On 7 July 751 the Lombard king Aistulf issued an official act at ‘Ravenna in palatio’.1 Hardly momentous in itself, this act confirmed that the old Byzantine capital had fallen to the Lombards and with it, almost certainly, other cen-tres as well. In Constantinople the imperial court could only lament and prepare for comparable assaults on its remaining territories in Venice, Apulia, Calabria and Sic-ily (Herrin 1987:370). Aistulf’s audacity almost certainly paved the way for great changes not just in Lombardy but throughout the length and breadth of the Adriatic Sea.

Since early prehistoric times the Adriatic Sea connect-ed the far points of the Mediterranean to the Danube and Rhine valleys. Controlled from what was to become the Venetian archipelago, the passage of Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age traders and travellers presaged its huge importance as a thoroughfare in Roman times. In many ways, resembling the North Sea, with the Baltic Sea be-ing the Mediterranean, the Adriatic connected many dis-parate communities from Friuli to the Peloponnese. Along its seaboard lay the Dalmatian archipelago, the mountains of Montenegro and Albania as well as Arcadia, the plains of the Apulian Tavoliere, the Abruzzi Mountains and the

1 Acknowledgements. Thanks to the Butrint Foundation in partnership with the Packard Humanities Institute for supporting the excavations at Butrint. Special thanks to Sauro Gelichi for introducing me to Comacchio. In writing this paper I am grateful to Paul Arthur, Kim Bowes, Andy Crowson, Florin Curta, Simon Greenslade, Solinda Kamani, Sarah Leppard, Matthew Logue, Michael McCormick, John Moreland, John Mitchell, Nevila Molla, Pagona Papadopolou, Paul Reynolds, Sandro Sebastiani, Joanita Vroom and Chris Wickham.

sprawling Po estuary. Yet, strangely, except when Ra-venna served as a Byzantine capital, its real authority has always been implicit in the promise of what lay beyond – across the Alps and to the east of the Cyclades on the Bosphorus. Ravenna, therefore, was an aberration. It was a capital rather than an entropôt. As the architecture of the Emperor Justinian’s capital as well as the new excavations in its port at Classe show, it was a late antique destination aimed at eclipsing the imperial and commercial author-ity of Rome (and Ostia Antica) (Augenti et al 2007). The new excavations at Classe emphasize the colossal growth of the port in the late 5th and 6th centuries, and then as the power of Byzantium wained, the demise of trade by the mid to later 7th century (Augenti et al 2007). Classe, like Constantinople itself, was reduced to the tiniest frac-tion of its former self by AD700, as the full impact of the so-called Dark Ages overwhelmed the Mediterranean reducing its ports and trade to mere shadows of even their shape in prehistory. When Aistulf seized Ravenna he was seeking to conquer the old capital’s symbolic prowess rather than its coffers.

New excavations, however, are beginning to shed light on the changing 8th and 9th century fortunes of the Adriatic Sea. As recently as a decade ago it seemed to be a seaway that enjoyed revival only at the very end of the millennium. The origins of Venice itself were speculative, while the Lombard emporium of Comacchio at the mouth of the river Po was no more than an intriguing enigma. Further south the coastal ports of Albania and Apulia

AISTuLF AND THE ADRIATIC SEA

Richard Hodges

... the Adriatic Sea is a miniature Mediterranean; the Adriatic has, since the early Middle Ages, brought the inhabitants of Italy face-to-face with Slavs, Albanians, and other Balkan peoples… The Adriatic was a special theatre of operations for Venice… (Abalafia 2005:67)

Richard Hodges

Acta Archaeologica vol. 79, 2008, pp 274-281Printed in Denmark • All rights reserved

Copyright 2008ACTA ARCHAEOLOGICA

ISSN 0065-101X

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– with the exception of Otranto – were also unknown. New surveys of Venice (Gelichi 2004), the discovery of Comacchio (Gelichi 2007a; 2007b) and the large-scale excavations of Butrint in southern Albania on the Straits of Corfu chart the beginnings of a new era for Adriatic Sea history (Hodges 2006) (Fig. 1).

With the acquisition of the relics of St. Mark in AD 827, Venice appeared to be establishing itself as a pow-erful centre. Its strategic significance was very evident to Charlemagne who repeatedly despatched Frankish ar-mies in order to conquer it and the adjacent regions. After a negotiated peace in AD 812, it was to become an impor-tant Carolingian mint, yet remained a coalition of islands managed by a doge. New surveys by Albert Ammerman (2003) of the physical and man-made topography of the archipelago in this era, and by Sauro Gelichi of the ar-chaeology (2004) show beyond doubt that with a nucleus gathered around Rialto it emerged as a major emporium covering as many as 50 hectares around 800 (cf. McCor-mick 2007). The eclipse of Ravenna was indubitably its

making but perhaps, no less significantly, the Venetians were able to win support against their great competitors, the traders of Comacchio.

