Échanges et consommation

Abstract

Abstract. With the expansion of research on Late Antiquity in the early 80’, the question of the datation of finds was a task that could not be escaped, for the advancement of these studies. In Provence and Languedoc, on the credit of the CATHMA programme (Céramique de l’Antiquité tardive et du haut Moyen Âge) which had this ambition, about fifteen reports have been devoted to the finalization of a typochronological reference pattern. In connection with the development of urban excavations, and as well in the countryside, this activity could use new discoveries and in turn help to work out a fine dating pattern. The stratigraphical data given by these excavations constituted a decisive step. A preliminary Dictionnaire des Céramiques antiques gave a large place to these Late southern productions and to Mediterranean imports. The book is not complete and now out-of-print; it should be published again and reactualized with important new evidence. A collective project has been working also in Rhône-Alpes on a chronological typopological reference system and more recently several surveys, on a larger area, were carried out on adornments. This research had effects in several Mediterranean areas. From Tunisia to the Near East amphorae and pottery fabrics and glass workshops have been located or re-examined with the help of new methods of study. Consequently, from now on, it is possible to propose fine datations up to 50 years, even within a quarter of a century, at least until the 6th century. Markers get poor afterwards and there is still much to do, especially to confirm and determine a number of points, due to systematic radiocarbone datation. This improvement of chronological criteras allow to escape approximative interpretations. Outside pottery studies bringing precise datation, more basically one had to examine the distribution of distant imports as of regional products and to follow their ebb and flow. Thus a history of trade is gradually emerging, avoiding presuppositions and stereotypes of a weakened economy in Late Antiquity.