Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

364 13. specialized production and exchange
dislocation was certainly greater politically, and probably also greater economically.
But even within slightly more defined regions, like ‘the north of
Gaul’, there were undoubtedly big differences between areas such as
Brittany and traditionally more commercialized lands such as the Rhine
valley, where, for instance, a pottery industry capable of producing goodquality
wares survived from late Roman into early medieval times. Equally,
within ‘the south of Gaul’, while most towns certainly stagnated and probably
declined in this period, at least one centre, Marseilles, seems to have
been flourishing, with large churches, close contacts with the Mediteranean,
and its own sixth-century copper coinage. 28
Even within the selected case study, Italy, the sketch I have produced is
undoubtedly much too simple when subjected to closer examination. As in
Gaul and Spain, there was in Italy probably a basic north–south divide,
again in favour of the south. Although it is stated above that copper coins
virtually disappear, the change is, in fact, much less dramatic in the south,
where, for instance, the mints in Sicily issued large quantities of copper
coins in the second half of the seventh century. Similarly, the decline in
specialized artisan production is again less evident in the south than in the
north. Mainland southern Italy, despite a relative dearth of archaeological
work, is the region where it is at present easiest to document a continuity
of production of decorated wares with a regional distribution right into the
seventh century and beyond. 29
Even within the north of Italy (the Po valley and Liguria), from which
most of my knowledge and the bulk of my examples derive, there were, of
course, important local differences of experience. Ravenna, for instance, as
an important capital and port close to the mouth of the Po, kept its broad
Mediterranean contacts (in the form of imported pottery and amphorae)
and retained the use of copper coins until a much later date than did other
northern Italian towns. In some cases, the difference of experience might
be very localized indeed. In Liguria, for example, rural sites of the fifth and
sixth century are generally characterized by buildings constructed of perishable
materials and by tiny quantities of miserable pottery; but a walled
site at S. Antonino near Finale Ligure has, by contrast, from the very same
period produced imposing stone defensive walls and both imported
pottery and copper coins. 30
In Liguria and at S. Antonino we have evidence both for the broad
regional picture and for an exception which stands out against it. This, of
28 Loseby (1992).
29 Coins: Grierson (1982) 129–38. Pottery: Arthur and Patterson (1994). Recent archaeological work
on early medieval Rome has revealed (perhaps as we would expect) that it too had economic sophistications
like coinage, and imported pottery and foodstuffs: Paroli and Delogu (1993).
30 Ravenna: e.g. Bermond Montanari (1983). Liguria: Ward-Perkins, Mills, Gadd and Delano Smith
(1986) 120. S. Antonino: Murialdo et al.(1997).
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