To illustrate the movement of Byzantine ceramics, a series of maps, established on the basis of a thorough bibliographic survey, will propose a distribution pattern of the major types of tableware produced and traded in the empire and beyond its borders, between the seventh and fifteenth centuries. These maps not only indicate these discoveries geographically, but also identify the ceramics by both type and period. In addition, the base maps depict the following elements: the territorial evolution of the Byzantine Empire and therefore the relations and balances established between neighboring states; river systems; the most densely populated areas; the major land and sea routes; and the location of cities, military bases and Italian commercial establishments in the Eastern Mediterranean. Thus, in order to understand the ceramics market in Byzantium and identify both distribution pattern and consumption, archaeological data are put into perspective in relation to geographic, economic and geopolitical data. These comparisons highlight the distribution areas of contemporary production in terms of both complementarity and competition. They contribute to the study of the traffic flow of these products on different scales: macro-regional, regional, and long-distance.

In 2006, a Byzantine shipwreck was discovered at Göcük Burnu near Adrasan Bay in the Finike region, and this shipwreck was re-examined in 2011. The main cargo of the wreck was ceramic tableware, bowls and plates. Adding the Adrasan shipwreck to the Cape Gelidonya and Kastellorizo Island wrecks with their ceramic cargoes, we can conclude that the Western Lycian coast of the Mediterranean has more ceramic tableware cargo wrecks than any other location. A total of 55 to 60 plates and bowls were detected on the surface of the shipwreck area. The findings were generally comprised of red clay, beige-white-slipped, monochrome-glazed, open vessels. These vessels consist of simple-rim, high-ring pedestal-base plates, and low-ring pedestal-base bowls with a vertical rim. Decorative medallions made in fine sgraffito are placed on the inner center of the plates. Palmettes and a stylized floral spiralling branch motif are scattered among the decorations. The second group of fine sgraffito underglaze painting bowls exhibits medallion-style decoration. The same kind of bowls with medallion-style decoration can be seen at Euboea (Aprati) and Korinthos. There is also a type of bead decoration lined with a classic-style, so-called rope-strip, surrounded by a thin band. The shipwreck artefacts’ forms and technical characteristics are similar to those of the Alonnesos and Kastellorizo shipwrecks, which were of the Kommenos Period open-vessel typology. Therefore, the wreck has been dated to between the mid-twelfth and beginning of the thirteenth century AD. The variety of cargo found with this shipwreck brings a new perspective to the period.

Myra was one of the most important cities of Lycia throughout the Hellenistic, Roman and Early Byzantine periods. This was not only due to its population, political power and religious significance, especially in the Byzantine period, but also based on its harbor, Andriake, which had a significant role in the Mediterranean trade network. Along the harsh and steep coasts of Lycia, Andriake was one of the rare natural harbors with a fertile hinterland. Being about five kilometers away from Myra, Andriake provides the typical settlement pattern of a harbor, which is not “within the city,” but constitutes a separate settlement functioning as an international harbor. Because antique and medieval Myra has been covered by an alluvial layer of five to nine meters—over which modern Demre lies—we do not have much evidence from that city; however, Andriake, not being a victim of the alluvial flood and the modern settlement, provides much more accessible archaeological remains.

Andriake was mentioned in written sources from the second century BC onwards. Together with Roman and Byzantine sources, archaeological evidence also proves that Andriake was an important commercial harbor for the Mediterranean trade networks: the granarium constructed by Hadrianus is one of the greatest and best-preserved harbor structures of the East Mediterranean. In addition, an agora, two baths, a synagogue, five churches, and workshops and buildings related to maritime trade testify to the material remains of an important settlement that functioned as a harbor. In the reign of Theodosius II, Myra was declared the Metropolis of Lycia and witnessed a comprehensive construction program around the harbor. A second revival in the Byzantine period occurred in the reign of Iustinianos. We do not have any historical and archaeological evidence that Andriake maintained its role as a harbor after the seventh century, probably due to several natural and social catastrophes.
The harbor’s function was not merely to provide for trade in commodities, but it also catered to the pilgrims visiting the holy city of H. Nikolaos, which explains the presence of five churches in the harbor settlement. Moreover, Andriake served as an export-oriented industrial center: it is likely that, following the earthquake of 529, the agora lost its economic significance and that the stores in the west wing were transformed into workshops that produced large amounts of purple dye from the myrex mollusc, to be exported from the harbor.

The Myra-Andriake Excavations, which began in 2009, reveal new information about the site. Excavations have proved that Byzantine Myra survived until the great flood in the late thirteenth century, while Andriake functioned as a harbor only until the seventh century. After the abandonment of Andriake as an active harbor, naval activities for commerce and pilgrimage might have been conducted through another harbor. Taşdibi Bay, a few kilometers east of Andriake, is usually mentioned as the new port of Myra and was used until modern times, but historical and archaeological data have not yet provided any proof.

The sources prove that not only Latin, but also Muslim merchants, most notably Syrians, were active in the Byzantine capital. Referred to as “the place that Muslim merchants use,” the Mitaton is understood as a building complex that included lodgings and storage for goods, as well as a mosque. Some scholars consider it a “Muslim neighborhood.” Scholars have concluded that the Mitaton was located somewhere on the southern shore of the Golden Horn, outside the walls, on the Perama pier and close to the Church of St. Eirene of the Venetians. The literature on the Muslim merchants’ presence in the Byzantine capital also mentions another Islamic shrine in addition to the Mitaton.

