Weavers, Merchants and the Taxman: The Changing Socio-economic Contexts of Textile Circulation in the Late Antique Mediterranean

Historical Atlas of Central Europe

This paper begins with an accusation of theft. 'The fall of the Roman empire' is a common, indeed standard, phrase used to refer to the effects of events such as the sack of Rome in 4io, and the deposing of Emperor Romulus Augus tulus in 476. Yet these events are relevant only to the fall of the western Roman empire. Of course everyone knows this; some authors even using the first formu lation and then changing to the second. What makes this self-deception of 'the fall of the Roman empire' possible, especially as we also all know that the eastern Roman empire continued beyond the fifth century, via Justinian in the sixth, until I453? Part of the answer seems to be that we-or at least those of us writing within the anglophone tradition-obscure the Roman status of the eastern empire by referring to it as the Byzantine empire, a term never as far as I know used by the rulers of that empire themselves. The combined effect of using 'Roman empire' for 'western Roman empire' and 'Byzantine empire' for'eastern Roman empire' is to deprive the eastern Roman empire of its romanitas (the 'theft' of my introduction) and, in turn, to make the West appear the sole inheritor of the Roman tradition. I have introduced the paper with this observation because the end of antiquity in the West is a fulcrum in arguments about the origins of Europe, and because any discussion of those origins involves well-known terms and phrases which may allow more than one meaning. In fact, it is likely that there is not a single concept of any importance in this paper which has not been the subject of debate. This is so not least with the concept of the continent of Europe, since Europe is not a con tinent (in the sense of being separate and contained), but rather a region of Eurasia. Europe is never referred to as a subcontinent, as India is, despite the vastly greater barrier represented by the Himalayas than by the Urals or the Don. Taking Europe to mean the culture identified with Europe for the last few centuries and in the modern world, the most prominent candidates for its origins are the Bronze Age, ancient Greece, the Roman empire, late antiquity in the West, the Carolingian dynasty, the Ottonian dynasty, and finally the Renaissance (or, after prehistory, one might say, the Greeks, the Romans, the barbarians, the Franks, the Saxons, and the Italians). All have been proposed as originators at various points over the last century; deciding between them is not a matter of establishing one right answer and six wrong ones, so much as weighing different criteria against one another. To me the evidence suggests that three criteria in particular are crucial, namely (a) cultural characteristics that are identifiable over an extended length of time; (b) an awareness of the concept of Europe; and (c) signs of a coherent process leading to the culture of present-day Europe.

This paper begins with an accusation of theft. 'The fall of the Roman empire' is a common, indeed standard, phrase used to refer to the effects of events such as the sack of Rome in 4io, and the deposing of Emperor Romulus Augus tulus in 476. Yet these events are relevant only to the fall of the western Roman empire. Of course everyone knows this; some authors even using the first formu lation and then changing to the second. What makes this self-deception of 'the fall of the Roman empire' possible, especially as we also all know that the eastern Roman empire continued beyond the fifth century, via Justinian in the sixth, until I453? Part of the answer seems to be that we-or at least those of us writing within the anglophone tradition-obscure the Roman status of the eastern empire by referring to it as the Byzantine empire, a term never as far as I know used by the rulers of that empire themselves. The combined effect of using 'Roman empire' for 'western Roman empire' and 'Byzantine empire' for'eastern Roman empire' is to deprive the eastern Roman empire of its romanitas (the 'theft' of my introduction) and, in turn, to make the West appear the sole inheritor of the Roman tradition. I have introduced the paper with this observation because the end of antiquity in the West is a fulcrum in arguments about the origins of Europe, and because any discussion of those origins involves well-known terms and phrases which may allow more than one meaning. In fact, it is likely that there is not a single concept of any importance in this paper which has not been the subject of debate. This is so not least with the concept of the continent of Europe, since Europe is not a con tinent (in the sense of being separate and contained), but rather a region of Eurasia. Europe is never referred to as a subcontinent, as India is, despite the vastly greater barrier represented by the Himalayas than by the Urals or the Don. Taking Europe to mean the culture identified with Europe for the last few centuries and in the modern world, the most prominent candidates for its origins are the Bronze Age, ancient Greece, the Roman empire, late antiquity in the West, the Carolingian dynasty, the Ottonian dynasty, and finally the Renaissance (or, after prehistory, one might say, the Greeks, the Romans, the barbarians, the Franks, the Saxons, and the Italians). All have been proposed as originators at various points over the last century; deciding between them is not a matter of establishing one right answer and six wrong ones, so much as weighing different criteria against one another. To me the evidence suggests that three criteria in particular are crucial, namely (a) cultural characteristics that are identifiable over an extended length of time; (b) an awareness of the concept of Europe; and (c) signs of a coherent process leading to the culture of present-day Europe.

<i>The Canadian Excavations at Anemurium in Cilicia</i>. By James Russell, with contributions from C.W.J. Eliot, Hector Williams, Sheila Campbell, Nigel Kennell, and Thomas Boyd (Archéologie et Histoire Romaine 45). Toulouse, Éditions Mergoil 2021. Pp. 155. €36.97. ISBN 978-2-35518-117-7 (paper).

