Trade and Markets in Byzantium Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Symposia and Colloquia Series Editor Margaret Mullett Editorial Board John Duffy John Haldon Ioli Kalavrezou Trade and Markets in Byzantium Edited by cécile morrisson Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection Copyright © 2012 by Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection Trustees for Harvard University, Washington, D.C. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America 19 18 17 16 15 14 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Trade and markets in Byzantium / edited by Cécile Morrisson. p. cm. — (Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine symposia and colloquia) Includes index. isbn 978-0-88402-377-7 (hbk. : alk. paper) 1. Byzantine Empire—Commerce—History. 2. Byzantine Empire—Economic conditions. I. Morrisson, Cécile. hf405.t73 2012 381.09495—dc23 2011046482 www.doaks/org/publications Typeset by Barbara Haines Cover image: Amphora with Confronted Hybrid Figures, polychrome glazed and incised ceramic. Antioch, 13th century. Washington, D.C., Dumbarton Oaks, bz.1967.8. To the memory of Angeliki Laiou— pathbreaking leader in the study of the Byzantine economy, inspiring and irreplaceable friend and colleague χάρις CONTENTS Foreword ix Introduction 1 cécile morrisson Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages one • Were Late Roman and Byzantine Economies Market Economies? A Comparative Look at Historiography 13 jean-michel carrié two • Regional and Interregional Exchanges in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Early Byzantine Period The Evidence of Amphorae 27 dominiQue pieri three • Movements and Markets in the First Millennium Information, Containers, and Shipwrecks 51 michael mccormick four • Commerce and Exchange in the Seventh and Eighth Centuries Regional Trade and the Movement of Goods 99 john f. haldon The Middle and Late Byzantine Periods five • Regional Networks in the Balkans in the Middle and Late Byzantine Periods 125 angeliki e. laiou† six • Regional Networks in Asia Minor during the Middle Byzantine Period, Seventh–Eleventh Centuries An Approach 147 johannes koder seven • Business as Usual? Archaeological Evidence for Byzantine Commercial Enterprise at Amorium in the Seventh to Eleventh Centuries 177 christopher lightfoot eight • Byzantine Glazed Ceramics on the Market An Approach 193 demetra papanikola-bakirtzi West and East: Local Exchanges in Neighboring Worlds nine • Local and Interregional Exchanges in the Lower Po Valley, Eighth–Ninth Centuries 219 sauro gelichi ten • Adriatic Trade Networks in the Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Centuries 235 rowan w. dorin eleven • Annual Fairs, Regional Networks, and Trade Routes in Syria, Sixth–Tenth Centuries 281 andré binggeli twelve • Trade and Economy in Antioch and Cilicia in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries 297 scott redford thirteen • Regional Exchange and the Role of the Shop in Byzantine and Early Islamic Syria-Palestine An Archaeological View 311 alan walmsley Markets and the Marketplace fourteen • From polis to emporion? Retail and Regulation in the Late Antique City 333 luke lavan fifteen • Weighing, Measuring, Paying Exchanges in the Market and the Marketplace 379 cécile morrisson sixteen • Daily Life at the Marketplace in Late Antiquity and Byzantium 399 brigitte pitarakis Conclusion seventeen • Byzantine Trade Summary and Prospect 429 peter temin Abbreviations 437 About the Authors 441 Index 445 viii contents FOREWORD This book emerged from the 2008 Spring Sympo- ing and producing this book proved to be a longer sium held at Dumbarton Oaks 2–4 May. For their process than some impatient authors would have help in organizing the meeting, blessed by clement liked. The result will, I hope, compensate for their weather that enabled participants to fully enjoy all regrets. Alice-Mary Talbot and her successor, Mar- the graces of the gardens, I am most grateful to Polly garet Mullett, were instrumental in preparing the Evans, Danica Kane, Mario Garcia, and Joe Mills, papers for publication, and the Director of Publi- who looked to its smooth running and recording. cations, Kathy Sparkes, brought her special skills My warm thanks to Jan Ziołkowski, Director of to the quality of illustrations and her stamina to set Dumbarton Oaks, who hosted and welcomed his the book on track. Joel Kalvesmaki scrutinized the first Symposium of Byzantine Studies with his char- manuscript with his usual acumen. Alice Falk copy- acteristic elegance and openness. My special grat- edited the mass of papers with great patience. To all, itude to the then Director of Byzantine Studies, I extend special gratefulness. Alice-Mary Talbot, who directed so graciously and Early in the preparation of this publication, the efficiently this thirteenth and last Symposium of her untimely and shocking death of Angeliki Laiou, an tenure. I also thank the contributors who have taken immense loss to the whole world of Byzantine stud- time out of their busy schedules to participate in the ies, stirred particular grief among all participants in colloquium, to