard (sta- chos), cinnamon (kinamonon), aloes wood (xylaloe), musk (moschos), incense (libanos), myrrh (smyrna), and indigo (loulachi); the other listed items are amber (ambar), undoubtedly from the Baltic, and balsam (barze), herbs (lachana), mint (lazouren), thapsia (chrysoxylon) and capers (zygaian), probably all from within the Empire24. Incense which was transferred from pagan to Christian ritual remained a trade staple; standing and suspended censers were common in the early Byzantine period (see Fig. 8).

Fig. 8: Bronze censer with scenes from the New Testament, 8th century (?), Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond (after K. Weitzmann, [ed.], Age of Spirituality, [New York, 1979], no. 364).

5. Exchanges from the West Regarding western products appreciated in the East, we have just seen that Tyrian purple was still an important industry in the 6th century (see 1. Silk above). Much linen recovered from Egypt is considered to date to the 5th-7th centuries25. The production and trade of papyrus continued into the Middle Ages26. We shall see British tin traded into the Mediterranean in the 5th-7th centuries, where it reached Alexandria and would have been available for shipping to the East. Glass was still made at numerous Mediterranean sites, includ-

24 “Ordances of Leo VI” of c.895 from The Book of the Eparch, (trans. E.H. Freshfield) (Cambridge, 1938), chapter 10; Warmington, Commerce, 180-205, 212-216. 25 Eg P. du Bourguet, Catalogue des étoffes coptes: Musée National du Louvre, (Paris, 1964), nos. C30, C33-34. 26 Durand (ed.), Byzance, no. 125: papyrus document written at Constantinople and dated ca AD 839. M.M. MANGO 149 ing, as we shall see, Alexandria and we shall also hear evidence of Byzantine silver in Central Asia and China. Wine, the cultivation of which was introduced into China in the Tang period, may still have been traded east from the Mediterranean in late Antiquity27. Evidence for western (ie Byzantine) goods recovered archaeologically in the East is somewhat limited; but as the case made by D. Whitehouse for Sasan- ian supremacy in this trade outside the Persian Gult was, by his own admission “largely based on written sources”28, the same may be permitted for the Byzantine case. The primary sources for this period are the 4th-century Expo- sitio totius mundi et gentium and the 6th-century Christian Topography of Cosmas Indocopleustes, the Greek Nestorian merchant who writes that he and colleagues, traded in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and India and/or Sri Lanka29.

BYZANTINE TRADE WITH THE EAST: ALEXANDRIA

What Cosmas says may be supplemented and prolonged into the 7th century by the Life of the John the Almsgiver, patriarch of Alexandria (610-619/20)30, in which a mercantile milieu is strongly evoked. Several chapters are con- cerned with shippers and merchants; money is constantly mentioned. The church of Alexandria had boats trading on the Nile by the 4th century31, and by the 7th, a fleet of 30 ships sailing the Mediterranean, the Atlantic and, probably, the Red Sea, if not further east32. Cargoes varied. A “gazelle” loaded with grain journeyed to Britain where it exchanged its cargo for tin ingots (and, it was said, solidi33) – a story giving flesh to speculations about Corn- wall. In a storm in the Adriatic, the entire fleet of 30 had to jettison cargoes of dried fruit, clothing and silver plate valued at 244,800 solidi34. In this Life and elsewhere, gallodromoi and spanodromoi – Alexandrian merchants specialis- ing in trade in Gaul and Spain, respectively, – are attested in the 6th and 7th centuries35. Excavations at Alexandria have uncovered adjoining workshops built in the late 5th century (and in use later still) where rock crystal imported

27 J. Carswell, “The Port of Mantai, Sri Lanka” in V. Begley, and R.D. De Puma, (eds.), Rome and India, (Madison, 1991), 200; Byzantine amphorae have been excavated at Qana (see below). 28 Whitehouse and Williams, “Sasanian Trade”, 43. 29 Cosmas, Topography, books II, XI; and II.30. 30 Leontios of Neapolis, The Life of John of Cyprus, (ed. and trans. A.J. Festugière), (Paris, 1974), 255-637. 31 A.C. Johnson, and L.C. West, Byzantine Egypt: Economic Studies, (Princeton, 1949), 137. 32 Leontios, Life of John, chapters 8, 11, 19-21, 28, 36. 33 Leontios, Life of John, chapter 8. 34 Leontios, Life of John, chapter 28. 35 Leontios, Life of John, chapter 36; Jones, Empire, 824. 150 BYZANTINE MARITIMETRADEWITHTHEEAST

