EAA
European Archaeology Association
13th
EAAANNUAL MEETING, ZADAR 2007
Session:
Ten centuries of Trade and trade routes in the Byzantine Empire
(5th - 15th Century AD)
Organised by: National Taras Shevchenko University of Kiev - Centre for Underwater Archaeology
Paper
Sailing the Early Medieval European Trade:
the Mediterranean Emporium of Comacchio (6th
– 10th
Century AD).
By Diego Calaon and Sauro Gelichi
Title
Sailing the Early Medieval European Trade: the Mediterranean Emporium of Comacchio (6th
– 10th
Century
AD)
Authors
Sauro Gelichi, gelichi@unive.it
Diego Calaon, calaon@unive.it
Abstract
Recent researches have demonstrated both from the archaeological and historical point of view the
belonging of Comacchio (Ferrara, Italy) to the mostly unknown picture of the formation and development of
new settlements that characterize the upper Adriatic Sea between the 6th
and 10th
century AD. The importance of
Comacchio as a new town, able to take a fundamental role in the management of the trading relationships on a
Mediterranean scale, has to be analysed in connection with the birth of other new urban settlements.
Comacchio, as Venice (Torcello, Rialto, Olivolo and Malamocco), Cittanova, Grado and Caorle, is
an extraordinary element of novelty and vivacity in an historical period traditionally considered critical and
recessing.
The main feature of these new towns is, apart from their topographic localization in a marshy environment,
the enhanced ability of promoting wide range commercial activities based on the incomes coming from the
exploitation of the local resources (salt production and fishing).The commercial activities relate to the development
of a strong local seamanship able to provide constant and efficient transports on the shallow waters of rivers and
lagoons.
The new “emerging centers”, often competing against each other, are localized in a political territory that can
be considered as a border between the eastern/Byzantine world and the Western Lombard/Carolingian world.
The ability to differentiate their relationship with Constantinople or with the élite of the continental kingdoms
provides their fortune in becoming true emporia.
Key Words
Comacchio, Adriatic sea
Early Medieval emporia
Trade routes
Port infrastructures
Main Text
The settled centre of Comacchio (Ferrara, Po Delta) (Fig. 1) originated in the Early Middle Ages. Written
sources place the full formation and development of the settlement during the 8th
century.
Comacchio takes a fundamental role within the system of ‘new centres’ which are born along the NorthWestern
Adriatic coast between the 7th and the 9th century. These ‘new centres’ show extremely diverse material
evidences both with regards to quantity and to quality. However, it is possible to classify them - from the point of
view of the historical and archaeological interpretation -, as ports and markets, therefore as ‘emporia’ (Gelichi,
2007a: 83-86). From the political viewpoint these new towns are located within the narrow strip of land which is
under Byzantine control after the fall of Rome.
We focus on Comacchio in order to find an answer to the necessity of assessing the quality of its late
antique and early medieval archaeological information. The objective is to verify the material characteristics
defining the site as a nodal-point in the economical relationship incurring between the Adriatic and Mediterranean
routes on one side and the trade with the hinterland of the Po river (and therefore the relationship with the élites
of the Po valley) on the other side (Gelichi et al, 2006; Gelichi 2007b).
This paper is constituted of three sections:
1) the way that led to the birth of the settlement is firstly sketched;
2) secondly, the material structures of the early medieval settlement and the characteristics which identify
Comacchio as an ‘emporium’ are described;
3) finally the last part will consider the role of Comacchio as an emporium within the early medieval Adriatic, Po
river and European economy.
Between Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages:
the path towards a new settlement
The delta of the Po during Late Antiquity is a
territory that can be defined as an area without towns.
Along the banks of the old course of the river called
Padus Vetus a certain number of settlements have been
identified. The only significant centre is a vicus, called
Vicus Aventia, where imperial legates where residing,
carrying out the management and administration
of large areas belonging to the imperial treasury. A
good quantity of funerary inscription are the indirect
evidence of the presence of wide saltus, large estates
consisting also of uncultivated land, areas partially
submerged by water and large patches of woodland
(Patitucci Uggeri, 1972; Uggeri, 1975; Gelichi and
Calaon, 2007: 395-410).