The following questions will be considered in this paper: Where should we look for the building or group of buildings defined as Mitaton in today’s topography? From the perspective of medieval architecture, what kind of a building or group of buildings could these have been? Can they be linked to funduqs? This paper will also dwell on the latest findings on the southern shore of the Golden Horn and update our knowledge about the Mitaton.

The recent and ongoing excavation of the Theodosius Harbor at Yenikapı in Istanbul, carried out by Istanbul University under the auspices of the Istanbul Archaeological Museums, is one of the most sensational of the last century, as it has led to the amazing find of 39 Byzantine shipwrecks, some with their complete cargo. Among thousands of other objects related to marine activity and daily life, twent one Byzantine lead seals were discovered. Three of these seals are directly related to trade and will be presented in detail in this paper.

Lydia in Western Asia Minor changed its size and boundaries significantly during ancient and Byzantine times. In the Middle Ages, it was bounded to the North by the Byzantine province of Hellēspontos, to the East by Phrygia, to the South by Caria. In the West, the province Asia cut off Lydia’s connection to the sea, which had originally existed in ancient times. The network of communication roads in Lydia is unknown. Even new manuals are often inaccurate and present only a few routes. The road from Pergamum (Bergama) via Thyateira (Akhisar) to Sardis (Sart) is famous and mentioned often. Furthermore, manuals usually refer to a road from Sardis to Ephesus, sometimes with a detour via Smyrna (İzmir), sometimes—without paying attention to the conditions of the landscape—in a direct way through the Tmōlos Mountains (Boz Dağ). Another road led from Sardis to Philadelphia (Alaşehir) in the Southeast. Even the road from Philadelphia through the valley of the river Cogamus (Alaşehir Çayı) to Laodikeia (Denizli) is well-known. But there were many other routes, documented by various milestones and literary sources. The Life of St. Therapōn for example, a saint living in the days of Emperor Valerianus (r. 253‒260), mentions a road from Sardis to Synaos (Simav) in the Northeast. Inscriptions from different parts of Lydia testify to various toponyms; some of these settlement places must be located close to the roads. Furthermore, some Lydian inscriptions mention occupational groups, such as textile or leather workers, blacksmiths or doctors. They lived in even smaller villages such as Saittai (Sidas Kale) in the Eastern part of the province.

The Byzantines issued both commodity and coinage weights in a number of materials including stone, lead, gold, silver, glass and various copper-alloys. Of these weights, those made of glass and copper-alloy are by far the most numerous. Despite there being a substantial bibliography on Late Roman and Byzantine metrology going back to the nineteenth century, the typology and chronology of Byzantine weights is little understood. This is largely due to a lack of reliable archaeological and epigraphic evidence. This paper, based on the extensive collections in the British Museum, examines the evidence for a typological and dating structure based on a new assessment of the shapes of metal weights. These were produced in three main forms: a truncated sphere, a square, or a disk. Recent excavations suggest that those in the form of a sphere are the earliest—that is, from the third to fifth centuries AD—while the square was the predominant form in the fourth to sixth, and the disk in the seventh to maybe the ninth centuries AD. The continuing problem of the apparent lack of Middle and Late Byzantine weights is also addressed. In addition, this paper will consider what can be deduced from the geographical distribution of Byzantine weights, particularly in the Early Byzantine period, and what, if anything, they tell us of trading patterns.

Prevalent in ancient civilizations, slavery continued to have an important place in Byzantium throughout the Middle Ages. The line of continuity of the Byzantine Empire from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages served as a means of continuity also for the use of the institution of slavery. Nevertheless, this institution underwent considerable changes in view of the geopolitical, social and juridical transformations of the Byzantine Empire. My paper will examine the consequences that these transformations had on the institution of slavery by focusing on the trade and supply of slaves in the Byzantine world.

The changes to the geopolitical Mediterranean map in the Early Middle Ages implied a new commercial reality for Byzantium. In this reality it was no longer the only market for slaves in the Mediterranean, but had to compete with other markets. This competition for slaves led the Byzantine government to manipulate the international commercial distribution of slaves between the eighth and the eleventh centuries to its own advantage. In order to keep its economic hegemony, Byzantium used its strategic geographic position between its three domestic seas—the Black Sea, the Aegean, and the Adriatic—in its international politics. The dynamics of the Byzantine slave market in the High Middle Ages proved to be a consequence of three processes: slave trafficking, definitions of the institution of slavery, and changes in the medieval economic and geopolitical scene.

The web of caravanserais built by the Seljuks in the first half of the thirteenth century was spun from the center at Konya and stretches to the edges of the sultanate. Caravanserais can be combined with contemporaneous bridge building to give us a good idea of the main “trunk roads” of commerce in Seljuk realms in the thirteenth century, but what happened to caravans once they had passed beyond these territories? Caravan roads touched both the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, linking overland travel to the maritime trade then largely in the hands of the Italian merchant republics. We have evidence for Seljuk trade with the Genoese and Venetians, with ports like Samsun and Sinop to the north, and Antalya and Alanya to the south, providing the points of contact and exchange. There were also caravanserai buildings in Ayyubid territories in Syria, and, even though no Artuqid caravanserais survive, monumental bridge building by the Artuqids permits us to link the trunk roads of Seljuk Anatolia to Syria and Northern Mesopotamia. In the Caucasus, evidence is limited to two caravanserais south of Ani; presumably there were more, although no Trapezuntine or Georgian caravanserais survive.

