Abstract

The research reported in this volume is a significant addition to the archaeology, history and economic geography of the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean from the late 11th to the mid-14th centuries. The focus is on the Byzantine Empire and its cultural and commercial connections with the Italian maritime powers and the Crusader States in the East before and after the capture of Constantinople in 1204 by the Latins during the Fourth Crusade. Of central interest are economic networks, with an emphasis on the Peloponnese, and the impact of those networks on socio-cultural and territorial changes through the centuries. Material evidence and written sources are combined to attain maximum economic, socio-political and cultural information, and network theory is applied to examine economic systems at various scales. The distribution of tableware pottery and coin circulation are investigated in detail and a regional perspective is achieved through the study of agricultural exploitation, the manufacture and commercialisation of goods, and settlement patterns in the Peloponnese.
The result is a new understanding of production and exchange within the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean and of the long-term economic impact of political and territorial changes at multiple geographical scales.