Lecture by Prof. Justin Leidwanger (Stanford University)

Abstract:
Seafaring shaped the Mediterranean, generating social, economic, and other connections that enabled the Roman Empire. The unraveling of Rome’s political unity in late antiquity offers an opportunity to examine how these individual links—the people, objects, and processes—intertwined to create a broader network. In this talk, I examine three of the best-studied shipwrecks from two transformative centuries spanning ca. 500 to 700 CE: one off Sicily carried 100 tons of architectural marble for a church; another in Turkish waters transported wine for military supply; and the third along the Croatian coast brought a diplomatic envoy and goldsmith. Together, these wrecks reveal intersections of everyday commercial and elite or state-directed exchange as well as a structural shift in their roles amid the political reconfiguration that marked the era.