To browse Academia. Reflecting on the Maritime Trade of Foodstuffs in Antiquity. This paper offers an overview of the supply of olive oil to the provinces of the Roman and early Byzantine East 1st to 7th centuries and the possible western and eastern amphorae and other containers e. Whereas mainland Greece and the Aegean Islands were prominent producers and suppliers in the early and late Empire for local consumption and export in specific amphorae Dressel 24 and related forms, Dressel 25, Agora M , LRA 2 and successors , other regions produced oil for local needs Egypt, Lebanon, NW Syria , whereas other regions the Lower Danube, Crimea were unable to grow olives for climatic reasons.
The role and mechanisms of the State, the Army and the annona in the supply of oil here and in other regions e. Egypt, Syria are discussed. In the course of this typological revision, other amphorae and possible contents e. New data on amphora contents based on organic residues analyses are noted. Using archaeological data from two closely located sites within the Sidon chora, Chhim and Jiyeh, the author considers possible oil distribution routes in Phoenicia in the RomanβByzantine period, taking into account the impact, on this, of the administrative fragmentation of the region between the 1st and 7th centuries AD.
A typology of, and data on, local and imported amphora from Chhim are presented. Various models are proposed in order to explain what appears, based on calculations relating to the output of the presses, a surplus of oil for which no corresponding evidence for exports β in the form of Chhim amphorae β can be identified. The Roman province of Baetica in southern Spain produced vast amounts of olive oil during the first three centuries CE.
The small town of Axati is situated in an area now known as Lora del Rio along the Baetis River, the modern Guadalquivir. This town exported large amounts of olive oil which was distributed throughout the Roman Empire from northern Britain to Alexandria. This study will look at the stamped olive oil amphorae, Dressel 20 type, which were produced there and transported throughout the Empire. The distribution and consumption levels evidenced by these stamped amphorae are quantified here in order to compare the amounts consumed by military and civilian populations.
Through this comparison it is demonstrated that the primary consumers were the city of Rome and the civilian settlements within the frontier provinces. The paper concerns the results of research activities, still in progress, of the Italian Archaeological Expedition at Hierapolis in Phrygia Director Prof.
