Regional Economies in Action

The volume presents the results of an international colloquium at the Austrian Archaeological Institute, which dealt with the production of amphorae and the goods transported and stored in them. Amphorae are among the most widespread archaeological artifacts throughout the Mediterranean, especially since they were produced in almost every region. The individual contributions - each dedicated to a specific question and problem - approach the hitherto very controversial topic of the standardization of transport amphorae archaeologically and historically from different perspectives and from the different Mediterranean regions. Standardization can manifest itself in a variety of ways, for example in formal criteria, in volumes, in workshop structures as well as in epigraphic evidence in the form of contents or product information. But economic, social and political contexts are also under discussion, from the pre-Roman to the late Byzantine and from the western Iberian Peninsula to the Black Sea and the Levant, which may have contributed to standardized products. Regional trade to mass production and inter-regional shipping, state and military supply versus market-based exchange are just some of the aspects covered in this volume.