The sites, from the imperial Age onward, were
FIG. 1: LOCAlIZATION Of COMACCHIO.
located along the main river ways (fig. 2). Amongst the structures which have been found we can list houses
(some with a high level pars urbana), structures for fish breeding, for the production of brick, salt-works and
infrastructures connected with river navigation (Uggeri and Patitucci Uggeri, 1984: 59; Uggeri, 1986: 168-172).
Both written and material sources highlight how the people living around the delta in the Late Imperial
Age were expert with lagoon and river navigation. Located in an area acting as a hinge between the large sea ports
of the Upper Adriatic, the sites of the area of Comacchio seem to carry out the role of intermediate stop-overs in
the internal lagoon routes between Ravenna and Aquilea (Gelichi 2006). Both the river routes and the land ways
needed stationes with bridges, ferries and docks (Gelichi and Calaon, 2007) .
It is not casual that at beginning of the 6th
century Cassiodorus mentioned the people of the Po delta as
skilful ship builders, to which emperor Theodoricus requested in 526 AD to provide qualified workers for the
construction of boats («ut per domum nostram navigandi qaererentur artifices») (Mommsen 1894: 18,1; Patitucci
Uggeri 1989: 461; Gelichi and Calaon, 2007: 399) .
A change in the settlement system of the area of Comacchio is evident between the 6th
and 7th
century AD.
Clustered nuclei – almost villages – are grouped around religious buildings and in close relationship with structured
agricultural areas. This interpretation is however at the moment depending only on indirect data: concentrations
of pottery collected during fieldwalking survey, the presence of wide collective cemeteries and the construction
of new religious buildings (Patitucci Uggeri, 1975; Patitucci Uggeri; 1983).
New elements – for example - can be identified in the complex structure of the site of Motta della Girata
(fig. 3). In this area the church of Santa Maria in Pado Vetere was excavated. The building, dated to the age of
Justinian, was surrounded by two funerary areas. Some of the burials contained objects, like for example glass or
ceramic vessels , soapstone containers, personal objects made of metal or glassy paste and above all, bone combs
FIG. 2: DElTA Of PO RIVEr:
SETTlEMENT IN LATE
ANTIQUITY.
(Alfieri, 1966; Patitucci Uggeri, 1970).
The materials allow us to date the cemetery between the second half of the 5th
and the 8th
century, and
emphasize in particular how the area was used for several burials even before the church was built (Corti, 2007).
The understanding of this settlement cannot be complete without reflecting on the specific landscape in
which it was found, strongly influenced by the presence of the canal ‘della Girata’ with a possible chronology
close to the 7th
-8th
century and by a large area of reclaimed land (Bondesan, 1986; Calzolari, 1993; Cremonini,
1993; Gelichi and Calaon, 2007: 407).
Settlement and port facilities. Comacchio in the 8th
century
The settlement of Comacchio developed between the 7th
and 8th
century on a series of sandy dunes separated
by canals, resemblind ‘islands’ (Fig. 4)(Gelichi and Calaon, 2007: 494, fig. 9). The settlement is not far from the
FIG. 3: SANTA MArIA IN PAdOVETErE. ArCHAEOlOGICAl
ElEMENTs ANd AErIAl pHOTO-INTErprETATION.
Adriatic coast and is naturally protected from the outside by a wide lagoon. The knowledge available at present
allows us to imagine a central nucleus of the settlement clustered around the religious buildings (built with reused
bricks) which constitutes, from the first few years of the 8th
century, the Episcopal district. It is the insula at
present corresponding with the area of the cathedral of St. Cassiano.
Two further islands seem to stretch northward and southward, with open spaces alternated to spaces used
for housing, orchards and vegetable gardens. The house were of course completely built with wood. There are
also some funerary areas.
