The Economic History of Byzantium From

620 FOSS AND SCOTT

century.30 One interesting group of vessels made of very heavy, rough fabric, with a large, inverted spout is not known to be paralleled elsewhere and may have been used in some sort of distilling process.

Industrial activity took place at the eastern edge of the ancient city, in an abandoned Roman bath (“CG”). Brick walls and furnaces, and debris found in the remains, indicate the production of glazed pottery, iron goods, and glass.31 Remains of a settlement have not been identified here, nor is the central part of the city, between this bath and the gymnasium, known. This could be an extremely important area for the present subject, since it contained the cathedral whose fate is unknown.

Although the physical record is necessarily incomplete, it suggests that medieval Sardis consisted of a powerful, densely inhabited hilltop fortification towering above a series of settlements scattered over the ruins of the ancient city. To some extent, the settlements seem to have been self-sufficient, with their own water supply and production of necessary goods on a small scale. With the possible exception of the ironworking at the Roman bath, there is no evidence that goods useful for trade were produced.

The connection between the different settlements cannot be determined, but they probably together constituted Sardis and centered on the acropolis for defense and probably administration, and on the cathedral for their spiritual needs. Several bishops of Sardis are known, but they almost invariably passed their careers in the greater comfort of the capital.32 The finds demonstrate that Sardis was not completely isolated. A network of roads through the Hermos valley, over the Tmolos Mountains, and from Thyateira through Sardis to Philadelphia still functioned.33

The Laskarid period (1204–61) was the most prosperous. Sardis was a major city of a small kingdom, on the main highway between the emperors’ favored residence (Nymphaion), treasury (Magnesia), and the frontier. At this time the old basilica (Church EA) was deliberately razed, and a new five-domed church (Church E) was built within its perimeter. Although it measures only 20 11 m, this was the first major construction in the city since the walls of the seventh century. It was built of brick and marble and was decorated with frescoes, gold and glass mosaics, and colored glass windows, perhaps made locally.34 Kilns for the production of brick, tiles, and pipe in the gymnasium could be associated with this construction. They operated on a large scale and demonstrate the availability of quantities of fuel.35

The church had a graveyard adjacent and was apparently the center of a settlement

30See Spieser, “Ce´ramique,” 253; G. M. A. Hanfmann, “Excavations at Sardis, 1959,” BASOR 157 (1960): 36.

31G. M. A. Hanfmann and J. C. Waldbaum, A Survey of Sardis and the Monuments outside the City Walls

(Cambridge, Mass., 1975), 140–41, 186 n. 48; Waldbaum, Metalwork, 9; and probably glass, Von Saldern, Glass, 101–2.

32For the history and remains of this period, see Foss, Byzantine and Turkish Sardis, 66–76.

33C. Foss in Hanfmann, Prehistoric to Roman, 15 and n. 18. For the routes in relation to Lydian

¨

fortifications, see C. Foss, “Late Byzantine Fortifications in Lydia,” JOB 28 (1979): 267–320.

¨

34 H. Buchwald, “Sardis Church E: A Preliminary Report,” JOB 26 (1977): 265–99; idem, in Hanfmann, Prehistoric to Roman, 201–4; von Saldern, Glass, 98.

35 Yegu¨l, Bath-Gymnasium Complex, 44, figs. 75–79.

Sardis 621

of which little has survived. Whether this church was the cathedral of the city has not been determined, but one well-known bishop of this period, Nikephoros Chrysoberges, evidently spent time in the city, which, as a learned man, he may have made into a local center of education.36 The metropolitan see was dissolved in 1369.

Coin finds increase dramatically during the Laskarid period, all from the mints of Nymphaion and Magnesia. Finds of Byzantine coins stop with Michael VIII (1261–82) and silver Crusader deniers appear to have filled in at a time when bronze coinage was missing. The last Byzantine coin discovered at Sardis was minted under John V (1341–91). Otherwise, no Byzantine issues mingle with the Islamic, which begin in the late fourteenth century.37

