Laboratory | Work In Progress

Long distance trade in the northern central tyrrhenian sea within the Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages: the case of Portus Scabris (Portiglioni,GR)

4 March 2017 by

The sea-port of Portus Scabris/Portiglioni (GR) near Puntone di Scarlino was used uninterruptedly from the Etruscan to modern times and represented the main commercial hub for maritime trade and inland redistribution of commodities in the Pecora Valley. Rescue archaeological work carried out in the early 2000s, simultaneously with the construction on the new tourist marina, collected several hundred thousand ceramics which help understand the role played by the site in the context of long-distance trade in the central Tyrrhenian Sea in the longue durée. By using the datasets provided by the pottery evidence (Fig.1-5), Emanuele Vaccaro’s research aims to contextualise the complex sub-regional economies analysed by the nEU-Med ERC Project in the broader framework of late antique and early medieval maritime trade and tackles issues such as connectivity, exchange and consumption. New work on the ceramics from Portus Scabris focuses particularly on the period AD 400-1100.

(Fig.1) Portus Scabris, amphora referable to the “family” of Samos Cistern type, made of non-micaceo mixture (dated: 6th-7th century, place of origin, Asia Minor?)
(Fig.2) Portus Scabris, brim of medieval amphora (dated: 8th-10th century, place of origin unknown)
(Fig.3) variant of Keay52 with comparisons in 8th century storage area of Crypta Balbi, Rome (dated: 7th-8th century, place of origin N-W Sicily)
(Fig.4) Portus Scabris, jug with petals decoration, applied on Forum ware (dated: end of 9th-half 10th century, place of origin, Rome?)
(Fig.5) Portus Scabris, fragment of Spiral ware (dated: 12th-half 13th century, place of origin Campania?)