Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

difficulties and evidence 347
still like to know: after reaching Constantinople, did the priest have to
travel out to the quarries themselves, or could he find what he needed
within the city? Did he buy direct from an agent of the quarry, or from an
independent trader? Did he purchase from stock, or did he have to place
an order? And did he travel back with his new chancel-screen, or have it
shipped? Our source, Gregory, was writing an apologia of his own life, not
an economic analysis of the late antique marble trade. So we should not
expect too much of him, but rather thank him for the useful information
that he does provide. 2
Such occasional references in the written sources provide details of
human motivation and behaviour that can only be inferred from the
material evidence that archaeology uncovers. However, for our purposes,
the archaeological evidence is often more useful than the literary. It consists
of clusters of information, which are not only ever growing in
number, but which can also often be compared one with another. This
ready comparability is precisely what is so difficult to achieve with small
chunks of written evidence derived from very different types of source,
and is an essential basis for any broad picture of developments and of
regional differences within the Roman world of c. 425–600.
In looking at agricultural specialization and exchange, we have to note
that some very important products (like wheat and wool) rarely survive in
the soil and, even when found, generally give no clue as to their place of
origin. But other things have left much better and much clearer archaeological
traces. It is our particular good fortune that the ancients transported
two of the most important products of the Mediterranean, oil and wine, in
amphorae, and that the broken sherds of these vessels, which survive well
in the soil, can often be attributed to a specific period and a specific region
of production. 3 An individual amphora fragment will not tell us why it was
transported across the Mediterranean nor how precisely it was moved. But,
as the overall picture becomes clearer, revealing patterns of distribution
that change through time, it even becomes increasingly possible to speculate
intelligently about why and how these products came to be on the
move.
As with the products of the land, artisan production can also only be
documented archaeologically for those (comparatively few) items that
have left material traces. Pottery, in particular, is found in vast quantities
in excavation and field-survey, since pots are easily broken and yet the
individual sherds are then virtually indestructible in the soil. Furthermore,
the broken fragments are rarely affected by human intervention,
since they can neither be melted down (like metal and glass) nor reworked
2 Greg. Naz. Carmen de Vita Sua lines 875–7 (PG xxxvii.1089). For the priest travelling to
Contantinople for his purchase, compare the buying of silverware in Life of Theodore of Sykeon 42 (ed.
Festugière (1970); English trans. Dawes and Baynes (1948)). 3 Peacock and Williams (1986).
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