By the fourteenth century the church had been desecrated and converted to industrial and living space where we find evidence for the survival of crafts into the fifteenth century. Glass bracelets and cakes of glass from which they were made belong to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Imported glass vessels are from regions under Islamic rule.38 The types and styles of locally made pottery remain the same in respect to decoration, material, and method of manufacture through the fourteenth century, but in the fifteenth century locally made imitations of cobalt glazed wares produced in the imperial kilns of Iznik occur.39 Metal items were in use from the twelfth into the fifteenth century: iron tools, lead used in construction, copper alloy vessels, fittings, medallions (one showing the Anastasis) and jewelry, some gilded, and even examples of gold and silver (Fig. 4).40

Other parts of the site did not change their nature: the fortress was always occupied, and the lime burning at the temple continued unabated. The acropolis furnished the last piece of evidence for the Byzantine period in the narrative of a Turkish attack of 1304. The Turkomans, threatened by the Mongols allied with Byzantium, proposed to the Sardians that they allow them to share the fortress. The locals refused and resisted a siege, but were finally forced to agree when they ran short of water and suffered from not being able to till their fields.41 In this account, the nature of the acropolis settlement becomes clear. Although some of its inhabitants may have been soldiers only, many were farmers, who worked land in the plain below, leaving the fortress every day to attend to agriculture, attested in the entire Byzantine record only here.

36Foss, Byzantine and Turkish Sardis, 84–86.

37Buttrey in Greek, Roman, and Islamic Coins, 224–26. M. L. Bates, in ibid., 227, sees the deniers as testimony to the close economic ties between the emirate of Sarukhan and the Frankish merchants and trading colonies.

38Von Saldern, Glass, 98–102.

39Crane, “Turkish Sardis,” 50.

40Waldbaum, Metalwork, 53, 58, 62, 67, 78, 90, 92, 124–26, 129, 130–32, 136–37.

41Foss, Byzantine and Turkish Sardis, 82f, 121–24.

622 FOSS AND SCOTT

Bibliography

Bates, G. E. Byzantine Coins. Cambridge, Mass., 1971.

Bell, H. W. Sardis. Vol. 11, Coins. Pt. 1, 1910–1914. Leiden, 1916.

Buttrey, T. V. “Byzantine, Medieval and Modern Coins and Tokens.” In T. V. Buttrey et al., Greek, Roman, and Islamic Coins from Sardis. Cambridge, Mass., 1981.

Crawford, J. S. The Byzantine Shops at Sardis. Cambridge, Mass., 1990. Foss, C. Byzantine and Turkish Sardis. Cambridge, Mass., 1976.

Greenewalt, C. H., Jr., and M. L. Rautman, “The Sardis Campaigns of 1996, 1997, and 1998,” AJA 104 (2000): 643–81; idem, “The Sardis Campaigns of 1994 and 1995,” AJA 102 (1998): 469–505.

Hanfmann, G. M. A. Sardis from Prehistoric to Roman Times. Cambridge, Mass., 1983. Rautman, M. L. “A Late Roman Townhouse at Sardis.” In Forschungen in Lydien, ed.

E. Schwertheim. Mu¨nster, 1995.

Scott, J. A. “Sardis in the Byzantine and Turkish Eras.” In Sardis: Twenty-Seven Years of Discovery, ed. E. Guralnick. Chicago, 1987.

Scott, J. A., and D. Kamilli. “Late Byzantine Glazed Pottery from Sardis.” In Actes du XVe Congre`s international d’e´tudes byzantines, Athe`nes, 1976. Vol. 2, Art et arche´ologie. Athens, 1981.

Von Saldern, A. Ancient and Byzantine Glass from Sardis. Cambridge, Mass., 1980. Waldbaum, J. C. Metalwork from Sardis: The Finds through 1974. Cambridge, Mass., 1983. Yegu¨l, F. The Bath-Gymnasium Complex at Sardis. Cambridge, Mass., 1986.

