Caleacte : Production and Exchange in a North Sicilian Town c. 500 BC-500 AD

Sammanfattning: The study deals with the ancient town of Caleacte, modern Caronia, on the north coast of Sicily. Information provided by ancient textual sources, epigraphy and archaeology on the economic conditions and framework of the site and its micro-region are presented in the first chapter. Production and exchange through a diachronic perspective of nearly 1,000 years is illustrated through the study of pottery, mainly transport amphorae but also fine ware and lamps, dating primarily to the late 4th c. BC-late 4th c. AD. The material and the amphora fabrics are presented in an illustrated catalogue, which constitutes one of the few detailed publications of Roman material, especially of amphorae, from Sicily. Transport amphorae functioned in Antiquity as containers for mainly wine, oil and fish products. They constitute one of the most valuable sources we possess for acquiring knowledge on ancient economy. Thin-section analysis is used as an important method for indicating possible origins of amphorae, in addition to other information based on, for example, quantification, morphology, textual sources, epigraphy, kiln finds, and tituli picti, with an emphasis on local products. Through the study of patterns of production and supply based on the testimony of the amphorae, fine ware and lamps, important trends in the local production and supply of goods and commodities were discerned. These trends were compared with the evidence from other Sicilian sites and with cargoes from Sicilian shipwrecks in order to establish whether the find situation at Caronia agreed with, and could be inserted into, the general Sicilian framework. The patterns of production of supply are then combined with the general economic evidence to identify the motivating forces behind exchange at Caleacte, Sicily and the South Tyrrhenian. Several pieces of evidence could be singled out in favour of market behaviour following the forces of supply and demand. In the last chapter, the trends and patterns examined in the study are viewed from a Braudelian perspective in order to establish a hierarchy and single out the most important forces behind production and exchange at Caleacte.