Communication and Commerce along the Western Sealanes AD 400-800

Description

This book brings together historical and archaeological evidence to critique the thesis that there was regular long-distance communication and commerce along the Atlantic seaboard c. 400-800 AD. It pays particular attention to the evidence for direct maritime links of the continent with western Britain and Ireland. New evidence, most notably finds of imported ceramics from western Britain and Ireland, has allowed us to go some way toward confirming the existence of such direct links and to reconstruct the routes of the voyages involved, but this process has yet to produce any consensus as to the scale, frequency and cultural impact of such contacts. Archaeological data, combined with a reconsideration of the historical sources, here refutes diffusionist models and provides evidence for an episodic character and smaller scale for such long-distance voyages as took place along the western sealanes in this period.