discuss reciprocally their respective the Symposium, speakers and listeners alike. This papers, and then to create this book. had been the last occasion on which she met her col- After the Symposium, it was decided to include leagues in community and delivered a paper, and the two studies of great relevance to our topic: that of last time she attended a symposium at Dumbarton Rowan Dorin, doctoral student of Angeliki Laiou, Oaks, the institution and place to which she had on Adriatic trade networks in the twelfth and early devoted such passionate and clear-minded energy thirteenth centuries and that of Luke Lavan on retail during the years of her directorship (1989–98) and and regulation in the late antique city. well beyond. There was not a hint of her impending This is the fourth volume in the series Dumbar- illness; her presence was as imposing and her inter- ton Oaks Byzantine Symposia and Colloquia: it ventions as sharp and appropriate as ever. was preceded by Becoming Byzantine: Children It is just and meet that this book be dedicated and Childhood in Byzantium, edited by Alice- to her memory as a modest token of our debt to a Mary Talbot and Arietta Papaconstantinou (2009); great historian. Without her pioneering work on the The Old Testament in Byzantium, edited by Paul Byzantine economy, the present studies would prob- Magdalino and Robert Nelson (2010); and San ably not have been written or assembled. Marco, Byzantium, and the Myths of Venice, edited by Henry Maguire and Robert Nelson (2010). Edit- Cécile Morrisson ix Introduction lthough trade is often featured in another conference held in Vienna in October 2005, A Byzantine archaeological meetings or in those codirected and just published by one of our speak- offering a regional perspective, it is rarely the center ers, Johannes Koder—“Handelsgüter und Verkehrs- of them. The symposium that took place in Dumbar- wege: Aspekte der Warenversorgung im östlichen ton Oaks on 2–4 May 2008 and gave rise to this Mittelmeerraum (4. bis 15. Jahrhundert)”—under- book was entirely devoted to trade and markets in scored the growing interest in the subject.3 Byzantium. It was not, however, the first colloquium Trade deserves special attention because, as with Byzantine trade as its main subject. The Oxford many economic historians have shown, it plays an conference held at Somerville College on 29 May essential role in the economy and particularly in 1999 (later edited and published by Sean Kingsley economic development; the famous slogan “Trade and Michael Decker as Economy and Exchange in Not Aid” embraced by African leaders and Western the East Mediterranean during Late Antiquity) may economists nicely encapsulates the idea that growth have been the first to set forth down this path—if results not from massive aid but from an increase in “late antiquity” is taken as coterminous with “Byz- exports, which—as the examples of Japan, Korea, antine”—and to signal the revived attention spurred Taiwan, and now China demonstrate—leads under- by the accumulating wealth of new archaeologi- developed economies out of poverty.4 All things cal material.1 Because of its wider chronological being equal, the evolution of the Byzantine econ- range, the British 38th Spring Symposium of Byz- omy from the ninth to the twelfth century and, later, antine Studies titled “Byzantine Trade (4th–12th from small-scale trade to far-flung involvement in c.): Recent Archaeological Work,” held in Oxford international exchanges clearly illustrates the cor- in March 2004, was advertised as the first sympo- relation between the expansion of trade and that of sium directly focused on Byzantine trade.2 Finally, the economy in general. However they interpret its 1 S. Kingsley and M. Decker, eds., Economy and Exchange 3 E. Kislinger, J. Koder, and A. Künzler, Handelsgüter und in the East Mediterranean during Late Antiquity: Proceedings Verkehrswege/Aspekte der Warenversorgung im östlichen Mittel- of a Conference at Somerville College, Oxford, 29th May, 1999 meerraum (4. bis 15. Jahrhundert), Österreichische Akademie (Oxford, 2001). der Wissenschaften, Veröffentlichungen zur Byzanzforschung 18 2 M. Mundell Mango, ed., Byzantine Trade, 4th–12th Cen- (Vienna, 2010). This volume appeared too late for its contents to turies: The Archaeology of Local, Regional and International be taken into account here. Exchange, Papers of the Thirty-eighth Spring Symposium of Byz- 4 World Bank, “Industrialization and Foreign Trade,” in antine Studies, St John’s College, University of Oxford, March World Development Report 1987 (New York, 1987), 38–170, 2004, Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies 14 (Alder- available at http://go.worldbank.org/6DBKU5WP10 (accessed shot, 2009); review by J.-P. Sodini and me in The Medieval Review August 2010); S. Edwards, “Openness, Trade Liberalization, and 10.03.04 (March 2009), at http://hdl.handle.net/2022/6770 Growth in Developing Countries,” Journal of Economic Litera- (accessed August 2010). ture 31 (1993): 1358–93. 1 causes and context, this expansion is now generally place.” Because of the polysemy of the term “market,” recognized by historians.