From Hinterland to Harbour

Ancient Berytus, located in modern-day Beirut, was an influential Roman port city in the eastern Mediterranean. Although relatively understudied to date, the city’s place in the Roman economy is explored here through the novel integration of archaeological, historical, and geocomputational approaches. In so doing, the physical layout and operational capacity of the city’s harbour is situated within the wider Levantine maritime landscape. Expanding into the surrounding hinterland, the region’s agricultural potential is evaluated, with particular attention to the organization and scale of wine and olive oil production at rural sites. These agricultural systems are considered within their environmental contexts to understand the dynamics between production and export.

Following Beirut amphorae across the Mediterranean, the analysis traces the patterns of export and distribution by drawing on ceramic datasets from extra-regional port sites. The study reconstructs the spatial and chronological reach of Berytus’ commercial networks and evaluates the extent to which its wine industry was embedded within broader trading circuits. These empirical patterns are compared against geocomputational models that calculate likely maritime routes based on reconstructed wind regimes.

Taken together, these lines of evidence demonstrate how a micro-economic, site-specific approach can illuminate the mechanisms underlying Roman maritime commerce. By combining amphora studies, hinterland analysis, and geocomputational modelling, this book offers a grounded understanding of how agricultural production, port logistics, and trader behaviour intersected to shape the economic role of the city. It also allows for a diachronic consideration of how these patterns shifted throughout sociocultural and geopolitical change on the local and extra-regional scales.