Comacchio with its canals is a miniature Venice today. Occupying one of the web of branches of the Po close to the Adriatic, it was a surprisingly important port in Etruscan times. Lombard sources show that this role was renewed in the later 7th and 8th centuries and evidently prospered as Ravenna became an increasingly isolated outpost of Byzantium. The Comaclenses are best known from a capitulary or pact issued between 715-30 by the Lombard King Liutprand (Balzaretti 1996:219-20; Wick-ham 2005:733). This extraordinary document provides instructions to the leaders of the port on harbour and other fees in Po valley towns like Bergamo, Brescia, Cremona, Mantua, Parma and Piacenza. Salt from the estuary pans seems to have the principal cargo to these Lombard riv-erine wharfs. The pact, of course, has attracted much in-terest among historians. The present interpretation is that Comacchio was the outcome of a treaty made between

0 500km

Venice

Comacchio

San Michele

Zadar

Kotor

Otranto

Patras

Dyrrhachium

ButrintCorfu

Fig. 1. Adriatic Sea sites mentioned in the text.

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the Lombards and their neighbours, the Byzantines resi-dent in the Exarchy of Ravenna. But differences exist on whether it was an independent centre located between the two territories or a Byzantine stronghold. It was evi-dently in Lombard hands in 756 when the Frankish King Pepin marched into Italy to support the beleagured Pope Stephen. Pepin compelled King Aistulf to sue for peace and appropriated Comacchio for the papacy (Herrin 1987:377-79).

The scale of the emporium, like Venice, has until now been a matter of speculation. Again, a new survey by Sauro Gelichi accompanied by excavations in the centre of the modern town up against the cathedral have shown beyond doubt that the emporium was full of post-built dwellings covering as many as thirty to forty hectares (2004). More to the point, its ample deposits of amphorae and other objects confirm the volume of its trade between the Po valley and the upper Adriatic, with some contain-ers coming from as far away as the Black Sea. When this sprawling town is compared to the tiny aristocratic nuclei in Lombard urban centres such as Brescia and indeed to contemporary villages, there is little doubt about its im-portance. In common with the better-known 8th-century emporia around the North Sea, this was undoubtedly the motor of the regional political economy. No wonder, then, that hard on the heels of the truce with the Carolingians, successive Doges of Venice set out to crush their neigh-bour. By the 10th century, as the new investigations show, like many North Sea emporia of its generation, Comac-chio was effectively eclipsed, soon to be a backwater.

No excavation along the 1000 km length of the Adri-atic coastline of Italy has produced anything as remotely as revealing as Comacchio. On the contrary, it is the near absence of evidence until now which has been most strik-ing. Odd sherds of east Alpine soapstone jars turn up from time to time, minor illustrations of an Adriatic Sea traffic that the 9th-century written sources certainly considered substantial. The sherds apart, the settlement evidence is sparse. A dig in the centre of Rimini located a small later 7th -or 8th-century nucleus of indifferent character (Negrelli 2007). In Pescara (ancient Aternum), for exam-ple, numerous salvage excavations in the 1990s brought to light a line of undistinguished 9th-century post-built houses along the shore-front (Staffa 1991). Siponto, for example, the port below the celebrated 9th-century sanc-tuary of San Michele on the Gargano peninsula, remains essentially unexplored. The great Beneventan sanctuary

above it, that drew pilgrims from as far afield as England and Francia, is no less enigmatic (Castelfranchi and Man-cini 1994). Only the graffiti left by these travellers record the importance of the traffic, mostly destined for the Holy Land. What form the late antique shrine itself took is a matter of speculation (Trotta and Renzulli 2003). Otranto, on the other hand, the Byzantine naval stronghold at the heel of Italy has become noteworthy in medieval archaeol-ogy thanks to its pottery kilns, several of which have now been excavated. Otranto’s potters produced prodigious numbers of globular carriage wares containing Apulian oils and wines (cf. Arthur et al 1992). None, it seems, found their way to Comacchio. At Otranto, too, system-atic excavations have produced the distinctive Byzantine bronze folles – low denomination coins – of the later 9th and 10th centuries (Michaelides 1991).