This paper aims to place Seljuk caravanserai and bridge building, and through these, Seljuk commercial activity, in a regional context. In addition to the polities mentioned above, it aims to examine physical and textual evidence for overland trade between the Seljuks and their western neighbour, the Laskarid Empire of Nicaea.

The Book of the Prefect—or, more correctly, the commentary conventionally given on it—is responsible for the traditional misinterpretation of the so-called “Byzantine guild system.” This has more recently been challenged by Gilbert Dagron in The Economic History of Byzantium, which argues for “the ambiguity of the Book of the Eparch—and perhaps of the institutions themselves.” It has also been challenged by George Maniatis, although with noticeably different implications. The traditional pattern, which upheld the enactment of a forced recruitment of the professions into a state corporatism, transposed unto the “Byzantine corporations” those practices that were inevitably described and validated by medievalists in the West. The same anachronism had been committed at the expense of the late Roman Empire’s corpora or systemata. In a previous study, I have tried to establish how the Diocletianic tax reform had a slightly delayed effect of obliging all craftsmen and traders to join professional associations from that moment under Constantine when they were made responsible for distributing and levying their own share of the chrysargyron tax, without necessarily making general those public service obligations that had previously existed for some professions exclusively at Rome (and later Constantinople). In that study, I set out to give a revised definition of the various status positions that coexisted among the Late Roman associations, depending upon the varying grades of obligation (munus) by the different groups towards the imperial state or the cities—the main distinction remaining the one that predated the fiscal reform, i.e., between the corpora bound to the state and ordinary professional collegia. My conclusion was that an accumulation of the previous traditional functions of the professional collegia (funeral, religious, social, professional, civic) existed and that there emerged a new function imposed on the “trades” as self-inspectors of their collective share of taxes.

It will be of interest to acknowledge what survived of the (more or less late) Roman imperial precedents in sixth- to tenth-century Byzantium and to analyze what evolved or was substituted. The concept of munus, including its fiscal meaning, seems to keep its full hermeneutic value to give a more convincing interpretation of the Book of the Prefect. It provides a firm safeguard against any inappropriate connection with the corporative system of the Medieval West. In addition, several lexical survivors may conceal a transformation of the realities that these words are expected to express. Therefore, we should investigate linguistic use together with socio-economic realities. This reasoning will be extended to the comparative study of other legal rules governing trade activities from Late Antiquity through the Byzantine era.

Despite the military disturbances beginning in the early seventh century, contacts—whether in the form of commerce, diplomatic missions, armies meeting in the course of campaigns, or pilgrims—between the Byzantine Empire and the West continued throughout the following centuries. The ancient city of Ephesus in Western Asia Minor, which was a major commercial hub during the Roman period, retained its importance. Thanks to its location on the coast of Western Asia Minor, Ephesus was a part of the long-distance trade networks during the Byzantine period. From the late tenth century onwards, in addition to the east-west-oriented long-distance trade networks, Ephesus started to benefit from a new, north-south-oriented trade network between Byzantium and Egypt. Moreover, it was a center for regional trade conducted between the Aegean islands and the ports of Western Asia Minor.

Immediately after the Turkish conquest of this region in the early fourteenth century, Ephesus became (once again) one of the most important harbors of Western Asia Minor and was visited by merchants from Venice, Genoa, Ragusa, Rhodes, Messina, Cyprus, Barcelona, and so on. This paper aims to elucidate the role of Ephesus in those trade networks in light of recent textual and archaeological discoveries. It covers the Byzantine and post-Byzantine periods to investigate the shifts in the networks and patterns of trade and endeavors to place these shifts in a larger framework.

A common emphasis in the study of Constantinople’s economy is on the city as center of consumption, enjoying an inflow of commodities from many regions. The city’s role in trade between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea has been recognized, but so far not investigated. The present paper will precisely focus upon its functions as transit station and distribution center between these two regions.

The following issues will be examined: Since when in the last centuries of Byzantium did the flow and variety of commodities passing through Constantinople from one region to the other increase, and why? What were these commodities? What was the city’s input in transit trade? This depended on several factors: the operation of agents, middlemen and interpreters; supplies for ships; accommodation for merchants; transportation within the city; storage; transshipment; and the processing of raw materials re-exported to other destinations. Finally, an attempt will be made to assess the contribution of transit trade to the city’s economy in the late Byzantine period.

The characteristic blend of Greco-Roman and Oriental influences essential to Byzantine art is also reflected in the techniques, forms, and decorations of Constantinopolitan jewelry. Ornaments produced within the context of the religious, ideological, and cultural heritage of Byzantium and its influences permeated the empire and a vast geography beyond its borders.

Jewelers producing ornaments for court notables and those who provided for the less wealthy populace were located in different areas of Constantinople; their products differed in many ways, in particular in terms of the materials they used. Court jewelers operated close to the Great Palace and covered imperial demands. Jeweler workshops that provided for the general populace and their shops were located on the Mese, which stretched all the way from the Milion at the southwest of the Hagia Sophia to the Golden Gate. Although we have some very significant jewelry products surviving from the Byzantine period, we lack knowledge about more common products supported by concrete findings. Our knowledge is mostly limited to visual and textual sources.

