Interregional trade during the Early Byzantine era: The testimony of ceramics imported to Delphi

Artistic and artisanal expression demonstrates a lively interaction between Early Byzantine Delphi and other nearby and more distant cities. Specifically, local pottery, well studied and circumscribed in time, covers a wide range of good-quality products already by the 4th c. AD, and especially in the 6th and 7th c. As for imported ceramics, amphorae, lamps, red slip ware and painted ware are examined here for the first time in detail, in order to complete the image of the pottery used in this medium-sized city of Central Greece. The commercial relations between Delphi and certain other cities of the Greek peninsula and islands are studied here, as is the presence in all these cities of ceramics produced in the greater Mediterranean. This study allows us to place Delphi in a precise commercial frame, bringing it closer to the cities of Central Greece and the Peloponnese where African products prevail over imports from Asia Minor.