Byzantine Finewares in Italy (10th to 14th Centuries AD): Social and Economic Contexts in the Mediterranean World.

This study is an investigation of the Byzantine glazed pottery of the 10th to 14th centuries recovered within the Italian peninsula. The aim is to establish the nature of the relationship between the material culture, represented here by Byzantine tablewares, and its consumers. An interdisciplinary approach is used to develop our understanding of how pottery vessels arrived in the households of the sites being considered, and how they were used within the interior rooms of the different contexts (such as urban, religious, rural, magnate residencies). Byzantine glazed pottery from excavated archaeological sites, surveys and chance finds have been recorded and examined. Historical evidence, history of art and architectural sources have also been used in support of the archaeological evidence, to add weight to the hypotheses and to place the pottery within a wider social context. The results demonstrate that Byzantine glazed pottery was similarly used in a very varied range of site types within the Italian peninsula, and that these were mostly wealthy groups. There is little evidence to suggest that these vessels were consciously used by medieval people as a display of cultural identity, except perhaps in first period under consideration here (10th to 11th century). This investigation presents a completely new perspective on Byzantine glazed vessels within the Italian peninsula and the main types which were circulating in here. Variation in the three different periods analyzed (10th to 11th century, 12th century, and 13th to 14th century) has been recorded in terms of types, shapes, and quantity of pottery fragments. By looking at pottery vessels, as here, in a much broader context, this thesis has moved research forward into the lives of past people.