Objects uncovered by the Yenikapı Theodosian Harbor excavations, conducted under the auspices of the Istanbul Archaeological Museums since 2004, are surviving concrete evidence of the sophisticated Constantinopolitan jewelry about which we know from textual and visual sources. These objects include rings, medallions, necklaces and fragments, of very diverse forms and decoration, such as golden fibulas which can be considered a type of status display item generally used by high-ranking soldiers, friendship rings for men and women, and rings with inscriptions that ask for divine protection. Some fibulae and rings bear the names and monograms of the owners. Also found at the excavations were numerous talismans, pendants, and relics worn for apotropaic purposes, as well as bronze bracelets, rings, and belt buckles belonging to the not-so-wealthy populace. These finds not only help us learn about the major techniques and forms characteristic of Constantinopolitan jewelry in the Early to Middle Byzantine periods, but also about beliefs and practices in Byzantine society, at least those that bear images of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and saints.

These findings revealed at one of the most important harbors of Byzantium shed light upon the wide-spread admiration that the skills of the Constantinopolitan master jewelers drew to the capital and the demand that they created. Some of the more ostentatious prototypes among the finds are significant in that they attest their influence on Western jewelry; they were serially produced from different materials, keeping in mind the purchasing power of various social strata. The variety of the materials and artistic quality is also an expression of the variety of demand.

The subject of this paper is the analysis of the material culture (especially pottery finds) from four Byzantine/medieval urban centers in the Eastern Mediterranean: Butrint in Albania, Athens in Greece, and Ephesus and Tarsus in Turkey. The distribution of Byzantine and medieval ceramics in these four coastal towns provides new information on patterns of production, trade and consumption, both in a geographical perspective (per settlement) and from a chronological point of view (over various periods). The analysis of pottery types, shapes and technologies sheds light on the contacts that these four coastal towns entertained both with neighboring sites in the hinterland, as well as with other production and consumption centers around the Mediterranean.

When wandering across the site of the Marmaray and Metro excavations underway since 2004 under the auspices of the Istanbul Archaeological Museums, beneath one’s feet there lie the fragments of thousands of earthenware jugs. One is likely to only take a passing glance at the broken fragments and then shift focus to the architectural elements and the Byzantine-period wooden ships, considered among the most important recent archaeological discoveries. Yet those ships were built to carry the very pottery one may deem uninteresting at first. These pots—the jars of Canaan, the amphiphoreus/amphoreus of the Greek world, the megarikas of the Byzantines, the kabakulaks of the Ottomans—were used to carry liquid and solid foodstuffs via the marine trade routes to almost all ports of the Eastern and Western Mediterranean and the Black Sea.

In this paper, I will follow the story of these containers from the monasteries and villages of Ganos, where they were produced, to their arrival in Constantinople. The major market for the Ganosian wines was the capital, which was not only a center of consumption, but also of distribution of goods to lesser markets. The most recent archaeological findings from the Yenikapı excavations have provided more detailed information on the wine production/export capacity carried in Ganos amphorae (designated Günsenin I in the literature).

Numerous references to foreign medicinal substances in Byzantine medical writing point to a very frequent use of such substances in Byzantium. References to medicinal items of foreign origin in Byzantine medical writing appear mainly in lists of simple drugs/botanical lexica and formulae/recipes in Byzantine medical writing. A comprehensive examination of medicinal items imported to the Byzantine Empire from its eastern frontier from the eighth to the end of the eleventh centuries contributes greatly to the study of commerce between Byzantines and Muslims in the Middle Ages. A thorough investigation reveals information on availability and possibly transportation routes of drugs, and provides answers to the questions such as whether the medicinal items were finished products or raw materials; and whether they all originated from within the Islamic Near East, or some of them were transported from South Asia and Africa.

The unification of the European and Mediterranean worlds through trade entered a particularly profitable period after the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Thousands of documents, mostly preserved in Italian archives, bear testament to this phenomenon. Merchants and entrepreneurs figure prominently in these documents. This paper will look at a specific category of entrepreneurs, namely physicians active in trade. In the same period the professionalization of medical practitioners was underway, making them more visible than ever before: with their university degrees (as attested by their title, magister) as well as a growing specialization (attested, for example, through the designation physicus or cirurgicus), they are easy to spot within the source record. Putting together a body of evidence from published documents from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, I will survey their operations, chart their careers and explore their role within international trade networks. Furthermore, I will examine a particular type of commodity, substances destined for the preparation of drugs. These came mostly from the Islamic East; hence, I will explore their trade and link it to the presence of physicians, in the Levant as well as in Western Europe.

It has often been asserted that the legal structures and social attitudes of the Byzantine Empire were deeply inimical to commerce and trade. This paper will argue that the Roman-Byzantine legal tradition was in fact highly sensitive to the interests of merchants and commerce and that many of the regulations concerning trade found in the Byzantine sources have been fundamentally misunderstood. Not only members of the imperial government, but also the Byzantine aristocracy were actively involved in both commerce and mercantile credit arrangements, which did much to bolster the broader economy. Viewed through the prism of patron-client relations such arrangements could be made to appear socially respectable for even the grandest of aristocrats. Even many donations to religious foundations were driven by essentially economic motives.