Valle Raibosola (area of St. Mauro and St. Agostino) and the insula where the monastery of St Maria in
Aula Regia (documented from 956 AD) is located, are peculiar settlements, corographically separated from the
remaining settlement and destined to be used by two different monastic institutions (Calaon and Grandi 2007).
It is possible to identify the point of confluence of important waterways in the north-western part of
the town, waterways which were connecting Comacchio with the mouth of the Po towards the north, with the
settlement of St. Maria in Pado Vetere and the southern river branches towards the south (and from here with
Ravenna) and finally, going past the coast dunes, with the Adriatic sea routes. It is in these area that traces of large
infrastructures, probably related to a port, focus of the commercial activity of the settlement, can be identified.
It is here that Francesco Proni identified between 1924 and 1931 a series of wooden posts regularly inserted into
the ground, at that time interpreted generically as pile-dwellings. It is however still possible to recognize, by
looking at the pictures of that time, a platform made of wooden planks which probably constituted a walking level
supported by vertical poles. Not far from here, in the present day Villaggio San Francesco, a salvage excavation
found further groups of aligned posts, with different dimensions, on which the wooden planks were sometimes
FIG. 4: COMACCHIO IN EArlY MIddlE AGE.
still visible (Calaon, 2007, fig. 3-5).
The structural typologies of the post alignments are homogeneous: they mainly relate to structures
protruding towards the lagoon (platforms-docks), waterfront and embankments.
The site, which occupies a very wide area, which can be estimated to be around 75,000 sq. m., can be interpreted
as a port facilities working during the 8th
century (Fig. 5).
The port was connected with the external coasts by a wide tidal canal of natural origin conveying salt
water towards the inside, and was protected by the lagoon. The location allowed the exchange of goods between
FIG. 5: VIllAGGIO SAN FrANCEsCO
(COMACCHIO): WOOdEN plATfOrMs-
dOCKs.
FIG. 6: LANdING sTAGEs IN
COMACCHIO ANd IN DOrEsTAd.
boats arriving to Comacchio from the Adriatic sea and flat-bottom boats appropriate to navigate the low water of
rivers of the Po valley.
Almost all finds are sherds of transport vessels: in the excavation of Villaggio San Francesco carried out in
1996, 89% of finds are sherds of closed vessels and transport containers, 55% of which are amphoras. Under the
docks also parts of barrels (for transport?) and two stone anchors were found (Calaon, 2007: 514-516).
From a structural point of view the most evident element are the wide platforms constituted by vertical oak
posts in parallel rows, planted into the soild. These posts were supporting the wooden planks. It is easy to imagine
that these wide structures did not carry out only a function as docks but were also proper working platforms (Fig.
6)(Gelichi et al. 2006). These kind of structures are very similar in building materials and techiniques with the
wooden platforms-docks found in Dorestad (Holland, on the Rhine river, see Van Es and Verwers 1980: fig. 22),
in Groß Strömkendorf (on the german baltic coast, see Tummuscheit 2003, 210) or in Resen (still in germany, see
Bill and Clausen 1999: figg. 6,7 e 8).
Ceramic sherds have been found under the heads of posts – under the collapsed wooden planks connecting
FIG. 7: LIGHT ClAY pOTTErY frOM COMACCHIO.
them – or in layers of soil used for embankments and/or reclaiming of land. The pottery can be dated to the 8th
-9th
century.
	 Three peculiar elements of 8th
and 9th
century assemblages are the classes defined as ‘light clay pottery’,
the ‘early medieval globular amphoras’and the soapstone. Light clay pottery shows usually closed shapes, mainly
with two handles (fig. 7). We hypothesize a Po river or Adriatic provenance. The presence of amphoras known as
‘early medieval globular amphoras’(fig. 8) in the excavations of Comacchio is fundamental to frame the economy
of the Comacchio emporium (Negrelli, 2007; Gelichi et al. 2007: 601-.608).