Trade and the End of Antiquity

This book examines the relationship between the Roman Empire, the Empire of Sasanian Iran, and their Arab clients, the Jafnids, Nasrids, and Hujrids, at the end of antiquity. Building on recent work in the field, it offers new conclusions about the role played by these two empires in the development of Arab political and cultural identity before Islam, and places the Jafnids, Nasrids, and Hujrids within the framework of current debates on the history and culture of Late Antiquity. Exploring three distinct areas — religious and cultural life (particularly Christianity), political activity, and the role of Old Arabic, the work traces the increasing political and cultural visibility of Arab elites at the edges of the Roman and Sasanian empires, and explains these changes from the perspective of the effects and influences of imperial alliance. In its exploration of how some aspects important for the later development of Muslim Arab identity were embedded in the context provided by the two empires of Rome and Sasanian Iran, the study emphasises the importance of the world of Late Antiquity for the our understanding of Arab history and identity.

Reconstruction of mining activities in the Western Alps during the past 2500 years from natural archives

Radioactive Isotope Ratios as a Novel Method of Ancient Pottery Analysis: Ostrowite Archaeological Site Data

This chapter examines the area to the south‐west of the Blackdown and Quantock Hills—‐in Devon and Cornwall—‐which are shown to have marked a major boundary in landscape character since at least the Roman period. Whilst this may in part account for the very different way that the landscape developed in the medieval period, this region should not be seen as backward or remote: around the eighth century it saw a significant intensification in how the landscape was exploited that mirrors developments elsewhere across southern England.

In the two decades following its 1980 independence, Zimbabwe's gendered social and political transformation seemed, on the face of it, to be characterised by a swinging pendulum of state-led progress on women's issues followed by a period of back-sliding on earlier commitments. However, upon closer examination, the state's commitment to women's issues was always ambivalent, at best. If the story of gendered social and political transformation begins during the decade-long liberation war that preceded independence, the contradictory gender ideologies of ZANU(PF), the liberation movement that became the dominant party after independence, and the contradictory expectations of women who supported the liberation struggle in different capacities are clear. These contradictions, combined with the state's shallow commitment to improving the lives of Zimbabwean women, help to explain the state's lacklustre gender transformation, particularly in the areas of legal reform and developing state institutions to address women's development needs. As the state's increasing authoritarianism effectively eliminated spaces for advocacy that it created after independence, a growing number of women's NGOs developed issue-oriented approaches that criticised the government while at the same time developing relationships with particular segments of the government, and the increasingly organised opposition, in order to address women's issues. Thus, the gendered social and political transformation in Zimbabwe has been both non-linear and reconfigured to fit the spaces of the transformed state

Reviewed by: Slavery in Medieval and Early Modern Iberia by William D. Phillips Heather Dalton Phillips, William D., Jr, Slavery in Medieval and Early Modern Iberia (Middle Ages), Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014; cloth, pp. 272, R.R.P. US$65.00, £42.50; ISBN 9780812244915. This study encapsulates the complexity of slavery in Spain and Portugal during the medieval and early modern periods. The first recorded slaveholders on the Iberian Peninsula, the Romans and the Visigoths, shared the view that those who were part of the dominant group should not be enslaved. When the Muslims conquered the Peninsula early in the eighth century, citizens of towns that had resisted them were enslaved. Although the situation was reversed during and after the re-conquest, it varied across regions. While most slaves in Castile were Muslim, those in the maritime areas of the Crown of Aragon were generally from the southern and eastern Mediterranean and beyond the Black Sea. Although there were Muslim slaves in Portugal, little is known about slavery here prior to the 1440s, when the trade in Sub-Saharan slaves began. By the end of the fifteenth century, the Portuguese were bringing African slaves to the Iberian Peninsula directly from Africa’s west coast. By the beginning of the sixteenth century, these slaves were joined in Spain by enslaved captives from the war in the Canary Islands. William Phillips points out that although there were often large numbers of slaves in Spain and Portugal, they could not be called slave societies. Indeed, during the sixteenth century slaves probably made up only 10 per cent of the population of the city with the largest number of slaves, namely Seville. Phillips emphasises that the Iberian experience of slavery varied enormously. Christians, Muslims, and Jews alike could be slaves, slave owners, or traders. One could be born into slavery, kidnapped and enslaved, or captured and enslaved as a result of conflict. Moreover, slaves could find themselves ‘at any number of points between full slavery and full freedom’. Phillips brings his survey of slavery to life with examples taken from notarial documents. This means that he is able to provide rather more examples of the Spanish owner/slave relationship than the Portuguese. He does so in the full knowledge that such documents were almost always drawn up at the instigation of the owner rather than the slave. Indeed, when it comes to documents that promise or grant manumission, Phillips rightly points out that the majority of slaves freed in this way actually bought their freedom while others were freed once they became too old and frail to work. In the latter case, manumission was likely to result in destitution and starvation. While the Roman tradition of having domestic slaves continued on the Iberian Peninsula into the early modern period, their practice of maintaining slave gangs did not. By the medieval period, slaves who worked outside the home did so alongside free workers. Even those who manned the galleys toiled with convicts and free labourers. However, things were very different beyond the Peninsula. The trade in African slaves expanded as the demand [End Page 202] for labour grew in the American settlements. During the first two centuries of the colonial period, the medieval Mediterranean style of domestic slavery and plantation slavery coexisted. However, slavery on the Peninsula declined during Portugal’s war with Spain, which lasted until 1668. The death knell came in the 1760s when Carlos III established diplomatic relations with Morocco. Laws were passed in Portugal in 1773, and in the early nineteenth century in Spain, freeing the last slaves. As slavery declined and died out on the Iberian Peninsula, it flourished in the empires, lasting until the late nineteenth century in Brazil. Slavery in Medieval and Early Modern Iberia provides a richly textured overview of the development of slavery in Spain and Portugal. It is aimed at those interested in slavery in the Americas, as well those concerned with the Iberian Peninsula, illustrating why the experience of slavery came to vary so much across South America, North America, and the Caribbean. Heather Dalton The University of Melbourne Copyright © 2014 Heather Dalton

