Wood, Water and Slaves: How Venice Came into the World

Abstract [IT]

Venice suffers from its legends. Legends narrate Venice as a symbol of the end of the Roman Age. Venice represents the place where the noble Romans rescued themselves from the barbarian hordes: Venetians would have been forced to move to an unwelcoming island among the marshes to be free and safe. Venice - the legends say - became Byzantine and was able to resist the Lombard and the Carolingian wars.  Venice’s freedom and prosperity would derive from its independence, its Roman origins, and its ability to be different from the uncivilized Barbarians.

Nothing more wrong. Venice is a quintessential consequence of the fruitful encounter between the heirs of the classical Mediterranean world and the German North European tradition.  Venice can be explained bringing together Carolingian, Lombard, Islamic, Post-Roman, Byzantine tradition. Furthermore, Venice can be asses through its unique landscape: water, mud, and wood are the reasons by which Venice was built.  

A crucial aspect of the early medieval Venetian market system was enacted through the slave control. Venice supplied the Early Islamic world with European enslaved workforces, trading them in the port of Alexandria. Further, the management of local labor forces - slaves and semi-slaves - was one of the main concerns of the early medieval aristocracy. The conquest of the Mediterranean economy was possible thanks to the control of the skilled labor forces employed in crucial activities, such as ships construction, forest management, and channels/ports improvements.

How can modern archaeology provide a holistic research around a central site of the medieval Europe? GIS analyses allow identifying the location of the early settlement. Comparisons with other contemporary lagoon sites permit a tentative material reconstruction of early Venice. A comprehensive environmental approach will help to define the sustainability of the site and the reasons for its abandonment. Modeling activities will encourage the reconstructions of the settled areas, and ideas about the social structure of the first Venetian communities. An anthropological and sociological reassessment of the political narratives will shed light on the interpretation of old archaeological excavated material.

Sustainability, ecology, migration, labor control:  the history of Venice - but also the history of the Mediterranean in the Early Middle Age - can be rewritten taking into account a very contemporary perspective. We have been told that history helps us to understand the past and decide the future. At the contrary, I do think archaeology and history are much more a political artifact than we are ready to admit. The materiality of the past, however, might be very relevant for understanding our present. Appreciating the entanglements between the archaeological remains and our contemporary ways of life, we will be more informed on the interpretation on the fast transformation of our material world.