The archaeology of the Balkan coastline is hardly any better known until Butrint on the Straits of Corfu. Its principal ports, of course, are mentioned in the sources, such as the travelogue of Amalarius of Metz, who acting as a Carolingian diplomat to the Byzantine court in AD 813 sailed by way of Zadar (in Croatia) Dyrrachium (in Albania) and around the Peloponnese to Constantinople (McCormick 2001:138-43; map 5.3). The archaeology and architecture of Zadar and neighbouring Nin show that they were within a Lombard sphere on influence. This much is readily evident at the cathedral of St. Donatus oc-cupying the north end of the old Zadar’s Roman forum as well as the stone furnishing from neighbouring churches such as Holy Cross at Nin (cf. Curta 2006:142). Close by, excavations at Nin have brought to light a Croat cemetery with rich grave goods, including Lombard sword blades. South of Split such north Adriatic associations disappear. In Lezha (ancient Lissus) in north Albania, like Dyrra-chium, Amalarius would have noted the scarse but evi-dent use of Byzantine folles (Serjina 2005). By the 860s, these towns, judging from the inventory of the Albanian coin cabinet, were being lost in profligate numbers. Ama-larius sailed southwards rather than taking the Via Egna-tia, perhaps because he learnt that many of the ancient bridges – repaired in late antiquity, to judge from a recent survey – were once again un-passable (Amore et al 2005; cf. the historical debate - Curta 2003:288; McCormick 2003:318-9). In Saranda, ancient Onchesmos, evidence of a small seafront nucleus was found in rescue excava-tions in 2007 (Gilkes, Kondo and Vroom forthcoming), while the massive late antique shrine to the Forty Saints

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directly above the city, was completely rebuilt at this time albeit on a less ambitious scale (Mitchell 2004; Hodges 2007). An extraordinary painting in one of its many crypts also belongs to the revival of the cult. In bright, ochrous colours it depicts Christ tugging firmly on the beard of an unfortunate saint (Hodges 2007:47).

The Forty Saints was a seamark stationed at the north end of the Straits of Corfu. Halfway along its eastern length lies Butrint, ancient Buthrotum. Here, perhaps the most extensive campaign of modern excavations, has

charted what happened to an Adriatic port of classical ori-gins in the early Middle Ages (Hodges 2006).

Like most ancient cities, Butrint in the 7th century was reduced to little more than a castle. But instead of occupy-ing the acropolis with its prominent late antique basilica, the nucleus of the first Mid Byzantine community appears to have been located in two towers in the lower city’s sea-ward defences (cf. Andrews, Bowden, Gilkes and Martin 2004). Vivid remains of the ground and upper floors of both towers were found, thanks to a cataclysmic fire - per-

Fig. 2. The location of the towers in the western defences at Butrint.

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haps a sack of some kind (cf. Curta 2004) - which around 800 engulfed them at the same time (Fig. 2). In each case, the upper floors collapsed downwards, crushing the stored contents just inside the ground-floor door. In the first tower these included a crate of glass comprising 61 goblets and cullet – a consignment destined for a glass-maker somewhere. Next to this was a line of smashed amphorae from Otranto and other parts of Apulia (Fig. 3), as well as the Aegean, perhaps Crete, and the Crimea. There were White Ware table wares from Constantinople and the strangest local pots, so-called Avaro-Slavic types, as well as two portable ovens which may have been the cause of the conflagration.

This rich assemblage emphasizes a chapter in Butrint’s history when it could once more seek traded goods from as far afield as the Crimea as well as Italy. This assem-blage is very different from that discovered on the Vrina Plain outside Butrint (see below), or indeed, from any-thing known from north-west Greece, Albania or south-east Italy to date. Being in the lower city rather than on

the acropolis, we can only assume the commander who occupied the tower(s) wished to have direct control over traffic plying the straits as Frankish pilgrims and travel-lers such as Amalarius sailed southwards.

South of Butrint, excavations in its Roman suburb on the Vrina Plain, brought to light the successor to the commander’s tower-house (Fig. 4). Here, in the ruins of the 5th-century monastery that in turn occupied the re-mains of the Roman colonial settlement, the manor-house or oikos of the commander was discovered. Post-holes found within the paved narthex of the 5th-century basilica show that its upper floor was reinforced to take a new residence. Fire-blasted through the paving stones, the primitive architecture of the house cannot be understated. No less fascinating are the contemporary conditions. Its ground floor, like the areas around the church were cov-ered in a thick deposit of black earth in which 48 bronze folles spanning c.840-950 were found as well as 5 Byzan-tine lead seals belonging to the same period (Greenslade et al 2006). The black earth deposit also extended into

Fig. 3. A view of the late 8th-century amphorae found in tower 1.

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the south aisle of the earlier church, while the north aisle, judging from hearths discovered here, was deployed as a workshop. A small side chapel of 5th-century date off the north aisle now housed at pottery kiln. The nave of the 5th-century basilica was made into a cemetery from the mid 9th century, graves rudely puncturing the earlier mosaic. A grave with a fine copper-alloy openwork orna-mental buckle accompanied one adult, perhaps the aristo-crat himself. A secondary cemetery lay beyond the apse of the church included a disturbed adult associated with whom was a silver-plated horse bit. One adult appeared to have been interred with a Byzantine folles in his pocket. The ceramics, like the prolific coins, appear to distinguish the culture of this household from that found in the tower at Butrint. Amphorae of a distinctive Otranto type make up about fifty per cent of the pottery, while, local kitchen wares made here amount to most of the rest.

The first-floor dwelling with the associated high-sta-tus burials, occupying the monastic church, dates to the mid 9th to mid 10th centuries. The material culture shows a steady revival of trade with the heel of Italy while the ornamental metal fittings and jewellery points to far-flung

Balkan connections. The coins and seals confirm the ad-ministrative role of this household. Certainly, the material culture and art distinguishes the household from anything yet found in the large excavations in Butrint, including the tower described above. Was this, then, the residence of the archon of Vagenetia, the region opposite Corfu, whose seal has been discovered in excavations in Bul-garia (Curta 2006: 103)? Indeed, was this the household at Butrint (polis epineios) in which according to the Vita Eliae iunioris St. Elias the Younger and his companion, Daniel, were held prisoner at Butrint in 881-2, on suspi-cion of being Arab spies, on returning from the Pelopon-nese (Rossi Taibbi 1962: XVI, 116 (c73), 182; cf. Mc-Cormick 2001:957, no.686)?

Little more is known about Butrint as a town at this time. Arsenios of Corfu (876-953) who apparently vis-ited Epirus to plead with Slav pirates to desist their raids, recorded that Butrint was rich in fish and oysters, with a fertile hinterland (Soustal 2004:22). Were these sim-ple local products, like the salt Comacchio distributed throughout the Po valley, the bases of Butrint’s revival as an Adriatic sea port?

Fig. 4. Reconstructed late 8th-century south Italian, principally Otranto, wares from tower 1.

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The archaeology is of course still very fragmentary. Yet with these new excavations there is beginning to be some definition of size and shape to the maritime world of the Adriatic Sea in the 8th and 9th centuries. Rather like the North Sea at this time, separated by the influence of competing traders emanating from the rivers Rhine and Seine, so the Adriatic after antiquity appears to have been reduced to two very different spheres of commerce. Dominated first by Comacchio then Venice, the head of the Adriatic reaching down to the Abruzzi and opposite to southern Croatia fell within their orbit. Byzantine domi-nation appears to have stretched to northern Albania and perhaps, intermittently, to northern Apulia. Ravenna after 754 plainly lay beyond the reach of Constantinople. The western Veneto’s axis with Istria was clearly behind Char-lemagne’s eager pursuit of Venice. Frankish armaments and Lombard church furniture in Croatia were probably exchanged for slaves needed to make the levees and tim-ber sub-structures for the town at Rialto as well as the investment in new manorial estate farming (cf. McCor-mick 2007). The other axis joined the heel of Italy, and

Otranto in particular, to ports like Butrint. Fish for wine, it seems, brought new vigour to these otherwise exposed western provinces of the Byzantine Empire. New vigour, too, was injected by the increasing numbers of pilgrims, many (unlike the diplomat Amalarius) setting out from Beneventan and Byzantine ports to head southwards.

Until now, with many archaeological excavations around the Bay of Naples, great emphasis has been given to the commercial drive of the Beneventans and Nea-politans in the revival of Mediterranean trade (cf. Arthur 2002). Their sights were on the new markets of Aghlabid North Africa, commerce which with time drew pirates and invaders as well as merchants to 9th-century Italy. Aided by the exceptional status of Rome, the Tyrrhennian sea has always appeared more active than the Adriatic. Now, with the discoveries made at Comacchio, Venice and far to the south at Butrint, it is evident that spurred on by Aistulf’s bold seizure of Ravenna in 754, the Adriatic sea slowly re-established itself as the paramount thor-oughfare in the western world before Columbus found the New World.

Fig. 5. An annotated aerial view of the 9th- to 10th-century Vrina Plain settlement.

Acta Archaeologica

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Author’s addressPenn Museum, 3260 South StreetPhiladelphia, PA 19104, USAr.hodges@uea.ac.uk

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