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The exploitation and control of woodland and scrubland in the Byzantine world*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Archibald Dunn
Archibald Dunn*
Affiliation:
The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham
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Extract

A welcome and necessary aspect of the renewal of studies of the Byzantine economy has been the analysis, sometimes in both the technical and the broader organisational aspects, of the production and redistribution of particular goods.

Type
Critical Studies
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 16 , 1992 , pp. 235 - 298
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 1992

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References

1. For example, Sodini, J.-P. et al., Les carrières de marbre à l’époque paléochrétienne, Alikil (École Française d’Athènes, 1980)Google Scholar; Vryonis, S., ‘The question of the Byzantine mines’, Speculum 37 (1962) 1–17 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bryer, A., ‘The question of Byzantine mines in the Pontos …’, Anatolian Studies 32 (1982) 133–150 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hendy, M., Coinage and money in the Byzantine empire 1081-1261 (Dumbarton Oaks 1969)Google Scholar; Muthesius, A., ‘A practical approach to the history of Byzantine silk weaving’, JÖB 34 (1984) 235–254 Google Scholar; eadem, ‘From seed to samites: aspects of Byzantine silk production’, Textile History 20 (1989) 135-149; Philippe, J., Le monde byzantin dans l’histoire de la verrerie (Bologna 1970)Google Scholar; Weinberg, G., ‘A medieval mystery: Byzantine glass-production’, Journal of Glass Studies 17 (1975) 127–141 Google Scholar; Noonan, T., ‘Technology transfer between Byzantium and Eastern Europe: a case study of the glass industry in early Russia’, Medieval Studies in Minnesota 3 (St Cloud 1988) 105–111 Google Scholar; Recherches sur les amphores grecques, edd. J.-Y.Empereur-Y.Garlan (École Française d’Athènes 1989); Doorninck, G.Bass-F.van, YassiAda I (Texas A & M University 1982)Google Scholar; Smedley, J., Byzantium, the Crimea and the Steppe 550-750 (Unpublished doctoral thesis, Birmingham University, 1984)Google Scholar, chap.5, iii (‘Economy and trade’).

2. For this ‘new tradition’ see for example Hendy, M., ‘Economy and state in Late Rome and Early Byzantium: an introduction’, in idem, The economy, fiscal administration and coinage of Byzantium (London 1989) IGoogle Scholar; or Haldon, J., ‘Some considerations on Byzantine society and economy in the seventh century’, BF 10 (1985) 75–112 Google Scholar (an important article in fact concerned with much of the Early and Middle Byzantine periods). For an alternative model see Engels, D., Roman Corinth, an alternative model for the classical city (Chicago 1990) 131–142.Google Scholar

3. The spectre is palpable in Oikonomidès, N., ‘Silk trade and production in Byzantium from the sixth to the ninth century: the seals of kommerkiarioi’, DOP 40 (1986) 33–53 Google Scholar. But the traditional view of the Byzantine economy was effectively discredited: see Hendy, M., Studies in the Byzantine monetary economy c.300-1450 (Cambridge 1985)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, hereafter Hendy

4. The methodological and conceptual problems of the integration of survey-findings into Byzantine economic history perhaps deserve a special study. The value of certain forms of interdisciplinary survey for the study of medieval rural economies seems to have been questioned, perhaps in ignorance of the Eastern Mediterranean material already available. For such criticisms, which are to be rejected, see the views expressed in Bazzana-G.Noyé, A., ‘Du “Bon usage” de l’archéologie extensive: une réponse en forme de bilan …’, Castrum 2 (Rome-Madrid 1988) 543–562 Google Scholar (for instance at 558, referring to intensive survey, ‘l’inutile et utopique exhaustivité’; at 559, the alleged ‘poverty’ of this type of survey’s results for our understanding of medieval settlement- systems!).

5. For the Islamic tradition see Miquel, A., La géographie humaine du monde musulman jusqu’au milieu de IIe siècle I-III (Paris 21973, 1975, 1980).Google Scholar

6. Ioannis Caminiatae De expugnatione Thessalonicae, ed. G.Böhlig (Berlin 1973) E5-6. Only at 5.15 does he refer to game (deer) found in the ‘mountains’ (őoη) around the Langadas Basin, which is in practice a reference to woodlands. The word oros was virtually synonymous with woodland. One fifteenth-century ekphrasis, loannes Eugenikos on the village of Pedina in the Peloponnese, does at least mention pannage: Lampros, S., I (Athens 1912) 52.Google Scholar

7. For these aspects of the Middle Byzantine rural economy see now Harvey, A., Economic Expansion in the Byzantine Empire 900-1200 (Cambridge 1989)Google Scholar chaps.2-5 (hereafter Harvey); for the same aspects of the Late Byzantine rural economy Nesbitt, J., Mechanisms of agricultural production on estates of the Byzantine praktika (Ph.D., Wisconsin University 1972)Google Scholar; Kondov, N., ‘Das Dorf Gradec (demographisch-wirtschaftliche Gestalt eines Dorfes im Gebiet des unteren Strymons zu Beginn des XIV.Jh.)’, Études Balkaniques 7 (1971) 31–55 Google Scholar; idem, ‘Produktionsorganisatorische Verschiebungen bei dem Weinbau in der ersten Hälfte des 14. Jahrhunderts im Gebiet des unteren Strymons’, Études Balkaniques 9 (1973/1) 67-76; idem, ‘Über den wahrscheinlichen Weizenertrag auf der Balkanhalbinsel im Mittelalter’, Études Balkaniques 10 (1974/1) 97-109; idem, ‘Das Dorf Gradec …’, Études Balkaniques 13 (1977/3) 71-91; Laiou-Thomadakis, A., Peasant Society in the Late Byzantine Empire, a Social and Demographic Study (Princeton 1977)Google Scholar, parts of chaps. 2 and 5. For Byzantine pastoralism in particular see Hendy 55-57 and Harvey 149-157; for some Late Byzantine evidence from S.E. Macedonia, Kondov, ‘Das Dorf Gradec …’ (1977) 79-85; for its late medieval Pontic variant, Bryer, A., ‘Greeks and Türkmens: the Pontic exception’, DOP (1975) 113–148.Google Scholar

8. For remarks about the control and exploitation of woodland and scrubland in another part of the Byzantine world see Martin-G.Noyé, J.-M., ‘Les campagnes de l’Italie méridionale byzantine (Xe-XIe siècles)’, Mélanges de l’École Française de Rome. Moyen Age 101 (1989) 581 and 583–4.Google Scholar

9. I follow the categories of Rackham, O., ‘Observations on the historical ecology of Boeotia’, ABSA 78 (1983) 291–351 Google Scholar, hereafter Rackham(2). I have no references which 1 can relate to shiblyak.

10. On the traditional importance of orchards as a source of fuel, fodder and light building materials see Rackham, O., ‘Land-use and native vegetation in Greece’, Archaeological aspects of woodland ecology, edd. Bell-S.Limbrey, M. (B.A.R. S142, 1982)Google Scholar, hereafter Rackham(l), 192 (with specific reference to Greece). Alan Harvey makes useful observations on Byzantine olive-growing and mulberry-plantations (Harvey 144-149). Koukoulès, Ph., (Athens 1948-1955)Google Scholar, hereafter Koukoulès, at V 274-79 describes some arboricultural practices (planting, grafting, etc.).

11. Turrill, W., The plant-life of the Balkan Peninsula. A phytogeographical study (Oxford 1929) 192.Google Scholar

12. Rackham(2). Rackham’s subject is not really addressed in the final publications of two Greek regional surveys so far available: The Minnesota Messenia Expedition (Minnesota 1972 onwards) and Renfrew-M.Wagstaff, C., An island polity. The archaeology of exploitation in Melos (Cambridge 1982).Google Scholar

13. See for instance Forbes, H., ‘Gathering in the Argolid: a subsistence subsystem in a Greek agricultural community’, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (hereafter ANYAS) 268 (1976) 251–264 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Forbes-H.Koster, M., ‘Fire, axe and plow: human interference in local plant-communities in the Southern Argolid’, ANYAS 268 (1976) 109–126 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Forbes, H., ‘Farming and foraging in prehistoric Greece: a cultural ecological perspective’, ANYAS 268 (1976) 127–142 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gavrielides, N., ‘The impact of olive growing on the landscape in the Fourni valley’, ANYAS 268 (1976) 143–157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14. Rackham(2) 329-37 and 344-7.