The Urban Economy of Pergamon

Klaus Rheidt

The acropolis of Pergamon, situated on a steep, mountainous spurlike formation between the valleys of the Selinos and Ketios Rivers, towers over the wide plain of the Kaikos. The Kaikos is one of the large rivers that have their sources in the highlands of Anatolia and, with a westward course, flow into the Aegean. Since Hellenistic times, the fertile middle valley of the Kaikos constituted the core of the kingdom of Pergamon, from which the fast-growing town drew its agricultural resources.1 Whereas the Hellenistic city had been restricted to the fortified hill and its southern slopes, as early as the second century A.D. the center of settlement began to shift to the plain, where there was enough water and space for new public buildings and luxurious houses.2 By the fourth and fifth centuries, when the townscape was already characterized by magnificent Byzantine churches3—such as the large basilica with two-storied side aisles built into the temple formerly dedicated to the Egyptian deities, and the basilica built in the Hellenistic lower agora—the acropolis was gradually losing its significance. The settlement on the southern slope of the fortified hill was soon almost completely deserted. A large number of older, abandoned dwellings had already been looted around 270 A.D. to provide the building materials for a ring of fortifications to hold back the Goths.4

The center of the settlement of Pergamon in late Roman and early Byzantine times

This chapter was translated by Nikos Petropoulos and John Solman.

1Cf. W. Radt, Pergamon: Geschichte und Bauten, Funde und Erforschung einer Antiken Metropole (Cologne, 1988), 15ff, 24ff.

2On the buildings in the lower city, see E. Boehringer, “Pergamon,” in Neue deutsche Ausgrabungen im Mittelmeergebiet und im Vorderen Orient (Berlin, 1959), 136ff, and K. Rheidt, Die Stadtgrabung, pt. 2,

Die byzantinische Wohnstadt (Berlin, 1991), 41ff; U. Wulf, “Der Stadtplan von Pergamon,” IstMitt 44 (1994): 156ff. On the water supply, see Radt, Pergamon, 167ff.

3Rheidt, Byzantinische Wohnstadt, 182ff, 193ff, 226ff, 237, 243. For the church in the temple of the Egyptian deities, see O. Deubner, “Das Heiligtum der alexandrischen Gottheiten in Pergamon genannt ‘Kizil Avli,’” IstMitt 27/28 (1977–78): 227ff. For the church in the lower Agora, see W. Do¨rpfeld, “Die 1900–1901 in Pergamon gefundenen Bauwerke,” AM 27 (1902): 31ff.

4A. Conze, Stadt und Landschaft (Berlin, 1913), 299, 358; Wulf, “Stadtplan,” 169f; M. Klinkott, Die Stadtmauern, pt. 1, Die byzantinischen Befestigungsanlagen (Berlin, 2001), 8ff; K. Rheidt, “Pergamon and the Byzantine Millennium,” in Pergamon, Citadel of the Gods, ed. H. Koester (Harrisburg, 1998), 397.

624 KLAUS RHEIDT

lay at the foot of the fortified hill; the residential settlement expanded from the center of the Roman city, where the churches were erected later, far out into the plain5 (Fig. 1). Archaeological finds in the lower city, and particularly in the area of the Asklepieion, show that this settlement remained in use until at least the sixth century and that it was rebuilt many times over.6 The area of early Byzantine Pergamon, not including the acropolis, measured at least 230 ha, so that the number of inhabitants that can be inferred must exceed 35,000.7 Apart from the two churches, both dating from the fourth/fifth centuries, little can be said about the layout or construction of the town, since its remains have almost completely disappeared under the new buildings of the provincial town of Bergama. In the sixth century, the economic potential of Pergamon seems, nevertheless, to have been great enough to allow the building of a massive fortification wall across the southern hillside (Figs. 1, 2), thanks to which the acropolis and the southern terraces became a safe refuge for a large part of the population.8

From the seventh century, at the latest, the population of Pergamon dropped dra- matically—a phenomenon also observed in many other towns of Asia Minor—as a result of the advance of the Persians and the Arabs right up to the Aegean coast. The unfortified sections of the settlement in the plain were most vulnerable to the regular and devastating incursions of the attackers from the east, and therefore had to be gradually abandoned. Numismatic finds show that the ancient acropolis, with the early Byzantine walls, was used again in the 670s; it served as an occasional shelter for the population of the lower city and probably also as a military base.9 Even so, by the early eighth century the city of Pergamon had apparently become so depopulated that not even these walls could be defended satisfactorily. The once-important ancient metropolis had ceased to exist as an urban settlement, and in 716 A.D. the castle fell to Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik, who established his winter quarters in the area.10

Until the first half of the eleventh century, the site remained largely deserted, although toward the end of the ninth century and in the course of the tenth the fortified hill seems to have accommodated a military post. We have no buildings or finds of any

5W. Radt, “Die byzantinische Wohnstadt von Pergamon,” Diskussionen zur archa¨ologischen Bauforschung 3 (1978): 203; Rheidt, Byzantinische Wohnstadt, 241ff and fig. 47; Wulf, “Stadtplan,” 160ff.

