Eastern Mediterranean Fineware Imports to the Iberian Peninsula, 300–700 ce, and the Economic Impact of the Justinianic Pandemic

Abstract:

Recent excavations in Spain and Portugal have recovered abundant fineware ceramics imported from the eastern Mediterranean and dating to the period after the fall of the western Roman Empire. The date of the latest sherds has been interpreted as showing the survival of trans-Mediterranean trade into the seventh century. However, archaeologists have tended to minimize a collapse in the volume of these imports around 550 ce. This article seeks to adjudicate between a survivalist interpretation (based on the continuity of some trade) and a catastrophist interpretation (based on decreased volume of trade). It analyzes the import volume and geographic distribution of ceramics at over 4,000 Iberian sites, 202 of which contain late Roman fineware imported from the eastern Mediterranean. The data suggest a steady increase in imports beginning by 450 ce, followed by a rapid drop in both import volume and network participation around 550 ce, with no observed recovery. This drop's magnitude has not yet been fully analyzed, and recent excavations in the eastern Mediterranean have allowed it to be fixed with greater chronological precision. Four causes are considered, three (warfare, shifting fiscal obligations, and changing tastes) that have been already proposed, and a fourth (pandemic disease) that has not.