15. Rackham(2) 320-1; Rackham(1) 192; also Wright, J. et al., ‘The Nemea Valley Archaeological Project: a preliminary report’, Hesperia 59 (1990), 592, n. 30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

16. The causes and extent of erosion in the Byzantine world are vexed questions which can only be properly studied within a multiperiod framework. But Hendy 58-68 (‘The problem of erosion’) establishes that lowland alluviation, therefore presumably upland erosion, was happening in the Byzantine world. But it is premature to assign ‘deforestation’ a role.

17. See Lefort, J., ‘Radolibos: population et paysage’, TM 9 (1985) 195–234 Google Scholar, particularly 197-222; idem, ‘Population and landscape in Eastern Macedonia during the Middle Ages: the example of Radolibos’, Continuity and Change in Late Byzantine and Early Ottoman Society (Birmingham 1986) 11-21, particularly 15 onwards; and Geyer, B., ‘Esquisse pour une histoire des paysages depuis l’an mil’, Paysages de Macédoine (Paris 1986) 99–116.Google Scholar

18. See Geyer, op.cit., for a discussion in which the problem of economic factors is raised.

19. For a synthesis of research on the extent of woodland and early medieval clearance, still quoted subject to revisions, see Higounet, C., ‘Les forêts de l’Europe occidentale du Ve au XIe siècle’, Agricoltura e mondo rurale in occidente nell’ alto medioevo. Settimane di studio del centro italiano sull’ alto medioevo XIII (Spoleto 1966) 343–98 Google Scholar, particularly 392-7 on several ‘pulsations’ of clearance and regeneration prior to the ‘grands défrichements’ of the twelfth and later centuries. For good examples of the revision of his work see Oliver Rackham’s studies of English medieval woodlands. See Wickham, C., ‘European forests in the Early Middle Ages: landscape and clearance’, L’ambiente vegetale nell’ alto medioevo. Settimane di studio XXXVII (Spoleto 1990) 499–501 Google Scholar for a qualified reaction to the western environmental and textual evidence. While not actually discussing whether or not the pressure on woodlands had eased before the sixth century Wickham can argue for more continuity of settlement between Roman and early medieval times around and within wooded areas than was once thought likely. For relative continuity in levels of afforestation see Bell, M., ‘Environmental archaeology as an index to continuity and change in the medieval landscape’, The rural landscape of medieval England, edd. Aston-D.Austin-C.Dyer, M. (Oxford 1989) 273 onwardsGoogle Scholar. Geyer (Paysages de Macédoine 101-6) in fact proposed the parallelism of a sequence of deposits and incisions in a ravine in S.E. Macedonia, reflecting phases of deforestation, with a pollen-profile from Litokhoro in W.Macedonia and known pulsations of the regional economy.

20. Turner, J., ‘The vegetation of Greece during prehistoric times: the palynological evidence’, Thera and the Aegean world I (London 1978) 769 Google Scholar, using S.Bottema’s unpublished doctoral thesis Late Quaternary vegetational history of northwestern Greece. The changes established at these and other sites sometimes relate to arboreal pollen that could be either woodland or scrubland-derived.

21. Athanasiades, N., ‘Zur postglazialen Vegetationsentwicklung von Litokhoro Katerinis und Pertouli Trikalon (Griechenland)’, Flora 164 (1975) 112–118 Google Scholar; Turner, art.cit. 769.

22. Athanasiades, art.cit. 123; Turner, art.cit. 770.

23. Bottema, S., ‘Palynological investigations in Greece with special reference to pollen as an indicator of human activity’, Palaeohistoria 24 (1982) 281 Google Scholar; Athanasiades, art.cit., 127.

24. Bottema, art.cit., 287.

25. Ibid., 265.

26. For the vegetational phenomena see Bottema, art.cit., Fig.4 (unbound). For archaeological indications of an Early Byzantine demographic peak in Greece and Cyprus see for instance Bintliff-A.Snodgrass, J., ‘The Cambridge/Bradford Boeotian Expedition: the first four years’, The Journal of Field Archaeology 12 (1985), 157 Google Scholar (Table 6); Runnels-T.van Andel, C., ‘The evolution of Settlement in the Southern Argolid, Greece: an economic explanation’, Hesperia 56 (1987) 324 (Fig. 15)Google Scholar; Rupp, D., ‘The Canadian Palaipaphos Survey Project. Third preliminary report, 1983-1985’, Acta Archaeologica 57 (1986) 32 Google Scholar (Table 1), on which one should consider sites labelled ‘Earlier Roman/Later Roman, Later Roman, Later Roman/Earlier Byzantine’, and ‘Earlier Byzantine’, to form a qualitative impression of Early Byzantine site-numbers relative to other periodic peaks. J.Wright-J.Cherry-J.Davis-E.Mantzouranis, To 1984-1985, 18 (1985) 92 (EIK.4), meanwhile remind us that no trend of this kind is detectable everywhere.

27. Bottema, art.cit., 265-6.

28. Greig-J.Turner, J., in Excavations at Sitagroi, a prehistoric village in northeast Greece, edd. Renfrew, C. et al. (Los Angeles 1986) 46 and 47.Google Scholar

29. Greig-J.Turner, J., ‘Some pollen diagrams and their archaeological significance’, Journal of Archaeological Science 1 (1974) 182 Google Scholar (Fig.3). The same profiles are discussed in Turner-J.Grieg, J., ‘Some Holocene pollen diagrams from Greece’, Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 20 (1975) 194–200 Google Scholar. The cores were extracted with a view to supplementing for the protohistoric and historical eras the data of a Dutch survey of 1960, for which see brieflyt Hammen, T.van der et al., ‘Palynological study of a very thick peat-section in Greece and the Würm-Glacial vegetation in the Mediterranean region’, Geologie en Mijnbouw 44 (1965) 37–39.Google Scholar

30. Turner-Grieg, art.cit., 202-3. The Byzantine period is implicitly at section Gl/2, Fig.6 (202).

31. The connection between two distinct phases of Early and Middle Byzantine settlement-intensification and the intensification of land-use has already been successfully documented for a region of S.Greece, with a correlation of the chronologies of alluviation and site-occupation. See Pope, T.van Andel-C.Runnels-K., ‘Five thousand years of land use and abuse in the Southern Argolid, Greece’, Hesperia 55 (1986), 103–28 Google Scholar (see particularly Fig. 15). The apparent disintensification of settlement from the seventh to ninth centuries is accompanied by a resurgence of pines and maquis: art.cit., 122, reference to unpublished pollen-profiles.

32. It is not absent there, but is rarely useful for present purposes, for instance an analysis of a pollen-profile from Lake Copais in Boeotia: Rackhamil) 339-343. See The Minnesota Messenia Expedition I chap.12, by H.Wright, for the extremely meagre results for our purposes of a search for polliniferous sediments all over the Péloponnèse. For an example of the difficulty of interpreting the small S.Greek pollen-residues see Randolph, W., ‘Excavations at Porto Cheli. Preliminary report V: the Early Byzantine remains’, Hesperia 48 (1979) 321–4 Google Scholar (M.Sheehan, ‘Pollen analysis of Halieis sediments’).

33. The Strymon Delta Project, the Langadas Basin Survey, and the Grevena Survey have not yet published the relevant data.

34. See note 31 above.

35. Demographic resurgence and the revival of agriculture as overriding trends for much of the Middle Byzantine period is the thesis of Harvey.

36. Roberts, N., ‘Human-induced landscape change in South and Southwest Turkey during the later Holocene’, Man’s role in the shaping of the Eastern Meditrranean landscape, edd. Zeist, S.Bottema-G.Entjes-Niebord-W.van (Rotterdam-Brookfield 1990) 59–64 Google Scholar. See also M.Harrison, ‘Nouvelles découvertes romaines tardives et paléobyzantines en Lycie’, Comptes rendus de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (1979) 222-239 for references to the natural reafforestation of Early Byzantine and then of Middle Byzantine phases of upland-settlement and terraces in S.W. Turkey. Hopefully recent and ongoing interdisciplinary surveys in S.W. Turkey (the British survey of the territorium of Balboura and the German survey of the territorium of Kyaneai) will contribute to this discussion.

37. See Harvey 64-65 for a discussion of this document in the context of the very longlasting expansion of the Middle Byzantine rural economy.’