Fig. 9: Map showing Egypt, Nubia, Auxum, Himyar, Persia, India and Sri Lanka (drawing author). M.M. MANGO 151 from the East was carved (as in the earlier Roman period) and where glass – a favoured Roman export to the East – was made; for early Byzantine crystal carving waste see Fig. 1036. Another favoured export, silver plate, was still made at Alexandria in the 6th and 7th centuries37.

Fig. 10: Rock crystal wasters from workshop built late 5th century in Alexandria (after M. Rodziewicz, Les habitations romaines tardives d'Alexandrie à la lumière des fouilles polonaises à Kom el-Dikka. Alexandrie III, [Warsaw, 1984], pl. 71).

BYZANTINE TRADE WITH THE EAST: THE NILE AND THE RED SEA (Fig. 9)

While archaeological and other evidence concerning the Red Sea ports of Leukos Limen (Quseir al-Qadim) and Berenike apparently indicate a drop off in port activity by the 3rd century38 (but see below on 6th-century ships from Berenike), the pilgrim from Piacenza reported that in ca 570 sea traffic des- tined for the East still used the ports at Clysma and Aila39. Also ships from this and other major Red Sea ports are attested elsewhere as functioning earlier in the 6th century when 60 ships momentarily docked (presumably in the course of trading) at Gabaza in Auxum were drafted into operation during the Byzan- tine war with the Himyarites in ca 524. These included 20 ships from Clysma, 15 from Aila, 7 from Berenike, 2 from Iotabe, as well as 7 from the Farasan Islands and 9 from India40. Still on the Red Sea, finds from recent excavations at the 5th-7th-century fort of ‘Abu Sha'ar on the coast may indicate continued activity at nearby ports41 and the Alexandria trade tax office (alabarchika) had

36 M. Rodziewicz, Les habitations: romaines tardives d'Alexandrie à la lumière des fouilles polonaises à Kom el-Dikka, (Alexandrie III), (Warsaw,1984), 249-251, pls. 71-72. 37 H. Delehaye, “Menas, Inventio et miracula”, Analecta Bollandiana, 29 (1910), 146-150, miracle 2; Leontios, Life of John, chapter 27. 38 C. Meyer, Glass from Quseir al-Qadim and the Indian Ocean Trade, (Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization, 53, Chicago, 1992). However, surface finds of pottery at Berenike date to the 5th-7th centuries; see S.E. Sidebotham, “Ports of the Red Sea and the Arabia-India Trade” in Begley and de Puma, Rome and India, 19-21. 39 “Shipping from India comes into the port at Aila, bringing a variety of spices….A small city is there called Clysma, and to this too come the ships from India….we were given bright green nuts…from India”: J. Wilkinson, Jerusalem Pilgrims before the Crusades, (Warminster, 1977), 88. 40 Y.M. Kobischichanov, Auxum, (University Park, 1979), 78-82; Johnson and West, Egypt, 138. 41 Sidebotham, “Ports”, 17-19 and S.E. Sidebotham, “Preliminary Report on the the 1990- 1991 Seasons of Fieldwork at ‘Abu Sha'ar (Red Sea Coast)”, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, 31 (1994), 133-158. 152 BYZANTINE MARITIME TRADE WITH THE EAST a branch office operating at Antinoöpolis in 56842, perhaps indicating that the Via Hadriana leading to Abu Sha'ar was still in use. Furthermore, Syene (modern Aswan), the Nile port opposite Berenike, located at the southern Byzantine frontier of Egypt, is included in the sailing itinerary of ports inscribed on an early Byzantine gearing device. Its sundial is one of five in Greek made late enough to list Constantinople among the ports, representing a standard sailing itinerary which is probably mercantile. Included are ports between Carthage in the West, Constantinople and Dalmatia in the North and Syene in the South (see Fig. 11)43. Several papyri of 580 and later record gen- eral economic activity at Syene44 which may also have been the centre of pottery production (Aswan Wares), with fine wares and amphorae shipped up and down the Nile, to Nubia and Egypt45.