6Rheidt, Byzantinische Wohnstadt, 188ff, 192ff; G. de Luca, Das Asklepieion: Via Tecta und Hallenstraße, Die Funde (Berlin, 1984), 18ff, 45ff, 82, 154ff.

7Wulf, “Stadtplan,” 166ff. If the populated surface extended beyond this line to reach the elevated ridges, as has been suggested, then the population that can be assumed is possibly even greater. Cf. Rheidt, Byzantinische Wohnstadt, 237; idem, “Pergamon,” 399ff.

8Rheidt, Byzantinische Wohnstadt, 168ff, 244; idem, “Die obere Agora: Zur Entwicklung des hellenistischen Stadtzentrums von Pergamon,” IstMitt 42 (1992): 277ff, 281; Klinkott, Befestigungsanlagen, 19ff, 32f, suggests a date in the 7th century A.D.

9C. Morrisson, “Die byzantinischen Mu¨nzen,” Pergamenische Forschungen 8 (1993): 10ff; Rheidt,

Byzantinische Wohnstadt, 245.

10K. Rheidt, “Byzantinische Wohnha¨user des 11. bis 14. Jahrhunderts in Pergamon,” DOP 44 (1990): 197; Rheidt, Byzantinische Wohnstadt, 245ff; H. Gelzer, Pergamon unter Byzantinern und Osmanen

(Berlin, 1903), 49ff; Klinkott, Befestigungsanlagen, 28ff; Rheidt, “Pergamon,” 401f.

1. Development of the city of Pergamon in Byzantine and Ottoman times (scale 1:20,000) (after K. Rheidt, Die Stadtgrabung, pt. 2, Die byzantinische Wohnstadt [Berlin, 1991], 242, fig. 47

2. Topographical map of Byzantine Pergamon showing all the archaeologically evidenced sites of trades and crafts (scale 1:4,000) (map: A. Atila and K. Rheidt, after Rheidt, Byzantinische Wohnstadt )

sort from that time.11 The first archaeological indications of resettlement come from the last quarter of the eleventh century. At that time, cisterns were fitted to some of the substructures of the temple of Trajan inside the fortified wall (Fig. 2).

Under Manuel I Komnenos (1143–80), Pergamon seems for the first time to have regained specific central functions affecting the surrounding area and the village settlements around it. The new theme of Neokastra had its seat on the fortified hill of Pergamon, and Manuel extended its defensive structures.12 Numismatic and ceramic finds indicate that within the castle a new settlement developed, with a church at its center in place of the ancient sanctuary of Athena, and in fact it was soon elevated to metropolitan status.13 The new settlement expanded fast in the following centuries, and around the middle of the thirteenth century occupied almost the entire southern slope of the hill. The number of inhabitants of this small rural settlement can be inferred from the features and relative density of the complexes of houses excavated to date, which were partly separated by wide, open spaces: with up to eight people in each residential unit and not more than three hundred house complexes, Pergamon could accommodate a maximum of 2,400 inhabitants in those times.14

During the reign of Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos (1261–82), the isolated sections of settlements merged into one relatively extensive set of buildings on the southern hillside. In addition, small rural settlements emerged within the area of the ancient, but still reasonably well preserved, ruins of the lower city (Fig. 1). Along the streets and lanes, craftsmen and merchants set up their modest shops. Clearly, this residential area of town was no longer sufficiently protected by the late Roman walls, yet the building of a new wall was not undertaken until the reign of Andronikos II (1282–1328). This wall, which, with mighty towers, would have surrounded the entire city, was never completed15 (Figs. 1–3). The population of Pergamon seems to have profited from the imperial investment, as the impressively increasing frequency of coin finds from that period shows. Even the powerful earthquake that struck the city in June 129616 could not halt its ever-greater density and prosperity. The reconstruction of the ruined dwellings with new stone floors and carefully built brick stoves clearly

11Pergamon is mentioned as one of the cities of the Thrakesion theme set up by Leo III and later belonged to the maritime theme of Samos. Gelzer, Pergamon, 62ff, 75ff. Cf. Rheidt, Byzantinische Wohnstadt, 246; Klinkott, Befestigungsanlagen, 31f.