38. ‘Le testament d’Eustathios Boïlas’, éd. and comm. P.Lemerle, Cinq études sur le Xf siècle (Paris 1977), text: 20-29,1.49. S.Vryonis unaccountably translates as ‘foul’: idem, ‘The will of a provincial magnate, Eustathios Boïlas (1059)’, DOP 11 (1957) 265. Boilas’ estates were probably in N.E. Anatolia (idem, 275-6). Lemerle’s vague location in S.E. Anatolia (Lemerle, op.cit., 47) is rightly questioned: Kazhdan, A., ‘Remarques sur le XIe siècle byzantin à propos d’un livre récent de Paul Lemerle’, B 49 (1979) 492 Google Scholar onwards. Boilas refers to the clearance and equipping of one estate (Lemerle, op.cit., text: 11.48-55) then lists the other somewhat similarly reclaimed estates (11.55-60).

39. See ‘Wood and woodworking’, The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium III (Oxford 1991) 2204.

40. For the treelessness of the central Anatolian plateau in Antiquity see Meiggs 392-3. Its treelessness in the Byzantine era can also be inferred from descriptions, for which see Hendy 40-44. See also Harvey 128.

41. See Meiggs chap.2 and 393-4 for the clear correspondence between the arboreal geography of Antiquity and today.

42. See Rowton, N., ‘The topological factor in the Hapiru problem’, Studies in honor of Benno Landsberger (Chicago 1965) 376–382 Google Scholar for Arabic, Frankish, seventeenth-to-nineteenth-century travellers’, and nineteenth-to-twentieth-century geographers’ references, to the extensive woodlands of northern and western Syria, now severely depleted; also Meiggs 394-5, and Djobadze, W., Archaeological investigations in the region west of Antioch-on-the-Orontes (Stuttgart 1986) 3.Google Scholar

43. C.Wickham, ‘European forests in the Early Middle Ages’ (art.cit., n19) 533.

44. See Rackham(2) 298 for the fact that about a third of Boeotia is covered by scrubland. 39% of central Greece as a whole is covered by woodland and scrubland, including within it some grassland (18.4% ‘forests’, 20.6% ‘partially forested and grazed’): Kouskolekas, N.Yassoglou-D.Catacousinos-A., ‘Land use in the semi-arid zone of Greece’, Land use in semi-arid mediterranean climates (UNESCO 1964) 64 Google Scholar (Table 2). In one Argolid commune the maquis scrubland recently covered 57% of the surface while bare rock and steppic grass covered 10.31%: Forbes-Koster, art.cit. n13, Table 4. In another Argolid commune maquis covered 47.8% of the surface: Gavrielides, art.cit. n13, 151. Woodland and some forms of scrubland cover 20.57% of SE Macedonia today, a calculation that I draw from Stergiades, G., 301 (June 1991) 32 (Fig.l).Google Scholar

45. See Rackham(2) 329-337 and 344-347. As already stated Rackham’s is the only multidisciplinary study of the vegetational history of a Greek region throughout the historical era. I take his model of continuity to be useful, pro tem., for other long-settled E.Mediterranean coastal regions.

46. See now E.Bozilova-S.Tonkov, ‘The impact of man on the natural vegetation in Bulgaria from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages ‘, Man’s role in the shaping of the Eastern Mediterranean landscape, 327-332, which though useful ends effectively with the Roman era.

47. See Beševliev, V., Die protobulgarische Periode der buigarischen Geschichte (Amsterdam 1981) 1–4 Google Scholar; Hendy 25 and 37-39. The plains and valleys of Bulgaria had also contained saltus in the Roman imperial era. Some examples are cited in B.Gerov, ‘Aspekte des Grund-und Bondenbesitzes im römischen Thrakien und Moesien (1-3 Jh.)’, Ancient Bulgaria 2, ed. A.Poulter (Nottingham 1983) 2-3.

48. Bozilova-Tonkov, art.cit.

49. Beševliev, op.cit., 2-3, for instance offers a tabulation of ancient and Byzantine references to woodland in Bulgaria, given implicit meaning by the remark that such areas are now lightly wooded or bare, and by general references to charcoal-making and shipbuilding. The author makes no reference to palaeoenvironmental studies in Bulgaria. But most regional studies do not even reach Beševliev’s position.

50. Hellenkemper, F.Hild-H., Tabula Imperii Byzantini (T.I.B.) S.Kilikien und Isaurien (Vienna 1990) 111–5.Google Scholar

51. Monographs concerning Late Byzantine Epirus, Middle Byzantine Thessaly, Macedonia, Middle Byzantine Thrace, Later Byzantine Thrace, the Middle Byzantine Peloponnese, and Euboea, and the T.I.B. for Phrygia and Pisidia, Cappadocia, Hellas and Thessaly, do not analyse this basic aspect of Byzantine historical geography. An important study of the Middle Byzantine islands of the E.Mediterranean, Malamut, E., Les îles de l’empire byzantin VIIIe-XIIe siècles I-II (Paris 1988)Google Scholar, notes some references to woodland and scrubland and their exploitation without discussion. Koder, P.Soustal-J., T.I.B. S.Nikopolis und Kephallenia (Vienna 1981) 233 Google Scholar, offers without discussion one undated reference to the exportation of timber. The author of a new Byzantine historical topography of western and northern Macedonia evokes but does not seek to define the problem of the history of the exploitation of the regions’ woodlands: Kravari, V., Villes et villages de Macédoine occidentale (Paris 1989) 28–29 Google Scholar. Of course, I do not include Paysages de Macédoine in this category, nor Winfield, A. Bryer-D., The Byzantine monuments and topography of the Pontos (Dumbarton Oaks 1985)Google Scholar, in which there is a useful discussion of the post-Byzantine situation (I, 299). I have not at this time been able to consult the very recently published T.I.B. for Thrace.

52. See Koder, J., Der Lebensraum der Byzantiner. Historisch-geographischer Abriss ihres mittelalterlichen Staates im östlichen Mittelmeerraum (Vienna 1984) 51–54 Google Scholar, or Hendy 59-61.

53. Lombard, M., ‘Arsenaux et bois de marine dans la Méditerranée musulmane VIIe-XIe siècles’, idem, Espaces et réseaux du haut moyen âge (Paris 1972) 110 Google Scholar. This article (op.cit., 107-151), though problematic in its use of Byzantine sources, remains the standard study of the literary sources for the Early Muslim exploitation of the timber-resources of the E. Mediterranean. It should be read together with the same author’s ‘La marine adriatique dans le cadre du moyen âge, VII-XIe siècles’, op.cit., 95-105, and his ‘Le bois dans la Méditerranée musulmane, VIIe-XIe siècles. Un problème cartographie’, op.cit., 153-176.

54. For some recent synthesizing approaches to the long-term material-cultural recession of this period see Mango, C., ‘Daily life in Byzantium’, XVI. Internationaler Byzantinistenkongress. Akten 1/1 (Vienna 1981) 337–353 Google Scholar; C.Bouras, ‘City and village: urban design and architecture’, op.cit., 611-653; Kazhdan, A., ‘Moneta e società’, La cultura bizantina: oggetti e messaggio. Moneta ed economia (Rome 1986) 203–236 Google Scholar; Brandes, W., ‘Die byzantinische Stadt Kleinasiens im 7. und 8. Jahrhundert — ein Forschungsbericht’, Klio 70 (1988) 176–208 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, Die Städie Kleinasiens im 7. und 8. Jahrhundert (Berliner Byzantinistische Arbeiten 56. Berlin 1989); Haldon, J.F., Byzantium in the Seventh Century: the Transformation of a Culture (Cambridge 1990), 92–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

55. For the inappropriateness of Claudio Vita-Finzi’s notorious general model of climatic-environmental change around the Mediterranean beginning in Late Antiquity see in general Davidson, D., ‘Erosion in Greece during the first and second millenia B.C.’, Timescales in geomorphology, edd. Cullingford, R. et al. (Wiley-Interscience 1980) 143–158 Google Scholar; Wagstaff, J., ‘Buried assumptions: some problems in the interpretation of the “Younger Fill” raised by recent data from Greece’, Journal of Archaeological Science 8 (1981) 247–264 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; S.Bottema, art.cit. n.23,276-7 (the absence of any palynological indicators of climatic change to accompany geomorphic events); Renfrew-Wagstaff, An Island Polity 92-3. A strong case for the continuity of the climatic regime is made by the S Argolid Exploration Project: see van Andel-Runnels-Pope, art.cit. n.31, 123-28, and Runnels-van Andel, art.cit. n.26. The Aegean Dendrochronology Project finds unequivocal evidence throughout Anatolia and the Balkans for a shared and consistent regime during the historical era. See P.Kuniholm, ‘Aegean Dendrochronology Report. Expedition to Greece 1979-1980’, National Geographic Society Research Reports 1979-1980 (unpublished), 2-5; idem, ‘Aegean Dendrochronology Project. Spring 1982 Progress Report’ (Cornell University, Department of Classics), 1; idem — Striker, C., ‘Dendrochronological investigations in the Aegean and neighbouring regions, 1977-1982’, Journal of Field Archaeology 10 (1983) 412–414 Google Scholar. More recently initiated projects in historical geomorphology also find no evidence of climatic change in the historical era. See T.van Andel-E.Zangger, ‘Landscape stability and déstabilisation in the prehistory of Greece’, Man’s role in the shaping of the Eastern Mediterranean landscape, 139-57.

