Amphorenladungen spätantiker Schiffswracks im westlichen Mittelmeerraum. Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Rekonstruktion römischen Seehandels

• Autores: Karl Heiner Dahm
• Localización: Antiquité tardive: revue internationale d'histoire et d'archéologie, ISSN 1250-7334, Nº. 26, 2018 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Le gouvernement des cités dans l’Antiquité tardive (IVe-VIIIe siècles)), págs. 285-306
• Idioma: alemán
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• Resumen

  • As unique remnants of bygone commercial voyages, shipwrecks and their cargo have often been (mis)used to draw conclusions within broader discussions on Late Antique economy in the Roman empire. On the basis of all known shipwrecks loaded with amphorae, this essay aims to point out the potential and the limits of maritime archaeology for reconstructing Roman sea trade in the western Mediterranean between 300 and 500 AD. Due to methodological shortcomings the results of quantitative approaches have only limited value; neither should the shrinking numbers of shipwrecks be taken as an indicator of an overall decline of sea trade in Late Antiquity, nor their loaded cargo as representative of the amount of traded goods from different regions. With qualitative approaches, however, shipwrecks provide invaluable insights for tracking the existence of single trade routes as well as for outlining specific patterns of distribution.