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96 Ecology and Beyond
local indeed, say beyond ten miles, the starting point could be
one of the many examples offered by Horden and Purcell, and
quite a humble one: the exchange of dung against pottery on the
coast of Lebanon. 2 A series of such microregional connections
can be found throughout the history of the Mediterranean, and
a series of examples comes immediately to the classicist’s mind.
One of our first epigraphic testimonies on the coast west of
Marseille is a lead document from Pech-Maho in Languedoc,
dated around 470–440 bc, which mentions freight coming from
Emporion, situated about 70 miles further south on the same
coast. 3 Another such document, this time found in Emporion,
mentions the city of ‘Saiganthe’ (Saguntum), some 270 miles to
the south. 4 Pseudo-Demosthenes, in the 340s bc, provides the
example of short-distance transport between Panticapaion and
Theodosia, two neighbouring towns in the southern Crimea
about 70 miles apart by sea; the goods are poor-quality wine
and salt fish as food for workers on a landed property. 5 The
accounts of the construction of the sanctuary of Epidauros show
or presuppose a local origin for some things, for instance for
rough-textured stone, or imports from Argos, Corinth, or
Athens for higher quality stone (tiles came from Corinth). 6 At
Delos, transports of bricks or tiles from neighbouring islands
seems to have been the rule. 7 All this shows the permanent
connectivity, by way of cabotage, that existed between neighbouring
ports. 8 The primary market for many commodities was
the nearby city or village, which could more easily be reached
2 M. E. L. Mallowan, ‘Phoenician Carrying-Trade, Syria’, Antiquity 13
(1939), 86–7; cf. CS 371.
3 H. van Effenterre and F. Ruzé (eds.), Nomima: Recueil d’inscriptions
politiques et juridiques de l’archaïsme grec. (Rome, 1995), no. 74, ii. 268–71,
and J.-Cl. Decourt, ‘Le Plomb de Pech-Maho: État de la recherche 1999’,
Archéologie en Languedoc 24 (2000), 111–24.
4 Nomima, no. 75, ii. 272–5, with Decourt 112–13 for more recent bibliog-
raphy.
5 Pseudo-Demosthenes 35. 32 and 34.
6 A. Burford, The Greek Temple Builders at Epidauros (Liverpool, 1969),
167–84.
7 G. Glotz, ‘Le prix des denrées à Délos’, Journal des Savants (1913),
16–29: 18.
8 X. Nieto, ‘Le Commerce de cabotage et de distribution’, in P. Pomey
(ed.), La Navigation dans l’Antiquité (Paris, 1997), 146–58.