Il ruolo delle città portuali nelle dinamiche del commercio tra Adriatico e Ionio nell’alto Medioevo (V-IX secolo)

Between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages the routes that connected East and West underwent many changes. New archaeological discoveries show the economic vitality of some Ionian port cities close Corfu’s channel during the 7th and 8th century, in contrast to other Mediterranean regions. Some pottery contexts found in the ports of Saranda, Butrint and Durres are framed perfectly in the dynamics of Mediterranean trade, with substantial growth of quantity of finds especially at this time. This trend is very different from what occurred in Middle and North Adriatic regions. Relative percentages of productions are especially different and even the curve of claims of quantities in the period from the 4th to the 8th century seems extremely unusual. The numerous contexts so far studied for example show the new city of Classe, the main port of Ravenna, a spike in imports towards the middle of the fifth century and an impressive volume of trade until the middle of the 6th century. In this period we observed in the Adriatic sites a turnaround of imports from North Africa, towards the Eastern Mediterranean products, that Justinian war was not only a military conquest but also the supremacy of Eastern merchants in Western ports. In this paper we will try to compare the circulation tendencies inside these two Mediterranean regions that show a different composition and different trends. The privileged position of the two areas along the maritime trade vectors determined the fortunes of many urban settlements. The contraction of trade volumes in these first centuries of the Middle Ages imposed to the main centers of production or marketing channels to contact the inner and protected hinterland, without losing however a strong propensity to attract goods and ships from the maritime companies of this new Mediterranean Sea.