Taking part in trade is supposed to be contradictory to the monastic ideal. Nevertheless, as large monasteries with important properties were founded, consequently production of goods exceeded what they needed. Therefore, monks, Athonite as well as those from other monasteries, were involved in trade, not only locally, but also towards Constantinople. Emperors tried to issue regulations concerning this trade, but these proved to be difficult to maintain. This paper will deal with the attempts made by monasteries to promote their ability to take part in local, regional or Constantinopolitan trade, as well as the vain efforts of the authorities to limit their trade to what was necessary for the monasteries to receive the products they needed and to sell their surplus. In fact, there were contradictions in imperial policy, as monasteries obtained tax exemptions for their boats that helped them in expanding their commercial activities. From another point of view, several Constantinopolitan monasteries developed skalai in the city harbor and were thus involved in the development of the city’s trade, profiting from the commercial expansion.

The seals of kommerkiarioi are among the most commented-upon seals left by Byzantine civil servants. They have attracted scholars’ attention because they are a good source for learning place names and commercial roads. They are especially useful wherever written sources are lacking. The French collections of seals (the former Zacos collection and the private collection of N. Thierry) hold unpublished or barely mentioned seals of kommerkiarioi. Their publication will contribute to our knowledge of the networks of kommerkiarioi and of the places where they were established from the seventh to the eleventh centuries. We shall examine how the presence of kommerkiarioi on Samos and Rhodes, for example, enables us to determine the role of the Aegean islands in Byzantine trade.

A short time before the conquest of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204, Alexios and David Komnenos, the grandchildren of the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos I Komnenos (1183–1185), captured Trebizond with the aid of their aunt Thamara, Queen of Georgia, and established the Empire of Trebizond. In the beginning, the Empire of Trebizond aimed to dominate the Black Sea and to expand towards the West, but it had to abandon these plans soon thereafter, due to the Empire of Nicaea establishing an effective dominion and due to Seljuk rule. After the conquest of Sinope by the Seljuks in 1214, the Empire of Trebizond tried to maintain its political and economic presence as a local dynasty. The arrival of the Mongols in the Near East profoundly upset the political equilibrium in the region.

Subsequent to the Mongol invasion, the Empire of Trebizond also declared its allegiance to them. The only political goal of the emperors of Trebizond during the thirteenth century was to reconquer Sinope and to clear the path to Constantinople. Alexios, the emperor of Trebizond (his real name was Iōannēs [Ιωάννης], but he later adopted the name of his older brother who died young, or of his grandfather to honor him), ascended the throne in December 1349 and wanted to revive his empire. The fact that he was brought up in the palace in Constantinople and that he maintained a friendship with Ioannes Kantakuzenos the Byzantine emperor had a major role in the reshaping of the economic policies of the Empire of Trebizond. It is known that, at the end of the thirteenth century, the emperors of Trebizond made a special effort to improve the commercial relations with the Venetians and granted privileges to merchants from this republic. In this paper, I will assess the chrysobulls granted by Alexios III Komnenos the Emperor of Trebizond to the Republic of Venice, especially on the basis of the trade agreement between Trebizond and Venice that was revived towards the end of the thirteenth century.

Throughout the history of art, colors were used as a way to express meanings attributed to them. In keeping with this theme, this paper uses the red coloring of the names of the major ports in medieval portolan maps as a starting point. Building on the assumption that those Western Anatolian ports whose names are written in red are important centers, I will look for clues in the historical documents to support this assessment and discuss the position of this region in the Mediterranean trade networks under the control of the Italian Maritime Republics.

Although in scientific debates the emergence of portolan maps is dated to the beginning of the thirteenth century, the earliest surviving artefacts are from the end of the same century; the maps in general become more prevalent from the fourteenth century onwards. If we are to accept the fact that these maps with their sophisticated navigation systematics are based on an older tradition and accumulated knowledge, it will follow that the important port-cities in Western Anatolia during the last years of Byzantine rule should be considered in this context. Accordingly, the most notable ports from the North to the South would be Atramyttion, Phokaea (New and Old), Smyrna, Altoluogo (Ephesos), Anaia, and Palatia.

The emergence of portolan maps owes to the development of trade; similarly, the classification of ports as important or unimportant destinations as indicated on the maps was linked to the commercial potential of those towns. Furthermore, the ports that were listed on the documents concerning the privileges granted to the Italian Maritime Republics by the Byzantine emperors and where Italian merchants could engage in free trade bestow a similar importance on these towns in the context of the aggressive trade policies of the Italians, as their names are written in red on the portolan maps. While archaeological findings provide significant information, historical documents are not really helpful concerning the role of the Western Anatolian shores in the Mediterranean trade dominated by the Italian Maritime Republics. For instance, the notary record from that period is silent on this matter, which does not match the importance of the city names marked in red on the maps.

The capital Constantinople was always an important center where goods from all over the world were gathered and exchanged. There were other geographical locations in the imperial territories that also came into the spotlight. In the historical documents and the research done by scholars, the prominent centers were primarily located on the Greek mainland, the Aegean islands, the northern shores of the Aegean including Thessaloniki, the northern shores of the Sea of Marmara, and the northern shores of the Black Sea, where the Italians were able to venture from the thirteenth century onwards.

