Liguria in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages: its trade relations with the Western and Eastern Mediterranean Sea

The Ligurian contexts dated after the fourth century, except for Luni, produced just a few publications with significant quantitative analyses on examples distributed over extended sequences that would allow a better diachronic study of trading fluxes from different areas. A more exhaustive picture will be possible when final data from old extensive excavations in the main Ligurian towns, such as Ventimiglia, Albenga, Vado, or from more recent surveys in Luni and Genoa shall be available. The Ligurian data find their exact comparisons in the north-western regions of the Iberian Peninsula and southern France, where the subsequent diachronies of different types of carrying vessels were subject to extensive evaluations. All such data produced an even picture, allowing us to integrate Late Antiquity Ligury into a wider market context including the whole western Mediterranean area. The Ligurian contexts dated between the fourth and seventh centuries show a predominance of imported items coming from North Africa, basically from Tunisia. Moreover, it is to be observed that Mid-Eastern amphorae from most examined contexts are still identified in a very small number, despite the persisting contacts with the Middle East which are still recorded in the seventh century.