Pottery as Evidence for Trade in Medieval Cyrenaica

Abstract

The use of pottery distributions to identify trade contacts is one of the most important tools in the archaeologist's repertoire. Recent examples of such studies, concentrating on the classical period in Cyrenaica, have produced evidence which provides valuable new insights into changing trade patterns for which there is precious little historical information. There is, at present, a debate over Cyrenaica's trading contacts during the classical period in which Fulford has proposed a definite bias towards trade with the eastern Mediterranean (Fulford 1989) whilst Lloyd has challenged the lack of emphasis given to Italian imports (Lloyd forthcoming). Abulafia's reassessment of the Pisan bacini has likewise stimulated debate on the development of trade contacts, this time in the medieval period (Abulafia 1985). Such studies rely upon two points; the first is a well-documented corpus of material and the second is a detailed background knowledge of the wares and fabrics in general circulation to which the corpus can be related. On both points medieval archaeologists are clearly still at a disadvantage to those working on the classical period, and an attempt to understand Cyrenaica's medieval trade contacts from its ceramic assemblages cannot therefore achieve the same detail as, for example, Fulford's work (1989) has done. Nonetheless, an examination of the material which is available, and a discussion of its significance, is the intention of this paper.