The commercial activities of the inhabitants of Central Euboea play an important rôle in archaeological research on the Géométrie period. The numerous mentions of Euboean colonizing activities, the distribution of Central Euboean pottery throughout the Mediterranean basin and the spread of the Euboean alphabet hâve ail contributed to the réputation of Central Euboean traders in the 8th century B.C. However, this interprétation has been called into question due to a sélective treatment of the available material sources, focusing mainly on the distribution of Central Euboean pottery. The debate over Central Euboea’s importance in the Mediterranean trade network at the transition from the Géométrie to the Archaic period has never been resolved.
The présent study sheds new light on Central Euboea’s rôle in trade during the 8th and 7th centuries B.C. by means of a large-scale network analysis. Based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of imported pottery assemblages from eleven sites representing the major Central and Eastem Mediterranean régions, the study aims to reconstruct the longitudinal development of the Mediterranean trade network throughout the two centuries and to understand Central Euboea’s rôle within it in relation to other régions.
The topical introduction, which includes an overview of the économie history of Central Euboea, a définition of trade and an overview of its organization in the First Iron Age, is followed by a présentation of the méthodologies at the core of this study, which combines a ceramological examination and a numerical network analysis.
The structural analysis of the patterns in the reconstructed Central and Eastem Mediterranean trade network in the 8th and 7th centuries BC reveals major changes in the distribution of pottery, the earliest traces of which already appeared before the tum of the centuries. Although Central Euboea held a central position within the network in the early 8th century BC, it became increasingly peripheral as trade along the central axis gained importance.
In three interprétative chapters, this development is studied within its économie, socio- political and cultural context. First, the effects of supply and demand on the circulation of commercial goods are highlighted through a detailed study of the availability of agricultural and natural resources in Central Euboea, an analysis of the socio-cultural demand for different types of pottery, and an examination of the corrélation between political power and the circulation of goods. Secondly, the realities of transport are examined through an analysis of shipping risks and costs as well as a topographical study of natural places of interruption on the potential trade routes of the Central and Eastem Mediterranean. Finally, a detailed look into the impact of personal mobility is offered by the analysis of the socio-cultural and géographie attachment of traders in the Early Iron Age, followed by a study of the commercial rôle of overseas settlements, such as apoikiai and emporia, in the trade network.
The study also includes an in-depth qualitative and quantitative analysis of imported ceramics from the Eretria site, presented in Volume 2, as well as a catalogue of the examined sites and their imported pottery, presented in Volume 3.