Fig. 11: Gearing device sundial on which the ports in a mercantile (?) itinerary include Syene (COHNH) (modern Aswan) at the southern Byzantine frontier on the Nile (after J.V. Field, D.R. Hill, and M.T. Wright, Byzantine and Arabic Mathematical Gearing, [London, 1985], fig. 1).

42 Johnson and West, Egypt, 299. 43 J.V. Field, and M.T. Wright, Early Gearing. Geared Mechanisms in the Ancient and Medi- aeval World, (London, 1985). 44 Johnson and West, Egypt, 143, 199, 316. 45 W.Y. Adams, Ceramic Industries of Medieval Nubia II, (Lexington, 1986), 525-545. M.M. MANGO 153

BYZANTINE TRADE WITH THE EAST: NUBIA AND AUXUM (Fig. 9)

South of Syene, down the Nile, between Egypt and Auxum, in the land of the Nobadae or Nubians, numerous Byzantine imports, pointing to trade contacts with the Empire, have been excavated at Ballana and Qustul. Altogether 170 copper-alloy vessels, 33 silver vessels and hundreds of transport amphorae – all imported from Egypt and other parts of the Empire – were found in 122 tombs46. Further south, Auxum was, like Sri Lanka, a clearing house between West and East for trade in this period. At Adulis, Byzantine merchants received goods from India and China, as described by Cosmas Indocopleustes who illustrated his account with a drawing of an important monument in a map-like set- ting which includes the customs stations at Gabaza and Samidis, as well as the port Adulis and the inland capital Auxum, as shown in Fig. 1247. During the

Fig. 12: Topographical drawing of Auxum showing capital city (Auxum), the port of Adulis and the customs stations at Gabaza and Samidis (after Cosmas indicopleustes, The Christian Topography, [ed. and trans.], W. Wolska-Conus, [Paris, 1962-1973], I, 367.

5th-7th centuries Auxumite gold coins were struck on the basis of Byzantine coins, no doubt for the purposes of trade48. Cosmas described how the Auxu- mites obtained emeralds in Nubia from the Beja and sold them at Barygaza in the Indus delta (see map Fig. 10) and how they bartered beef, salt and iron for gold from Sasu up on the Blue Nile. They also conveyed Arabian incense and African elephant tusks both to western merchants and to Sri Lanka49. Excava- tions at Auxum and Adulis have yielded Byzantine weights, scales, and, at Yeha, a series of stamps which recall Byzantine bronze stamps (Figs. 13-14; all were possibly used in trade) and a Byzantine bronze polycandelon; digging at Matara produced Mediterranean amphorae, also found at Auxum, as well as a Byzantine bronze lamp and ewer, and Byzantine gold crosses50.

46 W.B. Emery, and L.P. Kirwan, The Royal Tombs of Ballana and Qustul, (London, 1938). 47 Cosmas, Topography, II.54-57, p. 367. 48 Kobischichanov, Auxum, 182-184. 49 Cosmas, Topography, II.49-54, 64; XI.15, 17-19, 21-23. 50 H. de Contenson, “Les fouilles à Axoum en 1958. Rapport préliminaire”, Annales d'Ethiopie, 5 (1963), 1-40, pl. XXg; F. Anfray, and G. Annequin, “Deuxième, troisième et qua- 154 BYZANTINE MARITIME TRADE WITH THE EAST

Fig. 13: Byzantine bronze weight excavated at Auxum in the area of the Sion church (level II) (after H. Contenson, “Les fouilles à Axoum en 1958. Rapport préliminaire”, Annales d'Éthiopie, 5 [1963], pl. XXg).

Fig. 14: Bronze stamps excavated at Yeha in pre-Auxumite contexts; see F. Anfray, “Une campagne de fouilles à Yeha (fev.-mars 1960)”, Annales d'Éthiopie, 5 [1963], 180, 181, 184, 191 (after ibid., pls. CLIII a-b, CLIV a-c).

BYZANTINE TRADE WITH THE EAST: HIMYARITES (Fig. 9)

Cosmas states that like the Auxumites, the Himyarites served as middlemen for eastern sea trade. Although he mistakenly describes East Africa (Berbera) rather than Arabia as the source of incense (libanos, kasian, kalamon)51 this was a common trade confusion. Relevant to this trade, the recent excavations at Qana revealed three phases of construction, the latest revealing a Greek trième campagnes de fouilles”, Annales d'Ethiopie, 6 (1965), 49-85, fig. 12, pl. LXVIII, fig. 7, pl. LXIX, figs. 1-2; Anfray, “Matara”, Annales d'Ethiopie, 7 (1967), 33-53, figs. 9-11. On Byzantine bronze stamps used in trade see G. Vikan, and J. Nesbitt, Security in Byzantium: Lock- ing, Sealing and Weighing, (Washington, D.C., 1980), 25-28. 51 Cosmas, Topography, II.49-50; XI.24. M.M. MANGO 155 monotheistic inscription on stone, mentioning a certain Cosmas, and Gaza (?) and other amphorae which, of course, were in circulation until the 7th century (see Fig. 15)52. The bishop of Safar, appointed from Alexandria under Justin I, built a church at Qana (Akana) and three other sites53. According to Cosmas, opposite Qana, the island of Socotra was inhabited by Greek-speaking Chris- tians54.

Fig. 15: Byzantine (Gaza?) amphorae excavated at Qana in Himyar (after A.V. Sedov, “New archaeological and epigraphical material from Qana [South Arabia]”, Ara- bian Archaeology and Epigraphy, 3/2 [1992], fig. 2).

BYZANTINE TRADE WITH THE EAST: INDIA (Fig. 9)

Cosmas lists the key ports in India on the western coast and states that the Malabar coast (at Male, with its five emporia) is the source of pepper, that from Kalliana come copper, sesame wood and cloth, and that from Sindou come musk, costus and nard. Garnets (at Kaber)55 and shells come from the eastern coast. Jasper also originates in India. He discusses the merits of Indian and African elephant tusks56. Excavations at Arikamedu on the coast in southeast India have not yielded Mediterranean material later than the 1st century AD57. But later trade evidence may appear among the Mediterranean amphorae found at 20-odd sites elsewhere in India which await identification58. And, after a fall

52 A.V. Sedov, “New archaeological and epigraphical material from Qana (South Arabia)”, Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy, 3 (1992), 110-137. 53 J.B. Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire. From the Death of Theodosius I. to the Death of Justinian (A.D. 395 to A.D. 565) II, (London, 1923), 327. 54 Cosmas, Topography, III.65. 55 On Indian garnets in European jewellery see note 15 above. 56 Cosmas, Topography, XI.15-16, 22-24. 57 See V. Begley, “Introduction” in Begley and De Puma, “Rome and India”, (note 27 above), 4-5. 58 S.B. Deo, “Roman Trade: Recent Archaeological Discoveries in Western India” in Begley and De Puma, Rome and India, 40. 156 BYZANTINE MARITIME TRADE WITH THE EAST in Roman gold and silver coin after AD 220, there is gold and copper coin evidence of Byzantine trade, from 450-640, particularly in the south where international trade was concentrated59. On the map of 4th-7th-century coin finds (as of 1992), those in northwest India near Barygaza may support statements made by Cosmas about Auxumite (and Byzantine?) trade activities there60.

