Medieval and Post-Medieval Ceramics from the Archaeological Sites Discoverd by the Boeotia Project, Central Greece, to the Present Day Vroom, J
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Medieval and post-medieval ceramics from the archaeological sites discoverd by the Boeotia Project, Central Greece, to the present day Vroom, J. Citation Vroom, J. (2003, January 29). Medieval and post-medieval ceramics from the archaeological sites discoverd by the Boeotia Project, Central Greece, to the present day. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/1887/13511 Version: Corrected Publisher’s Version Licence agreement concerning inclusion of doctoral thesis in the Institutional License: Repository of the University of Leiden Downloaded from: https://hdl.handle.net/1887/13511 Note: To cite this publication please use the final published version (if applicable). 8 – THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC BACKGROUND OF THE CERAMICS FOUND IN BOEOTIA: A SHORT INTRODUCTION 3., Introduction merchants, markets and artisans in the Ottoman Empire In this chapter I will try to sketch a preliminary (e.g. Faroqhi 1995). framework for the socio-economy in Medieval and Post- Finally, scattered but often illuminating information Medieval Boeotia in which the production and distribu- on towns, the conditions of transport and communica- tion of goods (or pottery) must have taken place through tions in the Turkish and Early Modern periods can be the centuries. It is not my aim to present a detailed socio- found in the accounts of Western travellers (antiquar- economic history of Medieval and Post-Medieval ians, geographers etc.), who travelled in Boeotia from Boeotia; the emphasis will be rather on structural socio- the late 15th to the 19th centuries. economic factors which enabled production and distri- bution of pottery within Boeotia. Questions raised here are, for instance, where pottery production centres 3.- The Boeotian infrastructure: could have functioned in the Boeotian landscape, and in settlements and routes what way the Boeotian infrastructure may have influ- enced the distribution of pottery for local use and A fundamental part of the socio-economic background export. of the production and distribution of pottery in Boeotia Written sources were explored to gather information is of course formed by the infrastructure of the area in on the social and economic context in which the Post-Roman times. The major features of that infrastruc- Medieval and Post-Medieval potters could have ture were the two major towns (Thebes and Livadheia), operated. For the Byzantine and Frankish periods in the importance of the ports, the rural settlements, the Boeotia I have mainly used the secondary literature, in land and sea routes (see fig. 8.1). which these written sources are collected, discussed or The importance of regional infrastructure for the summarized. For the Byzantine period, for instance, I production and distribution of pottery in a given time have relied upon the publications of Alan Harvey, David has been stressed in earlier research (Moorhouse 1983). Jacoby, Angeliki Laiou, Archibald Dunn, as well as the It has been convincingly argued, for instance, that distri- volumes of the Tabula Imperii Byzantini on Hellas and bution patterns of other consumption goods may point Negroponte by Johannes Koder and Friedrich Hild to the directions in which pottery moved and, perhaps, (Koder 1973; Koder & Hild 1976; Jacoby 1991-92; 1994; the extent to which rural settlements located away from Harvey 1982-83; 1989; Laiou 1980-81; 1982; 1990; the major roads made use of pots from different sources Dunn 1995). Peter Lock has presented, in general, the (Hodder 1974). It seems clear that in general the land written documents of the Late Byzantine/Frankish and sea trade systems functioned as the arteries along period in Greece (Lock 1997). which pottery travelled. Research on Medieval settle- For the Ottoman period in Boeotia, things are ments in Britain has shown that both the pattern of different. For this era, an important anchorage was settlement and the road system in an area were of partic- provided by the fact that the Boeotia Project had access ular importance to the pattern of distribution of pottery to very detailed Ottoman tax registers, which gave infor- (Moorhouse 1978, 16). mation about all sorts of economic output and resources Here, I will discuss the main features of the Boeotian in the research area. These registers were translated and infrastructure in Post-Roman times, and their relevance studied by the Dutch Ottomanist Machiel Kiel (e.g. Kiel for the production and distribution of goods (or pottery) 1992; 1997). I make grateful use of his findings here. over time in the region. These main features are the Further material was provided by the Ottomanist towns, the ports, the rural settlements, the land routes Suraiya Faroqhi, who published in general about and the sea routes. 