56. Constable, A.Kazhdan-G., People and power in Byzantium: an Introduction to Modern Byzantine Studies (Washington D.C. 1982) 49.Google Scholar

57. For the best such qualitative model see Harvey.

58. See Lauffer 1, for the date.

59. See ‘Geoponika’, The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium II, 834.

60. Geoponica, Books 9-11, Book 9 concerns the olive-tree.

61. See for instance Mango, C., Byzantine architecture (London 1986) 11–12 Google Scholar, and ‘Wood and Woodworking’, The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium III, 2204.

62. See for instance Goitein, S., A Mediterranean society, the Jewish communities of the Arab world as portrayed in the documents of the Cairo Geniza I. Economic foundations (University of California 1967)Google Scholar, hereafter Goitein, 46, for the exporting of wooden chests, cupboards, and bedsteads, from Rum to Egypt in the Middle Byzantine period; and Koukoulès II/A, 208, for professional wood-carvers.

63. Koukoulès II/A, 197 and 198-9. For the commercialisation of wooden tableware in the late medieval Balkans see Cvetkova, B., Vie économique des villes et ports balkaniques aux XVe et XVIe siècles (Paris 1971) 93 (Table 7).Google Scholar

64. See L.-A.Hunt, ‘Byzantine woodwork’, The Macmillans Dictionary of Art (forthcoming), which I am most grateful to the author for allowing me to read. See also ‘Wood and Woodworking’, The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium.

65. See for instance the mentions of wooden fixtures in buildings in the inventory of the possessions of the monastery of Iveron: Athos XVI. Iviron II, no.52 (1104), among many others the church whose narthex has some wooden pillars (11. 189-90), the largely wooden building, an (of a type which still existed in Macedonia at the beginning of this century, under the same name) (11. 334-5), or the (11. 434-5).

66. The range of such products is documented by the Price Edict of 301, which regulates the prices of loads of various sizes of branches, stakes, and poles, and loads of woodchips and moss (Diocletian 14.1a and 7-12). See Meiggs 206, 246 and 263, for the practice of coppicing in Antiquity. For the ethnographic evidence of its importance see the works cited at n.13. For leaf-fodder see VI: OAKTREE.

67. See VI: CEDAR, EUPHORBIA, FIR-TREE, GALBANE, JUNIPER, MASTIC, MASTICH-TREE, PINE-TREE, PITCH, RESIN, ∑TPOBIΛAIA, STYRAX, TEREBINTH, TEPEBINΘINH, TPATAKANΘA.

68. See VI: GALBANE, GALLS, OAK-TREE, ΠPINOKOKKION, SUMACH, TEPEBINΘINH.

69. See VI: BARK, CAROB-TREE, GALLS, HOLLY OAK, HOLMOAK, SUMACH, TEPEBINΘINH.

70. See VI: BAY-TREE, CAMEL’S THORN, CASTOR-TREE, CHASTE-TREE, CHRIST’S THORN, JUNIPER, SUMACH, TEPEBINΘINH, WORMWOOD.

71. See VI: CAROB-TREE, CHESTNUT, MAST.

72. See Koukoulès V 387-423; Malamut, Les îles de l’empire byzantin II 433; Zakythinos, D., Le despotat grec de Morée II. Vie et institutions (London 2 1975) 246–7.Google Scholar

73. See evidence cited under entries in VI for products other than timber. For timber see the present section.

74. See Koukoulès II/A 195 and II/B 207-8 and 213 for the producers and middlemen.

75. Of the makers of arboreal extracts we know next to nothing, but for the masticharii of Chios see IV and V.

76. See Meiggs as cited n.66 and the discussion of trade in the present section.

77. See Lombard, ‘Arsenaux et bois de marine …’ (cited n.53) 114-8. Mango refers also to the importation of fifty trunks of pine and cedar from Cyprus to Jerusalem in the early ninth century for the restoration of the Anastasis Church: see his Byzantine Architecture 12. Cyprus was at this time a Byzantine-Muslim ‘condominium’.

78. See for instance Thiriet, F., ‘Problemi dell’ amministrazione veneziana nella Romania XIV-XV sec.’, Venezia e il Levante fino al sec. XV (Florence 1973) 778 Google Scholar; idem, ‘Candie, grande place marchande dans la première moitié du XVe siècle’, KpnxiKd XpoviKÚ 15 (1963) 342 (for Crete); Tsougarakis, D., Byzantine Crete from the 5th century to the Venetian Conquest (Athens 1988) 275–6 Google Scholar (for Crete); Racine, P., ‘Marchands placentins a l’Aïas à la fin du XIIIe siècle’, BF 4 (1972) 201 Google Scholar (for SE Anatolia); Francesco Pegolotti, La pratica della mercatura, ed. A.Evans (Cambridge Mass. 1936) 86 (for Cyprus).

79. Balard, M., La Romanie génoise (XIIIe — début du XVe siècle) (École française de Rome 1978) 851 Google Scholar; Strässle, P., Der internationale Schwartzmeerhandel und Konstantinopel 1261-1484 im Spiegel der sowietischen Forschung (Bern 1990) 122 and IV, n.158.Google Scholar

80. La géographie d’Edrisi, ed. P.-A.Jaubert, II (Paris 1840) 393: Idrisi, referring to ‘Lanio’ on the Pontic coast between Sinope and Kerasous, in ‘Laz’country, identified by Jaubert with Ünye, Byzantine Oinaion, writes ‘On y construit des navires et embarcations de guerre’. Idrisi wrote in the twelfth century and culled much of his information from earlier Arab geographers. But it remains basically a Middle Byzantine reference. For Byzantine Oinaion and its ‘heavily wooded’ hinterland see Winfield, A.Bryer-D., The Byzantine Monuments and Topography of the Pontus (Washington D.C. 1985) 101 onwards.Google Scholar

81. See Ducellier, A., La façade maritime de l’Albanie au moyen âge (Thessalonike 1981) 60 Google Scholar, for the evidence of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. See also Krekic, B., Dubrovnik (RaguseJ et le Levant au moyen âge (Paris 1961) 108 n.5.Google Scholar

82. Athos VII. Prôtaton, no.7 (972) 11. 139-40.

83. Op.cit., no.8 (1045) 11. 102-3.

84. Op.cit., no.8, 11. 60-7 and 99-101 for the directions of maritime traffic. A xylokopeion is mentioned in a delimitation of boundaries on Mount Athos: Athos XV. Xenophon, no.l (1089) 1. 135.

85. Thomas, G. Tafel-G., Urkunden zur älteren Handels- und Staatsgeschichte der Republik Venedig mit besonderer Beziehung auf Byzanz und die Levante, III (Vienna 1856) 278 Google Scholar: the ship concerned was sailing ‘de Saloniche’ when robbed at sea by Greeks.

86. See Koukoulès II/A 195 and 217-8, and IV 441.

87. See Harrison, art.cit. n.36,226 (quoting the vita of St. Nicolas of Sion cap.52), the four necessities there being wood, wheat, flour and wine.

88. See Meiggs as cited n.66. See also Olson, S., ‘Firewood and charcoal in classical Athens’, Hesperia 60 (1991) 411–420 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, particularly 415-419 for the supply of cities as an entrepreneurial operation.