BYZANTINE TRADE WITH THE EAST: SRI LANKA (Fig. 9)

Cosmas describes Sri Lanka as the great clearing house of eastern trade. Romans (like himself), Auxumites, Himyarites and Persians arrived with goods from further west to exchange for the goods from further east in China and southeast Asia, as well as from India and Central Asia to the north. Sri Lanka itself offers sapphires61, and, as we know, amethysts62. Excavations started in 1980 at Mantai (the Modutti Emporium of Ptolemy), the important northern port linked by the Aruvi Ari River with the inland capital of Anurad- hapura, and interrupted in 1984, await full publication. The site has been ten- tatively identified as the main trade centre on the island, mentioned by Cosmas and Procopius63. Finds from a second excavation, at Sigiriya to the south, offer key evidence relating to Byzantine trade, as follows. Gold coins dated AD 300-640 and hundreds of copper coins mostly dated AD 300-450 have been reported in Sri Lanka64. Two recent publications throw light on the copper finds. Walburg observed that their dating and mint profile corresponded to that of the coin finds of Egypt for this period, and suggested that the coins may have been imported from there for commercial use in Sri Lanka65. This could, therefore, be seen as a

59 R. Sewell, “Roman coins found in India”, Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, (1904), 591- 631; R.A.G. Carson, “Late Roman and Early Byzantine Solidi from India”, Numismatic Digest, 4 (1980), 20-23; P.L. Gupta, “Early Byzantine Solidi from Karnataka”, Numismatic Digest, 8.1 (1984), 37-43; P. Berghaus, “Roman coins from India and their imitation” and R. Walburg,, “Late Roman Copper Coins from India” in A.K. Jha, (ed.), Third International Colloquium. Coinage, Trade and Economy, (Indian Institute of Research in Numismatic Studies, Anjaneri, 1991), 108-121, 164-167; P. Berghaus, in “Études et travaux”, Bulletin de la Société Française de Numismatique, 48 (1993), 548-549; C. Morrisson, “La diffusion de la monnaie de Constan- tinople: routes commerciales ou routes politiques?” in C. Mango, and G. Dagron, (eds.), Con- stantinople and its Hinterland, (Aldershot, 1995), 83. 60 Cosmas, Topography, III.65. 61 Cosmas, Topography, XI.13-19. 62 Warmington, Commerce, 245. 63 See J. Carswell, “The Port of Mantai, Sri Lanka” in Begley and De Puma, Rome and India, 197-203. 64 J. Still, “Coins found in Ceylon”, Journal of Ceylon Branch of Royal Asiatic Society, 19 (1907), 161-190; Chapter on “Ancient coins: Roman (including Byzantine)” in H.W. Codring- ton, Ceylon Coins and Currency, (Colombo, 1924); see also the following two notes. 65 R. Walburg, “Antike Münzen aus Sri Lanka/Ceylon. Die Bedeutung römischer Münzen and ihrer Nachahmungen für den Geldumlauf in Ceylon” in A.R. Alföldi, (ed.), Studien zu Fund- münzen der Antike III, (Berlin, 1985), 34-45. M.M. MANGO 157 prolongation of the special Alexandrian coinage which had been used for East- ern trade until AD 29666. But, whereas Walburg sees the coins' terminus of AD 450 as signalling the end of western trade in the island67, Bopearachchi considered other factors: the marked wear on all the coins and the chronology of one prominent findspot, that of the recently excavated palace of Sigiriya, inhabited for less than 20 years, (AD 477-495), where over 3000 copper coins of AD 300- 450 have been reported found since the 19th century. Considering the excavation data, Bopearachchi concluded that the coins were used well beyond AD 450, until at least AD 495 at Sigiriya (and probably later elsewhere), and that the local imitations were introduced about this time and used simultaneously with the genuine Roman coins. Sigiriya was abandoned in AD 495 with the murder of King Kassapa whom Bopearachchi takes to be the first of the two Sri Lankan kings mentioned by Cosmas, the one who controlled the islands' sapphires; the second king (probably, then, Moggallana), said Cosmas, controlled the harbour and market, to be identified as that at Mantai 68

BYZANTINE TRADE WITH THE EAST: CENTRAL ASIA (Fig. 9)

The sea trade route led via the Indus River and Taxila up into Central Asia, and Cosmas lists among the 6th-century trade links of Auxum those with the Hephthalites in north India69. Archaeological evidence of Byzantine trade in Central Asia itself is not abundant, aside from Christian remains of Nestorian trade middlemen70, many probably of Persian nationality. However, recent finds and study of late antique silver plate have thrown interesting light on this area. A silver ewer found in China (Guyuan) in a tomb of AD 569 is thought to have been made in Tokharistan, in Turkish Central Asia (Fig. 20a). The ewer displays features newly introduced into Roman silver in the 4th century (exemplified by the early 5th-century Hippolytus ewer of the Sevso Treasure) and cannot, therefore, be seen as the product of an internal Central Asian development from earlier Hellenistic or Roman imports. A more recent import provided a model. In fact, in AD 568 an embassy from Turkish Central Asia went to Constantinople for trade discussions and in AD 569 a Byzantine ambassador arrived at the Turkish court in Central Asia, where he commented on the locally(?) produced silver on display71.

