Reynolds, Paul – ICREA Memoir 2021

Paul Reynolds

Universitat de Barcelona

Humanities

At UCL studied for my BA (1980) and PhD (1991) (Settlement and Pottery of the Vinalopo Valley (Alicante), AD 400-700), which included a detailed review of ceramics and trade in W Mediterranean ports (published as BAR 588 & 604 in 1993, 1995). Have studied-published Hellenistic, Roman and Islamic ceramics from excavations in Spain (Alicante, Cartagena, Valencia), Roman Syria (Beirut, Chhim, Homs, Basit, Zeugma), Albania (Butrint, Durres), Greece (Athens, Corinth, Thesprotia, Nicopolis, Patras), Bulgaria (Nicopolis, Dichin) and N Africa (Carthage, Utica, Leptis Magna). Author of Hispania and the Roman Mediterranean, AD 100-700: Ceramics and Trade (2010) and Butrint 6, Volume 3. The Roman and Late Antique Pottery from the Vrina Plain Excavations (2020). Co-editor of the series Roman and Late Antique Mediterranean Pottery.

Research interests

The principal aim of my research is the study of trade networks and economies of the Classical-Late Antique Mediterranean, Black Sea & Atlantic through the definition of regional ceramic typologies and analysis of the regional-long distance distribution of ceramics in major ports (table-wares, amphorae & cooking wares). I am interested in all factors that contributed to the supply of goods: private, state, city, ecclesiastical & administrative structures. Other interests include Hellenistic-Roman cuisine-cultural interaction in the Roman East; typologies and archaeometry of local ceramics in W Greece-Peloponnese; analysis of organic residues in amphorae (Spanish Ministry RACA-Med I and II projects); typologies, archaeometry, dating, function of Islamic pottery in Utica and N Africa (ongoing Barakat Trust project).

Selected publications

– Reynolds P 2021, ‘The oil supply in the Roman East: identifying modes of production, containers and contents in the eastern Empire’, in D. Bernal-Casasola, M. Bonifay, A. Pecci and V. Leitch (eds.), Roman Amphora Contents. Reflecting on the Maritime Trade of Foodstuffs in Antiquity. Proceedings of the Roman Amphora Contents International Interactive Conference (RACIIC) (Cadiz, 5-7 October 2015), RLAMP 17, Archaeopress, Oxford: 307-354.

– Woodworth M & Reynolds P 2021. ‘The Beirut amphora: residue analysis and contents’, in D. Bernal-Casasola, M. Bonifay, A. Pecci and V. Leitch (eds.), Roman Amphora Contents. Reflecting on the Maritime Trade of Foodstuffs in Antiquity. Proceedings of the Roman Amphora Contents International Interactive Conference (RACIIC) (Cadiz, 5-7 October 2015), RLAMP 17, Archaeopress, Oxford: 161-169.

– Pecci, A., Contino, A., Mileto, S-, Capelli, C., Toniolo, L. and Reynolds, P. 2021. ‘Anfore africane antiche a Pompei: uso e riuso in base all’analisi dei contenuti’, Rivista di Studi Pompeani XXXII (2021): 87-102.

Selected research activities

In 2021 the Spanish Ministry awarded a second, larger follow up grant to myself and Alessandra Pecci (ERAAUB) to continue analyses of Roman amphora contents in Pompeii as well as now Baelo and Catalunya (RACA-Med II: PID2020-113409GB-100: 60,500€).

Evangelos Pavlidis has begun his PhD at the UB on the archaeology of the Byzantine quarter of Nicopolis (Greece) under the supervision of Prof. Gisela Ripòll and myself.

As part of my Barakat Trust project (Early Islamic ceramics and culture in Tunisia: chronologies, sources and vessel use), collaboration with Trinitat Pradell (UPC) and Elena Salinas (Uni. Granada) on the composition of 10th-11th c. Tunisian glazed wares at Utica has continued, results presented at the Ecole française de Rome November 2021.

Editor: RLAMP 16 (Quaresma: Ammaia) and RLAMP 17 (Cadiz-Amphora Contents) have been published.