Economy and Exchange in the East Mediterranean during Late Antiquity

Distribution maps of finds, properly compiled and interpreted, emphasise without question the basic evidence that illustrates the tightly interlocking nature of eastern Mediterranean trade in a period which has so often been dismissed almost out of hand as being barren and of little interest. The papers collected here prove how wrong such an assumption can be - the material evidence is well addressed (and illustrated), and provides an overview that any student or scholar of Late Antiquity should be aware of.' ~Peter A Clayton, Minerva

Wealth there is in S. Kingsley and M. Deckers Economy and Exchange in the East Mediterranean during Late Antiquity (330-640), well produced conference proceedings laying claim to be chapters, although the eight essays can only make disparate soundings, excellent though they are.' ~Greece and Rome, 50, 2003

The promise of maritime archaeology lies not in simply providing well preserved and precisely dated assemblages of objects rarely seen in terrestrial sites, but in its ability to bring those assemblages representative of the merchants, pilgrims, soldiers, functionaries, and producers of the ancient world into our reconstructions of past lifeways. Economy and Exchange provides a stellar example incorporating shipwreck-based research into an archaeologically based study of Late Antiquity, a period as vital to the development and growth of industrialized societies in the medieval era as the medieval growth itself was to the prosperity that drove exploration and exploitation of distant lands a millennium later. This excellent work will be of interest to every student of the past, not simply those with a regional or temporal connection.' ~Cheryl Ward, The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 31, 2002