Kom al-Ahmer – Kom Wasit II: Coin Finds 2012–2016 / Late Roman and Early Islamic Pottery from Kom al-Ahmer

Kom al-Ahmer and Kom Wasit were ideally placed to take advantage of the Mediterranean trade given their close proximity to the Egyptian ports of Thonis-Heracleion, Alexandria, and Rosetta during the Hellenistic, Roman, Late Roman, and early Islamic period. The social and economic vitality of the sites has been revealed during investigations undertaken by the Italian archaeological mission between 2012 and 2016 and published in Kom al-Ahmer – Kom Wasit I: Excavations in the Metelite Nome, Egypt ca. 700 BC – AD 100. This volume presents over 1070 coins (ca. 310 BC–AD 641) and 1320 examples of Late Roman and Early Islamic pottery, testimony to the considerable commercial activity in the region during the Late Antique period. Kom al-Ahmer and Kom Wasit emerge as centers of an exchange network involving large-scale trade of raw materials to and from the central and eastern Mediterranean.

Table of Contents:
Preface ;  Introduction ;  The Kom al-Ahmer and Kom Wasit Archaeological Project II ;  First Phase: 2012–2016 ;  Part 1: Coin Finds 2012–2016 (Michele Asolati and Cristina Crisafulli) ;  Introduction ;  Conditions of the Coins and the Metallographic Analyses ;  Coin Finds at Kom al-Ahmer and Kom Wasit ;  The Late Imperial Coins from Kom al-Ahmer, Unit 4: The Finds and their Distribution ;  The Late Imperial Coins from Kom al-Ahmer: The Distribution of Types and Mints ;  The Latest Evidence ;  Catalogue ;  Bibliography ;  Part 2: Late Roman and Early Islamic Pottery from Kom al-Ahmer (Cristina Mondin) ;  1. Introduction ;  2. Methodology ;  3. Pottery Quantification (C. Mondin, M.L. Patanè) ;  4. Contexts ;  4.1 Unit 4 ;  4.2 Unit 1 – The Cistern and Late Roman Structures ;  4.3 Unit 2 – The Early Islamic presence ;  4.4 Summary Chronology of the Contexts ;  5. Pottery Corpus ;  5.1 Imported Fine Ware ;  5.2 Egyptian Fine Ware ;  5.3 Imported Utilitarian Ware ;  5.4 Egyptian Utilitarian Ware ;  5.5 Imported Amphorae ;  5.6 Egyptian Amphorae (M. Kenawi, C. Mondin) ;  5.7 Miscellaneous ;  6. Conclusions ;  Plates ;  Bibliography ;  Appendix 1: Fine Ware Quantification ;  Appendix 2

About the Author :
Michele Asolati is Associate Professor of Numismatics at the University of Padua. His research focuses on Late Roman and Early Medieval coinage and on the coin finds of the Mediterranean area, having published extensively on the subject. Cristina Crisafulli is Curator of the Numismatic Collections of the Correr Museum in Venice. Her research focuses on the Roman coins of the third century AD and on coin finds of the Mediterranean area, especially North Africa. Cristina Mondin is the coordinator of the Kom al-Ahmer and Kom Wasit Archaeological Project and Manager of the Asolo Museum. She authored many articles on Roman and Late Roman pottery from contexts in Italy, Egypt, Turkey, and Croatia. Her research focuses on the economy and the trade in the Mediterranean.