12Nicetae Choniatae Historia, ed. I. Bekker (Bonn, 1835), 194ff, describes Pergamon in this context as po´ li" and poli´cnion. Cf. K. Rheidt, “Chliara: Ein Beitrag zur spa¨tbyzantinischen Topographie der pergamenischen Landschaft,” IstMitt 36 (1986): 225ff, 241ff; Rheidt, Byzantinische Wohnstadt, 247ff; idem, “Pergamon,” 402f; Klinkott, Befestigungsanlagen, 35ff.

13Morrisson, “Byzantinische Mu¨nzen,” 10ff; Rheidt, Byzantinische Wohnstadt, 155ff, 164ff, 197, 247ff.

14Rheidt, Byzantinische Wohnstadt, 238ff.

15Rheidt, Byzantinische Wohnstadt, 249ff; Klinkott, Befestigungsanlagen, 87ff; Conze, Stadt und Landschaft, 307ff and insert 64.

16Georgii Pachymeris De Michaele et Andronico Palaeologis libri XIII, ed. I. Bekker (Bonn, 1835), 2:233ff; Rheidt, “Chliara,” 227.

626 KLAUS RHEIDT

testifies to the economic prosperity of the city, whose population rose to more than 3,000 inhabitants toward the end of the thirteenth century.17

For all the extensions to the fortifications, the advance of the Turks could not be halted. By the beginning of the fourteenth century, the whole of Asia Minor, with the exception of a few mightily fortified cities, was in Turkish hands. Many a peasant from the surrounding area sought refuge behind the walls of Pergamon. The never-ending stream of refugees and the shortage of food supplies eventually caused even more complicated problems. Malnutrition and disease spread in the area of the settlement within the city walls, which was now crammed with people. The residential units, once relatively spacious, were split up again and again in order to take in more newcomers and make room for a population that was probably far in excess of 4,000 inhabitants.18

Around the middle of the second decade of the fourteenth century, the city of Pergamon fell to the Turks. The settlement on the mountain was entirely deserted and left to decay. Most of the Christian peasants from the area around the castle, who had sought refuge within the walls, were led back to their fields as captives and slaves. In the small Turkish settlement at the foot of the castle hill, on either side of the Selinos River (Fig. 1), the few remaining Christian families were reduced to the status of a tolerated minority. Even so, around the middle of the fourteenth century they were able to build a modest monastery on one of the less attractive sites among the ruins; the monastery must have played some part in the administration of the small community that remained. Archaeological indications as to the duration of the use of these structures do not go beyond the year 1389.19 After that, the hillside was finally abandoned as a place of settlement. The Christian population, not exceeding a few hundred, was of no importance either numerically or financially for the development of the Ottoman province over the following centuries.

After the complete dissolution, in the seventh and early eighth centuries A.D., of what was left of the city of late antiquity, Pergamon lost any economic potential for many centuries to come. Not until after urbanization was resuscitated on the hillside toward the end of the eleventh century do we find any indications of commercial activities, in the form of stores and workshops that supplied the garrison of the castle and the small settlement huddled in it. The ordinary stores and workshops along the traffic routes consisted mostly of only one room, but sometimes there was also a small antechamber that was probably roofed. In the area of the residential city on the southern slope of the mountain, excavated from 1973 to 1993 by the German Archaeological Institute, such arrangements were found principally on the main way to the acropolis and along a path that, passing between the former sanctuary of Demeter and the classical Gymna-

17Rheidt, “Byzantinische Wohnha¨user,” 197ff, and Byzantinische Wohnstadt, 200, 239, fig. 46 and table 7.

18Rheidt, Byzantinische Wohnstadt, 239, 251. On the health conditions of the population, see M. Schultz, “Ergebnisse osteologischer Untersuchungen an mittelalterlichen Kinderskeletten unter besonderer Beru¨cksichtigung anatolischer Populationen,” Anthropologischer Anzeiger 47.1 (1989): 39ff.

19Rheidt, Byzantinische Wohnstadt, 202, 232ff, 252; K. Rheidt, “Bogazko¨y und Pergamon: Zur byzantinischen Klosterarchitektur in Kleinasien,” IstMitt 43 (1993): 479ff.