Issos Epiphaneia, located in the Cilicia Pedias plain, was an important ancient city sustained by agriculture and animal husbandry, while also serving as a strategic bridge along the land trade routes between Anatolia and Mesopotamia. Its harbor, Catabolos, became one of the central hubs of the Roman Empire’s grain corridor, functioning as a site where raw materials and grain were stored, shipped to Rome, and where travelers could find accommodation in mansiones. During the Byzantine and Medieval periods, Catabolos also served as a significant stop along the pilgrimage route stretching from Jerusalem to Bordeaux. In the 11th–13th centuries, Epiphaneia came under the control of the Crusader Kingdom and the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, emerging as an important regional center. Archaeological evidence further reveals that the city was a notable production site for glazed ceramics during this period. The Bouleuterion-Odeon, originally constructed in the 2nd century AD during the Roman era, was reused as a cemetery in the Medieval period under Crusader and Armenian rule. Excavations have uncovered human burials and grave goods that provide insights into the cultural structure, socio-economic networks, trade relations and belief syspestas of the period. These findings reveal Epiphaneia’s central role in both the economic and religious life from the Roman period through the Middle Ages. They also show that the city’s cultural heritage holds significant potential for faith tourism, as it was located along a pilgrimage route in antiquity.

Christianity is a Near Eastern religion but even throughout the area of its origin, it remained only one among several religions for most of antiquity. With Constantine, the newly favored religion started to dominate imperial politics, and imperial Christianity shaped the cultural and economic developments in the Roman Empire. As the cradle of Christianity, Jerusalem and the “Holy Land” attracted pilgrims from the Roman Empire and beyond. Christian asceticism flourished and Near Eastern monasteries played an important role for Christianization but also as economic and educational centers. The Christian quest for “orthodoxy,” that is, Christianity’s urge for defining the “true” faith ultimately caused the establishment of independent Near Eastern churches at the end of antiquity with their own tradition and languages which still exist today.

This chapter examines preserved cereal remains and animal bones dating from the Roman period. It concludes that: in the Roman, middle medieval, and post-medieval periods there were marked regional variations in farming practice across the different pays of the study area; certain districts have consistently had the same distinctive patterns of agriculture, and this tends to be where the geology leads to soils that impose particular constraints upon agriculture; and while some distinctive agricultural practices show continuity from the Roman through to the medieval period, others do not.

An introduction to the life of towns and cities in the medieval period, this book shows how medieval towns grew to become important centers of trade and liberty. Beginning with a look at the Roman Empire's urban legacy, the author delves into urban planning or lack thereof; the urban way of life; the church in the city; city government; urban crafts and urban trade, health, wealth, and welfare; and the city in history. Annotated primary documents like Domesday Book, sketches of street life, and descriptions of fairs and markets bring the period to life, and extended biographical sketches of towns, regions, and city-dwellers provide readers with valuable detail. In addition, 26 maps and illustrations, an annotated bibliography, glossary, and index round out the work. After a long decline in urban life following the fall of the Roman Empire, towns became centers of trade and of liberty during the medieval period. Here, the author describes how, as Europe stabilized after centuries of strife, commerce and the commercial class grew, and urban areas became an important source of revenue into royal coffers. Towns enjoyed various levels of autonomy, and always provided goods and services unavailable in rural areas. Hazards abounded in towns, though. Disease, fire, crime and other hazards raised mortality rates in urban environs. Designed as an introduction to life of towns and cities in the medieval period, eminent historian Norman Pounds brings to life the many pleasures, rewards, and dangers city-dwellers sought and avoided. Beginning with a look at the Roman Empire's urban legacy, Pounds delves into Urban Planning or lack thereof; The Urban Way of Life; The Church in the City; City Government; Urban Crafts and Urban Trade, Health, Wealth, and Welfare; and The City in History. Annotated primary documents like Domesday Book, sketches of street life, and descriptions of fairs and markets bring the period to life, and extended biographical sketches of towns, regions, and city-dwellers provide readers with valuable detail. In addition, 26 maps and illustrations, an annotated bibliography, glossary, and index round out the work.