Shipwrecks and ancient trade in the Mediterranean

Study of the ancient world, especially of the Roman Empire, has recently featured an increased interest in the economy, and specifically, trade.A number of factors are responsible for this -they include, on the one hand, the influence of Marxism, in considering economic and social (as opposed to political) factors in historical development (cf.Carandini 1968; Hopkins 1983), and, on the other hand, the increased information which has resulted from a greater quantity and quality of archaeological data (cf.Peacock 1977; Lloyd 1977).Increasing subtlety has, however, brought increasing complexity of interpretation and some disappointment.Archaeological techniques now enable us, in some respects anyway, to achieve a 'holistic vision' of the past, but of course full-scale reconstruction of ancient societies is physically and economically impossible.Analytical techniques are increasingly powerful, but their cost in academic time renders rel iabi Ii ty of sampling crucial, and in fact it may be impossible to match available analysis time with usefulness of information obtained.Moreover, the limits of inference from archaeological identifications may be so low as to make such inference banal (e.g.almost any Roman site prod uces some imported material, and is thus in some sense evidence for vigorous commerce).Problems of skew, of imperfectrecovery, and of the unequal distribution of research, probably render the establishment of 'archaeological statistics' impossible.Insights, or at least key samples, may, however, be found in special contexts, three types of which spring to mind: