The Production and Distribution Network of the Bay of Naples: from a Regional to a Mediterranean Perspective

Recent excavations on both production and consumption sites in Campania and international conferences on Roman pottery have given new impulses to the research on material culture and the regional and international pottery trade systems. This volume analyses the circulation of pottery produced in the Bay of Naples between the late Republican and the early Imperial period from a double perspective: on one side the networks that transported pottery from the Bay to various points along the Mediterranean littoral; and on the other side the foods coming to Naples from various points in the Mediterranean. The excavation contexts of Piazza Municipio in Naples, Puteoli and Herculaneum provide new relevant datasets both from the qualitative and quantitative point of view. This evidence highlights the strong relations of this area with the Eastern Mediterranean, especially in fine wares and transport containers - from the 2nd century BC Rhodian wine amphorai to 1st century AD Cretan products. The area of the Magdalensberg imported Campanian Internal Red Slip ware as early as the late Republican period, and in especially high amounts in the Augustan age, when Campanian cooking wares are also attested in Aquileia, in northern Italy, the hotspot for the distribution of these vessels to the provinces of Northern Europe.