	 It was therefore an ’extra-regional’function which can be read through the amphoras, for which we suppose
a consistent import from the Mediterranean and the south Adriatic area.
Comacchio: Po valley, Adriatic and Mediterranean “emporium”
Trade, then, but what of?
FIG. 8: EArlY MEdIEVAl GlOBUlAr AMpHOrAs frOM
COMACCHIO.
From oil to wine, from spices to fabrics, perhaps garum: eastern products requested in the West. It is a
fame of demand and offer that leads the Byzantine ships up to the Upper Adriatic and provides the local fleets
with a monopoly of the river trades in Northern Italy, to which the fundamental market for the local produced salt
adds up.
Trade, then, but who for?
The new towns of the upper Adriatic keep a direct contact with the Byzantine east. They belong to an
area of consumption and circulation of specific goods, some eastern productions, to which also the Lombard and
Franks elite progressively get interested.
Obviously the establishment of a commercial emporium with a Mediterranean scope is connected with
a stable aristocratic hegemony. Elites, in fact provide the ‘demand’ in the early medieval economy. If Venice in
the 9th
century appears to be strictly connected with the Carolingian world, Comacchio in the 7th
appears to be an
emporium of Lombard economy (Fig. 9).
The importance of Comacchio (Fig. 10) within the economical dynamics of northern Italy, between
Lombards and Carolingians, has been variously evaluated on the scientific level.
Written sources, in particular the the“Capitolare” (a pactum sansigned at the beginning of the 8th
century
between Lombards and the habitatores of Comacchio regulating trade along the Po), allow us to get a hint of the
commercial role of Comacchio. Some scholars (Violante, 1953; Fasoli, 1978) have emphasized this role. They
describe a certain dynamism which characterized the last phase of the Lombard age. It would be a preamble to the
following Carolingian floruit. Other scholars (Balzaretti 1996; Wickham 2000; Wickham 2005), have belittled
these functions. They place Comacchio in a net of short and medium range commercial relationships. Comacchio
would have traded, basically, salt. At the same time McCormick has highlighted the decisive role of Venice in
the first part of the Carolingian age, considers in a reductive perspective the economy properly pertaining to the
FIG. 9: THE TrAdE rOUTEs “frOM”
ANd “TO” COMACCHIO.
Lombard in the 8th
century (McCormick, 2001).
Conclusions: from Comacchio to Venice
Venice in the 9th
century, especially after the peace treaty of Aachen, is chosen by the Carolingians as a
nodal point in the trade towards the east. As a matter of fact the importance of other trade centers, like Comacchio,
seem to diminish the closer we get to the 10th
century. The privileged position of the Venetian doges with the
Carolingian kings not only cause the decline of Comacchio, but also cause a powerful change in the economical
structures of northern Italy.
During the 8th
century the economy and the trade described by the archaeological evidences of Comacchio
show a vitality of economy in different town of the Po valley: the framework of economical relationship is all
but ‘stagnant’. The rise to power of Venice in the 9th
century and its ‘trade’ aimed to a European market give a
marginal role to northern Italy.
The products which arrive and are traded in the port of Comacchio seem to be addressed to the elites of the Po
valley. On the contrary the commercial relationships of the following century bypass northern Italy, which appears
to be characterized by more local exchange with a short and medium span.
There is also a new fundamental change in the new market: it is not only the Byzantine ships which
navigate the Adriatic to reach the emporia, but the Venetians themselves reach the whole Mediterranean. Their
fleet grows bigger and stronger.
Venice however feels the need to establish its commercial power by means of war actions aimed at
destroying Comacchio. The war of 932 AD is the most acute episode: Probably in that period Comacchio was still
felt as an economical ‘competitor’ which needed to be drastically curtailed (Gelichi et al., 2006).
FIG. 10: RECONsTrUCTION Of COMACCHIO IN EArlY MIddlE AGE (R. MErlO).
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