The fourteenth century witnessed the end of the Byzantine and the beginning of the Ottoman rule in Western Anatolia; yet, in the context of the portolan maps produced in that century, the ports listed above retained their significance and became important commercial centers frequented by Western merchants. Perhaps the reason for this may be the past and then-existing commercial potential of these ports. (What really transforms a seaside settlement from a simple jetty into a port-city is its commercial potential.) Any arguments about the position of Western Anatolian port-towns almost unavoidably rely on Italian documents, because of the predominantly Latin character of the commercial activities in this period.

Ultimately, this paper explores whether it is possible to confirm the legends on the portolan maps from the period that saw the end of the Byzantine rule in Western Anatolia with the help of historical texts.

Salt (halati[on]) is one of the oldest basic food seasonings. It is an essential mineral for the stability of human and animal health. The necessary adequate intake for the human body is estimated at 3.0-3.75 gram per day. Since Antiquity salt had (and still has) also a great importance for food preservation. During the Byzantine period salting (taricheuein) was the most important method of preserving vegetables, fish, and meat. Salt was not only an important nutritional element, but also a necessary constituent of many manufacturing processes.

In Byzantium, salt was mainly produced in marine salinas (halykai) along the coastlands, lagoons and marshy river estuaries of Southeastern Europe and Asia Minor, especially in the Aegean, the Marmara Sea and the Black Sea. Another important place of salt production was the Tuz Gölü (Tatta limne, also Karateia) in Central Asia Minor, with a surface of more than 1,600 km2 one of the largest salt lakes in the world.

This paper aims to present an overview of the salt supply for Medieval Constantinople after the sixth century. During this period the Byzantine capital most of the time had more than 100,000 (but probably not more than 200,000) inhabitants, including monks, nuns and soldiers of the imperial army. Some of the following topics will be discussed: necessary quantities for nutrition and other purposes, information coming from medical and dietetic sources, places and methods of production, transportation and logistics, economic, legal and fiscal aspects, and religious and ideological background.

Anatolia is central to the political and physical geography of the Mediterranean world, as well as to the history of humanity. Maritime trade developed naturally, as island towns began to trade with each other and the mainland, quickly becoming central to the economy of the established Anatolian states. Since the Aegean Sea connects the Mediterranean, the Marmara, and the Black Sea, it has always held a central role in the history of maritime trade. Hundreds of safe bays, natural harbors, and a myriad of islands along the shoreline of the Aegean provided a favorable environment for ancient seafaring. As the population of metropolitan cities increased, their basic needs could only be covered by products from other settlements, and shipment of those products by sea came to be preferred since it was cheaper and faster.

Most of the shipwrecks found to date are those of the Byzantine period. On almost every shoreline of Anatolia, artefacts, anchors or objects from this period can be found. Most of the shipwrecks discovered on the coast of the Aegean Sea date from the sixth to twelfth centuries AD. Several shipwrecks were found during the five years of our survey. This result shows the region’s economic loss during transportation. Moreover, the resulting evidence also identifies maritime trade routes.

The Byzantine marketplace was a microcosm reflective of the fundamental features and preoccupations of the society at various points in time. Exploration of its material culture offers an intriguing glimpse into daily life beyond the simple acquisition or sale of goods in these centers of commerce. At the core of this examination, which focuses primarily on Constantinople, is the system of beliefs and superstitions that determined the behavior of people, the monumental setting of the marketplace, and the decorative repertoire of its material culture.

As in other aspects of Byzantine daily life, the major preoccupation in the marketplace was to attain heavenly grace and protection. The Byzantines implored heavenly grace not only in the hope of obtaining blessings for their transactions and protection against fraudulent practices, but also for protection of the traded goods themselves, especially food, drinks, medicines, and other health-related substances. In conjunction with their constant recourse to divine assistance, the Byzantines surrounded themselves with apotropaic devices intended to cast out the demons that they believed interfered in so many aspects of their lives. This constant search for grace and security connects life in the marketplace and is revealed through an examination of the exercise of trade, the monuments of the marketplace, and the written sources on marketplace settings, the myriads who frequented them (such as traders, craftspeople, local women, men, and children, clergy, monks, and so on), and the events and activities that took place there.

Commercial activity appears as a crucial element of social and economic life in the Empire of Trebizond. The Italian notarial sources illuminate to some degree the nature of the commercial class operating in Trebizond and the city’s intimate connections to other cities in the Pontos and the hinterland of Asia Minor. Commerce provides a suitable departure point to study the Empire of Trebizond, not only because Trebizond was a highly active port, but also because commerce makes manifest the degree to which the Empire of Trebizond was integrated into the Mediterranean world at large. The identities of the merchants and their activities are representative of the cosmopolitan nature of Trebizond. In Genoese notarial sources, Armenian, Greek, Italian, and Muslim merchants are documented to have engaged in trade there. The multi-ethnic makeup of the commercial class illustrates that the Empire of Trebizond was a geographical locus where integration, communication, and commerce occurred. The existence of merchants from different ethnic backgrounds reinforces the impression that Trebizond was the marketplace of the world. Nevertheless, the role of commerce in this city’s economic life remains to be fully explored. Was commerce an integral element, or was it only an insignificant activity in a more traditional non-commerce-based economy?

The Empire of Trebizond does not appear to have been merely a port drawing together a diverse body of merchants for commercial purposes. What remains of Trapezuntine art and culture displays signs of a deeper interaction between the empire and regional ethnic elements. Georgian, Armenian, Seljuk, and Western influences on Trapezuntine art have been noted by scholars. On another note, the syncretic art and literature of the Empire of Trebizond reflect the ideological aspirations of the Grand Komnenoi.