89. See note 66 above.

90. See for instance Tozer, H., The islands of the Aegean (Oxford 1890) 279 Google Scholar: near the southern cape of Pallene (the Kassandreia Peninsula) ‘a vessel was lying in readiness to carry timber to Salonica’. Tozer visited Athos in 1861 (op.cit., 280) and Thessalonica in 1865 (op.cit., 277).

91. Pegolotti, La pratica della mercatura, 104. For Pegolotti’s assemblage of data over the years ca. 1310-1340 see Evans’ introduction xii-xv.

92. Balard, La Romanie génoise, 390.

93. See Thiriet, F., Régestes des deliberations du sénat de Venise concernant la Romanie I (Paris 1958) 228 Google Scholar for the cantare.

94. See Forbes-Koster art.cit. n.13,121 (Table 5).

95. See Polunin, O., Trees and bushes of Europe (Oxford 1976)Google Scholar, hereafter Polunin, under entries for individual trees and shrubs.

96. Castor-tree oil (Aezani 34.76-77; Mastic (Diocletian 36.63; Aezam 34.17); terebinthinae (Diocletian 36.127-8); resin or pitch (Diocletian 36.130; Aezani 34.76-7); storax (Diocletian 36.57-8); wormwood (Aezani 34.19).

97. Syria is recorded as the source of cedar-wood, galbane, galls, styrax, sumach, terebinth-products and tragacanth (see VI).

98. For an origin ca. 911-12 see Das Eparchenbuch Leons des Weisen, ed. J.Koder (CFHB 32, Vienna 1991), hereafter Eparch, 31-2.

99. Eparch 5.4.

100. See Koukoulès II/A 205-7.

101. See n.97 for the principal recorded arboreal exports of medieval Syria. See Eparch 10.1 for the itemised products (non-Syrian).

102. See for instance Meiggs 85-6 for Antiquity. For the early medieval west see Wickham, art.cit. n.19, 524-5.

103. See Lombard, art.cit. n.53, particularly 134-8.

104. Principally Ahrweiler, H., ‘Fonctionnaires et bureaux maritimes à Byzance’, REB 31 (1961) 239–52 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; eadem, Byzance et la mer. La marine de guerre, la politique, et les institutions maritimes de Byzance aux VIIe-XVe siècles (Paris 1966); for late seventh-century arrangements, Antoniadis-Bibicou, H., Études d’histoire maritime de Byzance à propos du thème des Caravisiens (Paris 1966)Google Scholar; and now for the main developments, Malamut, Les îles de l’empire byzantin, 1 296-334 (and maps 644-6).

105. See Lombard, art.cit. n.53,133-4.

106. Athos VIII. Prôtaton, no.8 (1045) 11. 102-3, where it is stated that the trade existed: .

107. Ahrweiler, Byzance et la mer, 122-9.

108. See Lilie, R.-J., Handel und Politik zwischen dem byzantinischen Reich und den italianischen Kommunen Venedig, Pisa und Genua in der Epoche der Komnenen und der Angeloi (1081-1204) (Amsterdam 1984) 264–84 Google Scholar (‘Die Handelsobjekte’). The Venetians were exporting central European timber to Egypt (op.cit. 266). But their exportation of Cretan timber begins shortly after the division of the Byzantine empire in 1204: Tsougarakis, Byzantine Crete from the 5th century to the Venetian conquest 275.

109. See , ed. M.Nystazopoulou-Pelekidou (Athens 1980), hereafter Patmos II, no.50 (1073) 11. 151,152. Imperial estates in W Asia Minor, charges for the exploitation of which indicate that they contained much woodland and scrubland (see V), were controlled by . But an examination of the photographs of the document confirms that the scribe put rough breathings for smooth all too frequently I would therefore read , just as one must read . Orophylax recalls the woodland-charge of orokopion, for which see n.128.

110. Nicetae Choniatae Historia, ed. J.van Dieten (Berlin 1975) 540 1. 47-541 1. 1.

111. See Meiggs 330 for the saltuarii.

112. For the Nicaean fleet see Ahrweiler, Byzance et la mer 304 onwards, and Angold, M., A Byzantine government in exile. Government and Society under the Laskarids of Nicaea (1204-1261) Oxford 1975) 196–201.Google Scholar

113. Angold, op.cit. 116 onwards.

114. See Ahrweiler, op.cit., 426-7 for this concession.

115. Ahrweiler, op.cit., 376 onwards; Nicol, D., The last centuries of Byzantium 1261-1453 (London 1972) 114–15.Google Scholar

116. Mertzios, K., (Thessalonike 1947) 20–21 Google Scholar, summarising an entry in the Venetian Commemoriali. For the nature of this archive see briefly Thiriet, F., La Romanie vénitienne au moyen âge (Paris 1959) 21 Google Scholar. Andronikos 11 attempted to assert or re-assert other exporting restrictions which remind one of imperial monopolies, for instance upon salt and mastic: see Chrysostomides, J., ‘Venetian commercial privileges under the Palaeologi’, Studi veneziani 12 (1970) 273.Google Scholar

117. See Thiriet, F., Régestes des deliberations du sénat de Venise concernant la Romanie III (Paris 1961) no.2994 (1455)Google Scholar, summarising a document to be found in Noiret, H., Documents pour servir à l’histoire dela Crète sous la domination vénitienne 1380-1485 (Paris 1892) 444 Google Scholar: ‘inde (Constantinople) deferebatur hue (Crete) maxima copia lignaminis dogarum’, a trade then banned.

118. CTh. xi, 16.15; xi, 16.18 (Theodosiani Libri XVI cum Constitutionibus Sirmondianis, ed. Th.Mommsen, P.Meyer et al. [Berlin 1905]; Eng. transl. Pharr, C. et al., The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondian Constitutions, [Princeton 1952]Google Scholar 11.16.15 [A.D. 382] and 11.16.18 [A.D. 390]).

119. See Jones, A.H.M., The Later Roman Empire 284-602: a social, economic and administrative survey, II (Oxford 1964) 788–9 Google Scholar, and Hendy 637-8, for the scale of imperial possessions. See CTh. v,12.2; v.13; v.14.31 and vii.7.2, for the leasing of imperial saltus(woodland/scrubland-pasture) and farmland.

120. The needs of the mints and armourers are mentioned in the imperial concession of the year A.D. 382. See Meiggs 258-9 for evidence of emperors’ assumption of responsibility in Late Antiquity for organising the fuel-supply of the public baths of Rome. The needs of the fleet, public works, and Cursus Publicus were also certainly, mines and the fuel-supply of Constantinople probably, imperial responsibilities. For indications of the Cursus’ own arboreal needs see Jones, op.cit., 833 and for the status of mines 838.

121. See Ahrweiler, Byzance et la mer 141-2 and 147, n.l for their support of provincial forces; Hendy 87-90 for the Balkans, and 104 and 106 for Eastern Anatolia and Syria; Oikonomidès, N., ‘L’organisation de la frontière orientale de Byzance aux Xe-XIe siècles et le Taktikon de l’Escoriale’, Actes du XIVe congrès international des études byzantines, I (Bucharest 1974) 300 for the eastern frontier.Google Scholar

122. Constantini Porphyrogeniti imperatoris De Cerimoniis Aulae Byzantinae, ed. J.Reiske, I (Bonn 1829) 665. This illustrates the special nature of the marine strateia. The ‘eighth indication’ refers, of course, to the eighth year of the fifteen-year indictional cycle.

123. For the general applicability of these rights (barring specifically exempted groups), in theory assessed according to fiscal ratings, see Stavridou-Zaphraka, A., ‘H 11 (1982) 36–8 and 40–1 Google Scholar (early and middle Byzantine evidence), where also evidence of the exploitation of imperial properties. These rights could affect any sphere of economic activity.

124. Athos V. Lavra I, no.48 (1086) I. 42; ed. E.Vranouse (Athens 1980), hereafter Patmos I, no.6 (1088) 1. 56; Lavra I, no.51 (1092), 11. 11-12; MMIV, no.l (1228) 4 (Lembos); MMIV, no.2 (1235) 17 (Lembos).

125. Lavra I, no.48 (1086) 11. 42-3; Patmos I, no.6 (1088) 11. 57-8. There is also the obscure provision , which it has been proposed means the planking of the lower hull (Ducange, s.v.): Patmos I, no.7 (1088) 1. 22; Patmos I, no.8 (1119) 1. 7; Patmos I, no. 11 (1197) 1. 25. Its continued appearance among immunities throughout the twelfth century is interesting.

