Byzantine Symposium, Urban and Rural Settlement in Anatolia and the Levant, 500-1000 AD: New Evidence from Archaeology

Byzantine Spring Symposium 2005

Symposiarchs: Clive Foss (Georgetown University) and Johannes Koder (University of Vienna)

April 22–24


Trade and Industry in Byzantine Anatolia – The Evidence from Amorium
Christopher S. Lightfoot

Circumstances have largely conspired to focus attention on certain aspects of commercial activity in Roman and Byzantine times. The emphasis has largely been on maritime trade, reflected in the concentration of studies devoted to coastal sites, shipwrecks, and bulky items of long-distance trade such as amphorae. Inland cities, it is assumed, were largely self-sufficient, drawing on the natural and agricultural resources of their own territory. In addition, archaeologists working on the Anatolian plateau have often concentrated their efforts on temples, churches, and fortifications. These sites have rarely provided substantial evidence for the everyday preoccupations of production and supply in which the majority of the population must have been engaged.

Amorium, capital of the Anatolian Theme and a large, flourishing settlement throughout the Dark Ages and middle Byzantine period, allows a unique opportunity to investigate such aspects of Byzantine life. The excavations have provided evidence for a variety of different trades and crafts including pottery production, glass blowing, and leather working. Items that attest to contacts with the wider world have also been found; these range from fragments of Constantinopolitan glazed whiteware pottery to marine shells. Less easy to ascertain is the contribution made by imported skilled labor to the economic life of the city. However, the building materials and artistic skills that were used in the construction and decoration of the Lower City church provide some important indicators. Likewise, the recent discovery of a series of rich and prestigious burials in the church narthex supplies evidence for the availability of elaborate silk textiles at Amorium in the 10th-11th century.

Other areas of the site attest to intensive use of buildings for manufacturing and retailing purposes during the middle Byzantine period – a time when Amorium has traditionally been regarded as ‘in decline’ and of minor importance. Some of this evidence can be related to industrial activity, but other finds suggest that the processing of agricultural produce also took place within the city.

The present paper aims to highlight the richness and diversity of activity that was carried on in Byzantine Amorium, drawing on both already published material and recent discoveries. What emerges is that Amorium was not just a fortified administrative center occupied by soldiers, clerics, and imperial officials but a real city, filled with a whole host of different craftsmen and trades people. As such it must have functioned as an important commercial entrepôt and a major source of both skilled and casual labor. Although a number of other cities must have served a similar function as regional centers, few have been or are able to provide the same wealth of archaeological evidence as the site of Amorium.