Byzantine Constantinople depended on commercial imports for its survival, and much of the empire’s wealth derived from the city’s importance as a center of exchange and production, for export as well as internal consumption. Yet the people who handled this commerce have not been studied as a social group. This paper pulls together the limited evidence for the place of merchants within the society of the imperial city from Late Antiquity to the Later Middle Ages. It will attempt to address the following issues: collective changes due to changing external circumstances, degree of specialization, availability of capital, the relationship with the court aristocracy, and their importance relative to provincial and foreign merchants.

One of the most important of the salvage excavations associated with the Marmaray Project, the archaeological excavation in the Sirkeci region, may not match those at Yenikapı in terms of sensational finds, but it has produced very important archaeological results. The excavations undertaken in the area where the first harbors of Istanbul were located brought to light significant findings concerning the harbors known to be in that area, but so far not confirmed by concrete archaeological findings.
Explorations conducted in Sirkeci in four different locations have revealed findings and relics, which suggest that the northern entrance of the Marmaray Sirkeci Station and the Bostancıbaşı east ventilation shaft near the present-day Sirkeci Train Station were inside the “Prosphorion” or “Phosphorion” harbor, one of the oldest of the city.

Ancient sources written by Eustathius (Comm. in Dion. Per. 142-143) and Stephanos of Byzantion (Ethnika s.v. Bosporos) quote Phaborinos, indicating that the harbor of Byzantion is the Phosphoros (Prosphorion) in the fifth district. The ancient authors emphasize that the harbor earned its name during the siege of Byzantion by Philippos II, King of Macedonia, in 339 BC. According to these sources, Philippos II’s soldiers during the night were secretly digging a tunnel under the walls. However, one night Philippos’ ploy was discovered by the Byzantion sentries, thanks to Hecate the Goddess of the Moon. This was interpreted by the populace of Byzantion as the moon goddess’ vigilance at night, delivering the city’s populace to light and salvation. Accordingly, the pier upon which the moon’s reflection fell was named “bringer/bearer of light” (Phosphoros).

One of the city’s commercial harbors since its foundation, it was surrounded by important structures in this and the following periods. For instance, the harbor located in the fifth district of the city in the East Roman period was surrounded by livestock markets, granaries and oil depots. The ropes and pulleys found in the north entrance area, and especially the remains of the pier exposed at the eastern shaft, have proven that the excavations were indeed in a location within the harbor. The ground surveys conducted in Sirkeci before the excavations have revealed that the ancient shoreline was some 200-250 meters inland when compared with today’s topography. In fact, the excavations showed that the ancient shoreline almost reached the present-day tramway line.

Furthermore, explorations in this area have revealed more Classical and Hellenistic finds than the sum of previous excavations and research could uncover. Especially notable finds include amphorae from different cities and black varnished ceramics. In addition to the finds and architectural remains from the early periods of Istanbul, the excavations have brought to light numerous Roman and Byzantine remains. The small finds include numerous lamps, coins, and pottery, more extraordinary ones, such as medical tools, and organic finds such as wood and leather. Ongoing assessment of the thousands of finds and observations will produce more detailed results.

The paper discusses the regulation and taxation of the transport and trade of goods and attempts to gauge their significance for state finances in the period from the late eleventh to the mid-fourteenth century. It examines the aims and results of trade regulations and considers the significance of tax revenue obtained from transport and trade or conceded by means of exemptions to towns, institutions or individuals. It also studies the administrative mechanism charged with taxing and overseeing trade, as well as the way in which administrators implemented imperial decrees.

Dating to the fifth to tenth centuries AD, 36 shipwrecks have been discovered in the Theodosian Harbor of Istanbul, in the district of Yenikapı. Under the auspices of the Istanbul University Yenikapı Shipwrecks Project, carried out by Istanbul University’s Department of Conservation of Marine Archaeological Objects, our team has undertaken the recording and dismantling of 27 shipwrecks, as well as the conservation/restoration and reconstruction projects of 31 shipwrecks in total. Shipwrecks of various types and sizes have been exposed since 2005, the majority still being under study.

During the construction of the Marmaray railway and metro stations in Yenikapı between 2004 and 2012, no fewer than 36 shipwrecks dating from the Middle Byzantine period were revealed. The ongoing archaeological excavations have confirmed that Constantinople’s main harbor, Portus Theodosiacus, was once situated in this former natural bay, now silted by the ancient Lykos (Bayrampaşa) River and lying about 300 meters from today’s shoreline.

The ships from the Theodosian harbor display a moment frozen in time and have made tremendous contributions to information on shipbuilding technology and development during Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The Istanbul Archaeological Museums turned to the Istanbul University’s Department of Conservation of Marine Archaeological Objects to deal with most of the shipwrecks, and the department’s chair and project director, Ufuk Kocabaş, and a hard-working team of department assistants, full-time specialists, and Istanbul University graduate students have been working for over six years on the active construction site in tent-covered pits to carefully document and recover the shipwrecks. Undoubtedly, the shipwrecks constitute the most remarkable artefact group, especially for nautical archaeologists. The 36 ships can be divided into three groups: long warships (galleys); sea-going traders; and small, local trading vessels.