126. Lavra I, no.48 (1086) 1. 43; Patmos I, no.6 (1088) 1. 57; MM IV, no.l (1228) 4; MM IV, no.2 (1235) 17.

127. MM IV, nos.l and 2 as cited above.

128. Lavra I, no.51 (1092) 1. 12; MMIV, nos.l and 2 as cited above. See Haldon, J., Byzantine Praetorians (Bonn 1984) n.978Google Scholar for the levying of charcoal from estates and for the clearly related levying of iron (presumably as ore).

129. That the army needed pitch, timber, and firewood is stressed by a middle Byzantine military treatise: see Three Byzantine Military Treatises, ed. G.Dennis (Washington, D.C. 1985) 63.63; 30.14 and 26.9-10, for each of these items respectively. The commercialisation of firewood from the Athos Peninsula was forbidden by John I in 972 (Prôtaton, no.7,11. 139-40) and by Constantine IX in 1045 (Prôtaton, no.8,11. 102-3).

130. See Stavridou-Zaphraka, art.cit. n.123,33,34,37 and nn.72-3,80 and 98.

131. AthosXIII. Docheiariou, no.9 (1280/1) 1.40; Athos VIII. Lavra II, no.89 (1298) 1. 162 onwards. This immunity is also listed in a chrysobull of the Tsar Stefan Dusan: Athos VI. Esphigménou, no.24 (1347) 1. 31.

132. For examples of immunity from the xylakhyron see Esphigménou, no.23 (1347) 1. 31 and Les archives de Saint-Jean-Prodrome sur le mont Ménécée, ed. A.Guillou (Paris 1955), no.26 (1332) 1. 67; Athos XV. Xénophon, no.29 (1352) 1.20; in fact in only one instance a Byzantine document (that of 1332).

133. Stavridou-Zaphraka, art.cit. n.123, passim.

134. Stavridou-Zaphraka, art.cit. n.123,30 and n.57 (early and middle Byzantine evidence).

135. De Cerimoniis, I 673 and 677.

136. Three Byzantine Military Treatises, 10 1. 14 and 18 1. 98.

137. Stavridou-Zaphraka, art.cit. n.123,30 and 50-2.

138. For the fiscalisation of all these services in the eleventh century see now Harvey 110-13. For the cursus publicus see Jones, Later Roman Empire 830-4; for the succession cursus-dromos see now Hendy 294-6. For enrolment in the service of the dromos (as for the cursus) as involving a separate fiscal group see now Stavridou-Zaphraka, art.cit. n.123,44 and nn.135 and 138-9. For the provincial maritime strateia see Ahrweiler, Byzance et la mer 109.

139. Harvey 113.

140. Ahrweiler, Byzance et la mer 134-5.

141. Its absence from Byzantine archives after 1060 has been noted: Harvey, A., ‘Peasant categories in the tenth and eleventh centuries’, BMGS 14 (1990) 255 Google Scholar. The Anatolian dromos could not have survived the upheavals of the 1070s (for its network see Hendy 609 onwards). Laurent can argue on the basis of the sigillographic record that the dromos as cursus did not survive the eleventh century: Laurent, V., Le corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin II (Paris 1981) 195 Google Scholar. Other administrative functions still came under this heading though. See Stavridou-Zaphraka, art.cit. n.123,44 and n.135 for the wide application in the middle and late eleventh century, whatever the form, of the or simply .

142. Anna Comnène. Aléxiade, ed. B.Leib, III (Paris 1945) 42; Ahrweiler, Byzance et la mer 192-3.

143. (the admiral) (vacat) ed. S.Lampros, 1 (Athens 1879) 308. See ibid. II (Athens 1880) 106 for the different . For the Comnenian re-assignment to Hellas-Peloponnesos of the tasks of the building and provision of fleets, see Ahrweiler, Byzance et la mer 275-9 and 265 for Euboea in particular.

144. Eustathii archiepiscopi thessalonicensis commentarii ad Homer. Iliadem, ed. M.van der Valk, III (Leiden 1979) 24111. 3-8. See Meiggs 336 for Antiquity. Floating is practicable, among other places, on some rivers of S Anatolia: see Lombard, art.cit. n.53,108.

145. For the twelfth and thirteenth centuries see for convenience still Ahrweiler, Byzance et la mer 218-222. For the mid-thirteenth century onwards see now Bartusis, M., The Late Byzantine Soldier: a social and administrative Study (Ph.D., Rutgers University 1984) 465–87.Google Scholar

146. As late as 1349 Chios was still under partial Byzantine control, a situation which could not have outlasted the Byzantine-Genoese confrontation of 1351. See Nicol, The Last Centuries of Byzantium 234, and 243 onwards.

147. Argenti, P., The occupation of Chios by the Genoese and their administration of the island 1346-1566 II. Codex and documents (Cambridge 1958) 145–7 Google Scholar (from a dossier containing a report by Nicolò Fatinati, Podestà, to the Doge, concerning tax-reforms and other matters).

148. Documenti della Maona di Chio (secc. XIV-XVI), ed. A.Rovere (Genoa 1979), no.13 (1394).

149. Argenti, op.cit., 147; Rovere, op.cit., no.14 (1394).

150. Argenti, op.cit., 148; Rovere, op.cit., nos.13 and 14. There is a discrepancy between the combined total of 62 workers given by Fatinati and the separate totals in Rovere’s documents (which report more than 31 tabularii plus more than 46 piciarii).

151. Rovere, op.cit., no.14.

152. CTh.v, 14.31; vii, 7.2.

153. This does not mean that the state charged in all circumstances. Two documents of the year 941 reveal the administration selling deserted lands in the peninsula of Kassandreia (S Khalkidike) which had reverted to the state, some of which were uncultivated, on which free collective rights to ‘water, or timber, or firewood, or grazing’ for the whole peninsula’s population are not to be denied by the new owners: Athos V.Lavra I. no.2 (941) 11. 28-30 and no.3 (941) 11. 11-13.

154. Patmos II, no.50 (1073) 11. 123.124.126.

155. The valanisterion does not refer to the dasos, only the ennomion does this. The dasos (in Modern Greek ‘forest’) may then refer to scrubland. That dasos and related words had kept an ancient connotation of scrubland is indicated by such descriptions as (‘stunted oak thicket’): Le monastère de Notre Dame de Pitié en Macédoine, ed. L.Petit, IRAIK 6 (1900), no.8 (1152) 42.

156. Harvey 104, n.95 identified the ennomion as ‘exacted specifically for the use of common or state land as pasture’.

157. Athos XIV. Iviron I, no.9 (995) 1. 51: .

158. See Kondov, ‘Das Dorf Gradee …’ (1977), as cited n.7,85.

159. Athos XV. Xénophon, no.4 (1300) 1. 12; and for the meaning of orokopion, idem 91.

160. Xénophon’, no.4 (1300) 11. 12-13. See the relevant entries in part VI below.

161. JGR I, Coll.V, nov.23 (1301)562-7:

162. Idem 526.

163. For the Venetian public monopoly in its formerly Byzantine possessions see Thiriet, La Romanie vénitienne 325.

164. See Part VI: GALLS.

165. The fourth truce (treuga) between Venice and Byzantium, of March 7, 1303, contains the following: ‘Item quod abstinere se debeant omnes illi qui de parte ipsius illustris Ducis et communis Veneciarum sunt negpciari ut mercationes sal et masticem in tota terra et pertinencijs Imperij nostri’: Diplomatarium veneto-levantinum sive acta et diplomata res venetas, graecas, atque levantis illustrantia a. 1300-1350, ed. G.Thomas (Venice 1880) 17. For the context see J.Chrysostomides, art.cit. n.l 16,273 onwards.

166. For administrative continuity on Chios see Argenti, P., Chius viñeta (Cambridge 1941) cliii and cclxxii Google Scholar; Balard, La Romanie génoise 744-5; idem, ‘The Genoese in the Aegean (1204-1566)’, Latins and Greeks in the Eastern Mediterranean after 1204, edd. B.Arbel-B.Hamilton-DJacoby (London 1989) 171 onwards.