66 Warmington, Commerce, 295. 67 Walburg, “Münzen”, 39. 68 O. Bopearachchi, “Commerce maritime entre Rome et Sri Lanka d'après les donnés numismatiques”, Revue des Études Anciennes, (1992), 107-121. 69 Cosmas, Topography, XI.20-21. 70 F. Grenet, Les pratiques funéraires dans l'Asie Centrale sédentaire de la conquête grecque à l'islamisation, (Paris, 1984), 186, 265, pls. XXXIII, XXXV. 71 M. Mundell Mango, “Byzantine, Sasanian and Central Asian Silver” in C. Balint, (ed.), Con- takte zwischen Iran, Byzanz und der Steppe in den 6.-7. Jahrhundert, (Budapest/Rome, in press). 158 BYZANTINE MARITIME TRADE WITH THE EAST

The presence of 7th-century Byzantine silver in Central Asia is attested by the imitation Byzantine control stamps on a ewer made in Sogdia in the later 7th century (see Fig. 16). Other evidence for 6th-7th-century Byzantine silver

Fig. 16: Byzantine-style silver ewer made, stamped and found in Sogdia (after B. Marshak, Sogdiiskoe serebro [Moscow, 1971], T11). in Central Asia may be mentioned, as follows. Several pieces of Byzantine silver plate, stamped in AD 500-651 have been discovered in the Kama Valley north of the Volga River in Russia (see map Fig. 1), together with 150 Sasan- ian, post-Sasanian and central Asian silver objects in numerous deposits. Local peoples had scratched figures of shamans and other ritualistic drawings onto some for use as cult objects. At least a few of these objects had probably originally travelled from the Empire to Central Asia before being taken to northern Russia in the 9th-10th centuries when they were traded north by the Volga Bulgars, in exchange for sable pelts. Of the two dozen Byzantine objects, two have Sogdian and Choresmian inscriptions probably added in central Asia (see Fig. 17), and another two bear the names of Byzantine owners scratched in Greek, indicating that these objects were for a while at least, the personal pos- sessions of particular individuals, such as merchants, and not diplomatic gifts M.M. MANGO 159

Fig. 17: Byzantine silver plate (with control stamps of AD 550-565) with Central Asian inscription added, found in Kama Valley in Russia (after A. Banck, Byzantine Art in the Collections of the USSR [Leningrad, Moscow, 1966], pl. 77). to a barbarian power. I have recently suggested that this silver formed a con- venient export currency for the silk trade (the plates with crosses holding appeal to Nestorian traders) and travelled, accordingly, to Central Asia in the 6th and 7th centuries72.

BYZANTINE TRADE WITH THE EAST: CHINA (Fig. 18)

Cosmas identifies as coming from China and other countries of the Far East, silk, aloes, cloves and sandalwood73. Silk was carried west by both land and sea. The success of Byzantine efforts for eastern trade may be reflected in the three or four embassies sent from Constantinople to China in AD 643 (which brought purple glass), 667, 701 and, possibly 71974. There is a notable absence of Roman gold in China, but around 30 Byzantine gold coins and imitations thereof, dating from AD 450-641 have been found (see map Fig. 18). By con- trast, many Sasanian silver coins are known. This imbalance has been dis- cussed, most recently by Thierry and Morrisson, who do not see a discrepancy

72 Mundell Mango, “Silver”. 73 Cosmas, Topography, II.45-46; XI.15-16. 74 F. Thierry, and C. Morrisson, “Sur les monnaies byzantines trouvées en Chine”, Revue Numismatique, 6e sér. 36 (1994), 109-145. 160 BYZANTINE MARITIMETRADEWITHTHEEAST