The Yenikapı excavations conducted under the auspices of the Istanbul Archaeological Museums as a result of the Marmaray and Metro projects have provided a rich source of knowledge, based on the results concerning the historical port of Constantinople, the discovery of Byzantine ships, rich findings from almost all periods, and cultural layers accumulated over 8,500 years. These excavations in the Harbor of Theodosius, the largest commercial transportation center of Constantinople between the fourth and seventh centuries AD, have revealed 35 shipwrecks dating from the fifth to eleventh centuries AD, as well as thousands of small finds which can shed light on the ship-building technology and commercial connections of the period. Of the 35 sunken ships discovered in the harbor, four still had their cargoes. The amphorae recovered from the sea floor and scattered from the ship designated Yenikapı 1 (YK 1), dated to the end of the tenth or the beginning of the eleventh century and found in the southeastern part of the Marmaray site at a depth of 0,8 to 1,63 meters, give an idea of the ship’s cargo. The ship was carrying roof tiles and cement to be used in construction in the city. Around and on the small sailing trade ship called Yenikapı 12 (YK 12), sunk at a depth of 1.30 meters at the excavation site and dated to the ninth century AD, were found numerous intact and fragmented amphorae. A brazier used for cooking, together with its lid, cooking pots, pitchers, jugs, a basket full of cherries or sour cherries, and lots of olive stones found in a section identified as the ship’s pantry provide important information on the daily life of the sailors in that period. Moreover, the findings allow us to determine in which season the ship had sunk. Yenikapı 22 (YK 22), found at the southwest corner of the Metro excavation site, at a depth of 4.11 to 5.22 meters and dated to the fifth century AD is the last of those discovered in the harbor along with its cargo on board. It carried 127 amphorae—either intact, or in such a condition that they could be reconstructed—stacked side by side or back to back in its double-bottom, along with numerous amphora fragments and various wooden artefacts. What sets this ship apart from the others is the fact that the amphorae in its cargo were of a variety of different types and from different regions.

The examination of the cargoes of these ships discovered in the Harbor of Theodosius, dating between the fifth and eleventh centuries, and the typological characteristics of these material remains originating from a vast area, including the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, will provide knowledge on numerous subjects, mainly on the commercial connections of that period.

Recent studies have shown that the city of Olympos located on the Mediterranean coast of Southwestern Anatolia was an important settlement over the course of history. The city was located in the region of Lycia in ancient times and within the theme of Kibyration in the Byzantine period. It sits in a valley and owes its connection to the sea not only to its location on the Mediterranean shore, but also to the presence of the seawall beside the Göksu River running through the city and its associated structures. The area’s port-cities developed in order to provide logistical support for the transport of goods and to engage in various commercial activities, making Lycia an important center during the Roman period. It retained its importance in the Early Byzantine period, when the trade routes were redefined during the general reorganization.

An examination of the small finds and the brick and roof-tiles monogrammed and marked with workshop symbols, which were revealed during the Olympos excavations, can yield important information about trade. The coinage weights that were an important element of trade, stamped unguantariums, the amphorae, and especially the red-undercoat ceramics prevalent until the seventh century AD provide information about trade in Olympos, and the port with its rather unique setup shows that the town was a logistical stopping point. The fact that, of the rich variety of Late Roman amphorae recently discovered, only so few were identified in Lycia until now is an important clue about trade in Olympos. This paper will examine trade activities in Olympos during the Byzantine period, based on new findings.

Livistros and Rhodamne (LR) is a vernacular romance in verse, composed probably in the middle of the thirteenth century at the court of the Laskarid emperors in Nicaea. This paper will focus on the extent of trade connections that the Nicaean state established with both East and West through the window of this romance. The Nicaean economic policy is ordinarily understood to be conservative in its trade relations with foreigners and protective of its own local industries. There is evidence in favor of both economic conservatism and the presence of free foreign trade. However, in the secondary literature, the focus has been on the policies of John III and economic protectionism. LR, on the other hand, offers a different reading of the Nicaean economy, one which was open to influences from western economic thinking as well as the goods that both East and West had to offer. Luxurious goods (including exotic animals), some of which are mentioned for the first time in the thirteenth century, will be placed in their historical context, illuminating the less pronounced aspect of the Nicaean economy that made Nicaea’s residents proud of “the plenty” to which foreigners contributed with their goods.

The paper will be the first analysis of LR from an economic perspective. It is also an important contribution to the scholarship on the Nicaean state’s economic policy, which so far has been viewed as self-sufficient and xenophobic.

Since Maurice Lombard’s pioneering articles (1958, 1959) that outlined the crucial importance of wood for ship-building in the Islamic world, Byzantinists have shown little interest in the subject, but for the notable exception of Archie Dunn in his reference study on “Woodland and scrubland in the Byzantine world” (1992), which however is centered on exploitation and the environmental context. In fact, wood was not only essential for naval construction, and hence for Byzantine defense and trade, but also as a material for building and other crafts, and, last but not least, a source of energy for private and public needs. This paper will consider evidence for the geography of forests in Byzantium and their exploitation, as well as for trading in wood within the Byzantine Empire and beyond its frontiers. It will distinguish between local and regional trade notably for firewood and long-distance trade of timber, mainly for ship-building. The second part will deal with regulations of wood exploitation and trading, especially the limits on internal trade imposed on monasteries, and the several interdictions of export to Byzantium’s enemies.