167. See Treadgold, W., The Byzantine Revival 780-842 (Stanford 1988) 117–18 Google Scholar for the political context; Oikonomidès, N., ‘De l’impôt de distribution à l’impôt de quotité à propos du premier cadastre byzantin (7e-9e siècle)’, ZR VI 26 (1987) 13 for the fiscal context.Google Scholar

168. See Treadgold, op.cit., 150-2, 164-5 and 169, for Nikephoros I’s taxes.

169. For example: Theodori Studitae epistulae, ed. G. Fatouros (Berlin-New York 1992), no. 7. 59-61.

170. Nicetae Choniatae Historia 540.

171. See for convenience Wickham, art.cit. n.19, 481-5, for the development of Forest Law, where it is a question of ‘land not so much defined by economic type … as by legal restriction’ (485), distinguished above all by the arrogation of princely and then aristocratic hunting rights. Wickham points out (486) that the imperial saltus of the Late Roman/Early Byzantine period, with their mixture of woodland, uncultivated ground, and some cultivation, were not imperial hunting reservations.

172. Groups of oak-trees (always enumerated, the largest number being 36) occur quite frequently for instance among the purchases of the Lemviotissa Monastery in W Asia Minor: MMIV, no.39 (1274) 95; MMIV, no.41 (1281) 98-99; MMIV, no.52 (1283) 130-1; MMIV, no.46 (undated) 104. Oak-trees are often enumerated in imperial grants. See for instance Patmos II, no.50 (1073) 11. 303-4, where it is a question of 42 trees altogether.

173. Patmos II, no.70 (1271) for instance concerns a dispute between the monastery of St John of Patmos and the bishop of Kos over ownership of an oakwood and olivegrove on Kos.

174. In 1162 the monastery of Lavra was in dispute with pronoiarioi to whom it had leased land on the north side of Lake Langadas in central Macedonia. By an agreement of ca. 1118, which had been broken by the pronoiarioi, the installation of houses and threshing floors, dendrotomia, and other abuses, were grounds for rescinding the agreement: Athos V. Lavra I, no.64 (1162) 11. 70-4. Dendrotomia is the subject of a series of Roman definitions and rulings reproduced in the ninth-to-tenth century Basilica and the tenth-century Synopsis Maior. See respectively Basilicorum libri LX. Series A, vol. VIII, edd. H. Scheltema-D. Holwerda-N. van der Wal (Groningen 1988), LX. 16. 1-14; JGR V, IV. 3. 1-7.

175. See Polunin 193-203 for an impression of the range of traditional tradeable arboreal products coming from southern or Mediterranean Europe.

176. See Cvetkova, Vie économique de villes et ports balkaniques 90 (Table 6) for linden-bark. See below under GALLNUT and OAK-TREE for some further references. For the numerous other barks of Mediterranean trees and shrubs traditionally exploited for tanning and dyeing purposes see for convenience Polunin, loc.cit.

177. For example, Basilica VIII A, LX. 16. 5; JGR V, IV. 3.4. and IV. 3. 7 (Synopsis Maior).

178. Miquel, A., La géographie humaine du monde musulman jusqu’au milieu du IIe siècle III. Le milieu naturel (Paris 1980) 425.Google Scholar

179. Tsougarakis, Byzantine Crete from the 5th century to the Venetian conquest 287.

180. See Ducange, sub , and , and Kriaras, sub and related entries, for the substances. See Geoponica 2.73 and 2.30.1, for some traditional uses; and Polunin 197 for more recent times.

181. Belon(2) 98.

182. Sfikas(2) 209.

182. Aezani 207-8 (Commentary). Syrian references can be found in E.Honigmann, ‘Syria’, Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Alterumswissenschaft 2.Reihe,4. Band (hereafter, Honigmann) col. 1560-1.

184. Geoponica 7.20.7.

185. See Geoponica 10.72 for the planting of the carob-tree.

186. , Lampros, , I, 52,11. 6-8.

187. Polunin 195.

188. Idem, loc.cil.

189. Kriaras, sub (2).

190. Aezani 209 (Commentary).

191. Meiggs 358,394,411,414.

192. Idem 136.

193. Idem 411 and 414, also n.10.

194. Semple, E., The geography of the Mediterranean Region. Its Relation to Ancient History (London 1932) 282 Google Scholar. See also Lauffer 283 for references, and for a longer-term perspective Meiggs chap. 3.

195. Geoponica 16.18.1.

196. Geoponica 5.9.9,13.7.2,13.10.2,13.14.6,16.22.1,18.15.5,18.16.2.

197. Geoponica 12.9: .

198. Ducange, Omissa et addenda. Omissa alia quaedam.s.v.

199. Translated by Crawford and Reynolds as ‘cedar resin’: Aezani 201 (Commentary).

200. Hild, H.Hellenkemper-F., NeueForschungen in Kilikien (Vienna 1986) 104, n.31.Google Scholar

201. Eparch 31.1.

202. De Cerimoniis, I, 673.

203. Meiggs 415-416.

204. Miquel, La géographie humaine du monde musulman jusqu’au milieu du IIe siècle, III 425.

205. Kastanos is the common Byzantine word for both the tree and the nut. See Athos XVI. Iviron II, no.49 (1100) 1. 15, for kastanea.

206. Geoponica 3.3.5,3.15.7,10.3.7,10.63.1-4.

207. Sfikas(2) 211.

208. Ducange, s.v.

209. Polunin 133-4.

210. Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants 3.18.3; Ducange, s.v.

211. Euphorbia resinifera, the ‘euphorbium gum plant’? See Van Wijk I, 527; or e.pithyusa (Idem I, 526)?

212. See Lauffer 288 for further references.

213. Liddell-Scott.

214. Sophocles: .

215. Geoponica 11.1.

216. Probably f.galbaniflua (usually associated with Persia) and f. tingitana (Syria and N Africa): Van Wijk I, 540 and 541.

217. See West 171 for the use of galbanum for dyeing textiles.

218. T.I.B. 5. Kilikien und Isaurien 111.

219. West 166 (Table II).

220. Laographika I, 454, where also Byzantine references to ink being made from the barks of the mulberry-tree and walnut-tree.

221. Kriaras, sub .

222. Goitein 213. The galls of Syria are also mentioned by Vegetius (West, 165, Table II).

223. Mertzios, 20 (from the Commemoriali: a communication from the Doge to Venetian ambassadors negotiating with Andronikos II, 27-9-1319). Mertzios presumably excerpted Bosmin, R.Predelli-P., I libri commemoriali della republica di Venezia regesti (1293-1787), I-VIII (Venice 1876-1914).Google Scholar

224. Thiriet, La Romanie vénitienne 338.

225. Idem 349.

226. JGR I, Coll. V, nov. 23 (1301) 526.

227. Kremmydas, V., To (1715-1792) (Athens 1972) 195.Google Scholar

228. Sovoronos, N., Le commerce de Salonique au XVIIIe siècle (Paris 1956) 280.’Google Scholar

229. Boué, A., La Turquie d’Europe III (Paris 1840) 157.Google Scholar

230. Sfikas(2), no. 141.

231. Polunin 202; Meiggs 469.

232. Liddell-Scott, Ducange, ss.vv. Rackham(2) 327, n.82 points out that the Ancient Greek for q. ilex was . I can find no trace of this in Byzantine archives or in the Byzantine lexica (Ducange, Kriaras, Sophocles). This is not conclusive of course, but when the Geoponica refers in a section on trees (op. cit., 11.14) to planting the prinos to attract the coccum ilicis (prinokokkion), which favours all these evergreen oaks, would the text not have distinguished the attractive holmoak from its two prickly cousins if it still had a different name?

233. Rackham(2) 299; Rackham(1) 189.

234. Sfikas(2), no. 144.

235. Observed by Sibthorp, a botanist travelling in Greece in the late eightenth century: Memoirs relating to European and Asiatic Turkey, ed. R.Walpole (London 1817) 237.

236. See Geoponica 10.43.

237. See Lauffer 231 for further references.

238. Goitein 213. Pliny mentions the fruit-bearing zizyphus of Syria (Honigmann col.1560).

239. Sfikasil) 209.

240. I-IV (Athens, undated), s. v.

241. See Meiggs, Appendix 3.1; also Rackham(2) 331 and 332.

242. Geoponica 11.1.1 distinguishes between kedros and arkeuthos. The latter name apparently survives in Crete (Kriaras, s.v.).

