Contacts, exchange and marble supply in late antique Ravenna and the port of Classe

The paper focuses on the commercial mechanism in Late Antiquity with special regard to the Late Antique sedes imperii, Ravenna, and its maritime port of Classe from the point of view of qualitative and quantitative analyses of marble and pottery importation within a long-distance trade in the Mediterranean. In the 5th and 6th centuries, Ravenna represented an important political, commercial, and cultural centre, involved in interregional sea trade through its port of Classe, and represented a significant production and redistributive centre. The research is based on archaeological material evidence: provenance and quantity of imported stone artefacts from the late antique complex of S. Severo in Classe, and provenance of pottery find from a harbour area of Podere Chiavichetta in Classe. The mechanism of commercial exchange of late antique Ravenna and Classe with various regions of the Mediterranean is based on the quantitative and qualitative comparison of imported marble and pottery. The question of the statio marmorum in the port area of Classe is also discussed on the basis of both the archaeological evidence and the comparison with the stone supply of Rome.