Paul Reynolds

ICREA Research Professor

Short biography

ICREA Research Professor, Member of the ERAAUB, Prehistory and Archeology Section, Dept. of History and Archaeology, University of Barcelona.

ICREA, Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies, Passeig de Lluis Companys 23, Barcelona 08010

1977-1980 B.A. in Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, University of London

1982-1991 Ph.D. in Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, University of London. Pottery and settlement in the Vinalopó Valley (Alicante, Spain): AD 400-700.

Research interests

The principal aim of my research is the study of the regional and inter-regional economies of the Classical to early Medieval Mediterranean (and related areas such as the Black Sea and Atlantic sites), in terms of production and networks of supply. This focuses on the long-distance movement of table-wares, amphorae and cooking wares, through the analysis of the regional distribution of ceramics on coastal sites/major ports. Primary data for this research derives from my documentation (creation of typologies and classification) and study of ceramic assemblages (Beirut, the Homs Survey, Nicopolis-ad-Istrum/Dichin, Athens, Corinth, Nicopolis-Actium, Butrint, Durres, Leptis Magna, Carthage and sites in SE Spain), as well as the revision of other published ceramic material from sites across the Mediterranean. Recent work has focussed on Hellenistic and Roman cuisine and cultural interaction in the Roman East, on Roman Greece and on the Islamic pottery of North Africa.

Selected publications

2018. ‘The supply networks of the Roman East and West: Interaction, fragmentation and the origins of the Byzantine economy’, in A. Wilson, and A. Bowman (eds.), Trade, Commerce and the State in the Roman World (Oxford Studies on the Roman Economy 4). Oxford University Press, Oxford: 353-395.

2016. ‘From Vandal Africa to Arab Ifriqīya: tracing ceramic and economic trends through the 5th to the 11th centuries’, in S. Stevens and J. Conant (eds.), North Africa under Byzantium and Islam, Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Symposia and Colloquia (Spring Symposium on Rome Re-imagined: Byzantine North Africa, c. 400-800, 2012), Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA: 129-171.

2015. ‘Material culture and the Economy in the Age of Saint Isidore of Seville: the 6th and 7th centuries’, in J.-P. Caillet, I. Velázquez and G. Ripoll (eds.), Isidore de Séville et son temps, Antiquité Tardive 23, Paris (Brepols): 163-210.

2013. ‘Transport amphorae of the First to Seventh Centuries: Early Roman to Byzantine Periods’, in W. Aylward, (ed.), Excavations at Zeugma, Conducted by Oxford Archaeology, Volume II, 93-161, Plates 43-74. The Packard Humanities Institute, Los Altos, California.

Selected projects

PI (with Alessandra Pecci) Spanish Ministry HAR2017-84242-P: Ánforas romanas y análisis de contenidos. El consumo de alimentos de la Baetica, Africa y el Oriente levantino en Gades, Pompeii y Roma (ss I a.C.- I d.C.) (RACA-Med).

The project aims to identify through organic residues analyses the contents of certain early Imperial Roman amphorae found in excavations in Cadiz, Rome and Pompeii: Baetican Ovoid 1, Ovoid 4, imitation Dr 1 and Haltern 70 amphorae; late Republican amphorae from Utica (Tunisia) exported to Rome; eastern Mediterranean east Cilician Dressel 2-4, Agora M 54 and G 198.

2015 ongoing. Ceramic Typologies and Archaeometry in Greek Epirus (funded by the Butrint Foundation). Archaeometry by the ERAAUB (petrology and chemical) of local and imported amphorae, plain wares, cooking wares and table wares from Butrint (Albania), in former Greek Epirus. This work will develop as typological work and sampling progresses in Greece in sites of Thespreoteia, Nicopolis, Patras and Corinth.

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