243. It is still traditionally recommended: Sfikas(l), no.26. J.oxycedrus is the normal source (Meiggs 410).

244. Polunin 26.

245. J.oxycedrus, for instance, which flourishes around the E Mediterranean (Van Wijk 1,708).

246. JGR I, Coll. V, nov. 23 (1301) 526.

247. Kriaras, s.v.

248. JGR V, II.2.1 (Synopsis Maior).

249. Athos XIV. Iviron I, no.9 (995) 1. 49. See also Kriaras, s.v.

250. Les archives de Saint-Jean-Prodrome, no.35 (1339-1342) 1. 50.

251. Idem, no.39 (1345) 11. 74-5.

252. Laographika I, 291, no.4.

253. The ancient word, favoured in official documents. See Kriaras, s.v., for literary references.

254. Patmos II, no.69 (1263) 1. 27.

255. Kriaras, sub .

256. See Lauffer 285 and 286 for references to Antiquity; Balard, La Romanie génoise 742 for Arab geographers’ references to the mastic of Byzantine Chios.

257. For Chios see now Balard, op.cit., 742-6.

258. See Malamut, Les îles de l’empire byzantin II, 388-9.

259. Geoponica 6.7.1.

260. See below: TEPEBINΘINH.

261. MM V, no.7 (1259) 12.

262. Eustathios of Thessalonica refers to one type of oak-tree noted for its crop as , whence several modern Greek names (Laographika II, 290-1). See in this section under MAST for other names. , with prefixes to distinguish the different varieties, is the commonest Modern Greek name for the deciduous oak-tree, though and are known: Sfikas(2) 207 and Rackham(2), Appendix I, 349).

263. See for instance Sfikas(2), no. 141; Lombard, M., Études d’économie medievale III. Les textiles dans le monde musulman du VIIIe au XIIe siècle (Paris 1978)Google Scholar, hereafter Lombard, 144, for the value of the acorn and its cup. The acorn-cup was being exported to the west from central Greece and the Peloponnese in the eighteenth century (Kremmydas, To 195); from the islands of Lesbos and Agios Eustratios (Mertzios, 262,304,307); and doubtless from other convenient locations too.

264. Geoponica 5.24.1,10.76.5. Oak-leaves were traded by the load in the late medieval Balkan urban market: Cvetkova, Vie économique de villes et ports balkaniques 89 (Table 5).

265. Laographika II, 293. There are of course other local names of Slavonic and Albanian origin.

266. Forbes, ‘Farming and foraging in prehistoric Greece …’, art.cit. n.13, 131.

267. Liddell-Scott, Sfikas(2) 211.

268. Liddell-Scott, Sfikas(2) 212-13.

269. Sfikas(2), no.6 and 211.

270. Liddell-Scott.

271. Liddell-Scott.

272. Meiggs, Appendix 7.

273. See for instance Maunsell, F., ‘The Rhodope Balkans’, The Geographical Journat 28 (1906/2) 17 Google Scholar. Maunsell travelled in about 1901.

274. Meigs, loc.cit.

275. Idem.

276. Eparch 13.1.

277. Koukoulès II/B 37.

278. Geoponica 11.14.

279. JGR I Coll. V, nov. 23 (1301) 526-7.

280. See Ducange sub et al.; Niermeyer, J., Mediae latinitatis lexicon minus (Leiden 1976)Google Scholar, ss.vv.; Lombard 118-19 and 122-3; see Walter, P., ‘Textiles’, English medieval industries, edd. Ramsay, J.Blair-N. (London 1991) 334 Google Scholar, for W Europe’s consumption of such dyes.

281. Zakythinos, Le despotat grec de Morée II, 247.

282. Richard, J., ‘Une économie coloniale? Chypre et ses ressources agricoles au Moyen-Age’, BE 5 (1977) 340.Google Scholar

283. See G.Morgan, ‘The Venetian Claims Commission of 1278’, BZ69 (1976) 436 for the Aegean. For the Pontus see Bryer-Winfield, Byzantine monuments and topography of the Pontos, I, 127.

284. Belon(1) 126.

285. Rackham(2) 332-3. The abundant yield was noted in Boeotia in 1470 by Angiolello: Mertzios, 199.

286. Svoronos, Le commerce de Salonique au XVIIIe siècle 280. For Serres see Mertzios, op.cit., 276.

287. Topping, P., ‘The post-classical documents’, The Minnesota Messenia Expedition II (Minnesota 1972) 76 Google Scholar; Kremmydas, To 194.

288. Mertzios, op.cit., 268.

289. Colophon was an ancient city of Ionia: see The Princeton Encyclopaedia of Classical Sites (Princeton 1976) 233. Frixae is reasonably identifiable with Phrygia.

290. Lauffer 283.

291. See Meiggs, Appendix 3.1.

292. Zakythinos, Le despotat grec de Morée II, 247.

293. Turrill, The Plant-life of the Balkan Peninsula, 201.

294. See Ducange and Sophocles, ss. vv.

295. Diocletian 6.54: nuclei pinei purgati/. See Lauffer 230 for further ancient references.

296. See Demetrakos, D., (Athens 1936-1951)Google Scholar, ss.vv.

297. Idem, sub .

298. See Lauffer 285 and T.I.B. 5. Kilikien und Isaurien 111.

299. See West 165 (Table II).

300. Rackham(2) 349 (Appendix I).

301. Sfikas(2) 213.

302. Sfikas(2) 206; Rackham(1) 348 (Appendix I).

303. Lombard 144. There was an extract of rous used for medical purposes, but unspecified, according to the Geoponica, 16.8.2.

304. The botanist Sibthorp noted both in Macedonia. See Walpole (ed.), Memoirs relating to European and Asiatic Turkey 238.

305. Goitein 213.

306. See West 165 (Table II) for Roman and Late Roman references. See Honigmann col. 1554 and 1560 for the mountain.

307. Richard, art.cit. n.282,340.

308. For instance Athos XIV. Iviron I, no. 10 (996) 1. 58 — ; Iviron I, no.29 (1047) 1. 56 — ; Athos XIII. Docheiariou, no.29 (1355) 1. 6 — .

309. See n.304 for Sibthorp’s observation. For the date of his expedition (not mentioned in Walpole’s edition) see the Dictionary of National Biography.

310. Ducange, sub et al. Koukoulès, mistakenly I believe, derives the dye rousios from (mulberry): Koukoulès II/B 37.

311. Lefort finds the name in use in S. Macedonia (Athos XIV. Iviron I, 168), which therefore explains the of Iviron I, no. 10 (996) 1. 58, and the of Athos XVI. Iviron II, no.50 (1101) 11. 21 and 22. The terebinth was certainly exploited in Macedonia: see under TEPEBINΘINH in this section.

312. Meiggs 469; Rowton, M., ‘The woodlands of ancient western Asia’, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 26 (1967) 273, for Syria.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

313. Geoponica 10.24,10.65.2,10.76.1-4.

314. See Polunin 202 for the distinction between the extracts of the terebinth in general and the mastich-tree in particular. See Gavrieldides, art.cit. n.13, 152, for the exploitation of the wild terebinth until recent times.

315. See Semple, The Geography of the Mediterranean Region. Its relation to Ancient History, 282; also Geoponica 7.12.28.

316. Sophocles, s.v. See Geoponica 9.18.1 and 16.8.2 for the oil (elaion) extracted from the berries (). The collection and exportation of the berry was noted by Belon in S Macedonia in 1546: Belon(1) 113. See Sfikas(2), no.103 for p.palastina.

317. Rackham(2) 331.

318. Belon(2) 126; Polunin 202.

319. Belon(1) 113.

320. Presumably mainly from a.tragacantha (Van Wijk I, 144). It has been called in English ‘adragant’, ‘astragal’, ‘tragacanth’, ‘goat’s thorn’ and variants thereof.

321. T.I.B. 5. Kilikien und Isaurien 111. It continued to be exported from Anatolia (Van Wijk I, 142).

322. Zakythinos, Le despotat grec de Morée II, 237. It continued to be exported from the Peloponnese (Van Wijk I, 142).

323. Goitein 213.

324. Ducange, ss.vv.

325. See Aezani 205 (Commentary).

326. See Van Wijk I, 127 for this plant.

327. Geoponica 2.27.6,2.36.4,13.1.9,13.15.1. See Aezani 205 (Commentary) and Lauffer 286 for Antiquity.

328. For Antiquity see Aezani and Lauffer, loc.cit. See Geoponica 2.47.7,7.24.1 and 8.21, for wormwood in wines.

329. See Geoponica 2.47.7 and 8.21 for the former, where it is attributed all kinds of ‘medicinal’ properties. See Ducange, s.v., for the latter.