Shipwreck Assemblages and Network Analysis

Reconstructing the Furniture Trade in the Mediterranean Using First-Century BCE Shipwrecks

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4536066
AutoresCarrie E Atkins (General Electric (Canada), autor correspondente)
Ano2025
Volume129
Fascículo1
Páginas89-118
Data de publicação2025-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAmerican Journal of Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0002-9114 • E-ISSN: 1939-828X
EditoraUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/732758
OpenAlexW4405493315
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas61

Elite Romans residing in opulent villas in central Italy during the first century BCE are generally viewed as the main consumers driving the trade in luxury goods. However, evidence from shipwrecks shows this is not the full picture. This article utilizes assemblage theory and network analysis to examine relationships between luxury furniture and shipwreck assemblages in the Mediterranean in the first century BCE. It starts first with discussion of couches (klinai) and tables from five shipwrecks during this period and one from the first century CE to draw comparisons in furniture types and distribution networks. Then it examines the shared presence of objects and assemblages from other first-century BCE shipwrecks using network analysis. Viewing shipwrecks as nested sets of assemblages combines close analysis of singular wrecks with aggregate data from multiple shipwrecks in an interconnected interpretive framework. The resulting network serves as a starting point for understanding the circulation of objects and facilitating interpretation of shipwrecks, ultimately refining our view of the acquisition of luxury objects in the western Mediterranean during the first century BCE. Finding that luxury objects, such as klinai, were being shipped not only to Italy but also around the same time to the western Mediterranean shifts the focus of study from Italic consumers to wider integrated transportation networks.1

Archaeology · Geography · Mediterranean climate · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Archaeology and Historical Studies · History · Maritime and Coastal Archaeology