241 Fig. 8.1 Location of the most important places and routes mentioned in the text (after Koder & Hild 1976). 1. Anthedon 13. Panaghia 2. Larymna 14. Mazi 3. Aulis 15. Evangilistria 4. Oropos 16. Petra 5. Livadostro 17. Thisbe + Domvrena 6. Aigosthena 18. Vathy 7. Eleusis 19. Koroneia 8. Panakton 20. Osios Loukas 9. Loukisia 21. Orchomenos 10. Mouriki 22. Atalanti 11. Haliartos 23. Kalapodi 12. Thespiae + Leondari 24. Kaparelli 8.2.1 towns (figs. 8.2-3) pay a portion of salaries in silk (Oikonomides 1997, 147). Thebes – Late Roman Thebes grew into the administra- Furthermore, Thebes high-quality silk cloths were also tive centre for church and state in Central Greece during used as diplomatic gifts during the reign of Alexios III 1 Byzantine times.[ ] It was made the capital of the (1195-1203 AD) (Jacoby 1991-92, 467). The 12th century province (thema) of Hellas at the end of the 7th century, bishop of Athens, Michael Choniates, repeatedly as well as an autocephalous archbishopric by the late 8th complained that the Thebans were treated more century (Koder & Hild 1976, 269-70; Dunn 1995, 757). leniently than the Athenians by tax-collectors, although The town became densely populated during the 12th Athens was not as famous as Thebes or Corinth for the century and was even acquiring new suburbs outside its quality of its cloth manufactures (Jacoby 1991-92, 488 walls (Dunn 1995, 769). Long-term excavations in the and note 200). city centre of Thebes revealed a densely populated However important as a regional centre, Thebes did Medieval settlement with narrow streets on the Kadmeia not escape the apparent economic downfall in Greek Hill (Symeonoglou 1985; Harvey 1989, 218-9). lands during ‘the Dark Ages’ of the 7th-9th centuries. The town was located in the midst of a relatively The settlement contracted to the Kadmeian Hill during fertile area, functioning thus as a large market for the the 7th century, and there is evidence of a prolonged agricultural and pastoral products of the region. This abandonment of the other parts of the town (Syme- part of Central Greece was supplying Constantinople onoglou 1985; Harvey 1989, 29). with significant quantities of wheat in the 11th century The petty currency of small-scale transactions seems (Dunn 1995, 770). to reappear in Boeotia in the 9th century, during the Furthermore, Thebes was internationally known for reign of Theophilos (829-842 AD) (Dunn 1995, 765 and its manufacture of high-quality silk textiles, red-dyed note 58; Galani-Krikoy 2000). A sign of the renewed with kermes and purple-dyed with marine molluscs, by economic vitality in Thebes is that there was probably a the 11th century (in general, Jacoby 1991-92; Dunn bronze coin mint operating from the late 11th century 1992, 290-91; see also Rackham 1983, 332-33 for refer- onward (Harvey 1989, 5; Hendy 1985, 310-12, 424-28, ences on kermes in later times). Silk was one of the most 435-37). In an attempt to cope with a livelier and important national products in the Byzantine economy, growing degree of exchange and with a lower price- both for use within the Empire and for exports. In an structure, this minted money had to facilitate a market in economy with a limited money supply, silk was even used wich silver coins had too high a value. The 12th century as a supplementary currency, enabling the Emperor to coin hoards from Central Greece seem indeed to 242 His contemporary, the Byzantine statesman and historian Niketas Choniates, wrote of the ‘traditional wealth and fame of the town’, and referred to its commercial activity. In spite of its inland location, Thebes attracted many foreigners in the Middle Byzantine period because of its agricultural and pastoral products, as well as its silk industry (Jacoby 1991-92; Dunn 1995, 769-70). Among them were Venetian and Genoese merchants who had been active in Thebes as early as the 11th century. The Venetians were engaged in business in Thebes already in 1071 AD (Jacoby 1991-92, 494-95 and note 241; id. 1994, Fig. 8.2 Painting of the town of Thebes by Hugh William Williams 352 and note 15). The town became part of the Italian (1773-1829 AD), ca. 1819 AD (after Tsigakou 1995, pl. 12). long-distance trade system from the 12th century onwards. In the Ottoman census lists of the 15th and 16th centuries Thebes figured as the main centre of a large district (kaza) in the sanjak (sub-province) of Egriboz, including more than 100 villages. In 1570 AD Thebes had four mosques, two hamams, two schools and a cara- vanserai (Kiel 1999). The tax registers show that the Theban economy was based on the production of wheat, wine, cotton, wool and silk and on the breeding of sheep. The city appears to have been a fairly rich place which even supplied Attica with grain (Kiel 1987, 120). During the 16th century the population of Thebes was almost entirely Christian, consisting in 1540 AD of 1290 Christian households, 300 unmarried men and 192 widows, besides 81 Muslim households with 25 unmarried young men and a group of 96 Jewish house- holds.