Fig. 18: Map of China (after F. Thierry, and C. Morrisson, “Sur les monnaies byzantines trouvées en Chine”, Revue Numismatique, 6e sér. 36 [1994], map). M.M. MANGO 161 between this low figure and the undoubted realities of trade. Gold had no mon- etary function in China where many precious materials were valued. Chinese sources refer to coveted goods from the West, in particular bleached glass, one piece of which is found in most tombs of this period (see eg Fig. 19)75. Roman silver also made an impact, judging from the imitation Roman ewer interred at Guyuan, just mentioned, and a heavily ornamented plate decorated with Dionysos, perhaps dated to the 4th-5th century, recently found nearby at

Fig. 19: Byzantine (?) glass (28) and other objects found in tomb of AD 569 at Guyuan in China together with silver ewer in fig. 20a (after B. Marshak, and W. Anazawa, “Some Notes on the Tomb of Li-Xian and his Wife under the Northern Zhou Dynasty at Guyuan, Ningxia and its Gold-Gilt Ewer with Greek Mythological Scenes unearthed there”, Cultural Antiqua, 41/4 [April, 1989], fig. p. 53).

75 Thierry and Morrisson, “Chine”, 132-135. 162 BYZANTINE MARITIME TRADE WITH THE EAST

Jingyuan (see Fig. 20)76. Two Byzantine gold ‘ornaments' and a solidus of Heraclius were recently reported excavated in an 8th-century Tang tomb in Manchuria, at Chaoyang, Liaoning Province (ca. 120 miles beyond the eastern end of the Great Wall)77.

20a 20b

Fig. 20a: Silver ewer with mythological (?) scenes, 6th century: Central Asian imitation of Late Roman work; found in tomb of AD 569 at Guyuan in China, together with objects in fig. 19 (after fig. p. 55 in article cited in fig. 19). Fig. 20b: Silver plate with Dionysos, Roman, 3rd century (?); found at Jingyuan in China (after S. Chu, “Gansu Jingyuan xin chu Dong-Luoma liujin yin pan luekao”, Wenwu, 5 [1990], 1-9.

CONCLUSION

What is impressive still in this later period is the mobility of goods, as described by Cosmas and attested by the few archaeological cases readily available. To recall a few: Tin from Britain moves via the Atlantic to Alexan- dria and possibly points east, while Indian Ocean gemstones and shells move via the Mediterranean and the Rhine to Britain. Byzantine silver reaches Cen- tral Asia where it is copied, and some of this plate reaches China. Amphorae carrying agricultural produce turn up in Britain, Auxum and Himyar; related sherds possibly await identification in Sri Lanka. Byzantine coins (gold) serve as models in Auxum, (copper) are used second-hand in India and Sri Lanka where they (gold and copper) are also copied and they (gold) are treasured as

76 On the ewer: B. Marshak, and W. Anazawa, “Some Notes on the Tomb of Li-Xian and his Wife under the Northern Zhou Dynasty at Guyuan, Ningxia and its Gold-Gilt Silver Ewer with Greek Mythological Scenes unearthed there”, Cultura Antiqua, 41/4 (April 1989), 49-58; on the plate: S. Chu, “Gansu Jingyuan xin chu Dong-Luoma liujin yin pan luekao”, Wenwu, 5 (1990), 1-9. 77 N. Hammond, “Gold finds reveal early east-west trade”, The Times, 11 April (1995), 18. M.M. MANGO 163 jewels in China where they are placed in tombs. The complexity of this scene is mirrored in that of the composition of the middlemen about whom there is no room to comment, beyond noting two points: 1) that control by Persian “middlemen” of any routes or ports may have made trade between Byzantium and the East more expensive rather than eliminating it; and 2) the Christian element was prominent, namely among the Auxumites, Himyarites and Per- sians – a mix of Melkites, Monophysites and Nestorians; among the last the Roman Cosmas Indocopleustes is numbered. This group is most prominent and their role within merchant communities from the Mediterranean to China is well known, if as little studied as is Byzantine maritime trade with the East.