Tracing connections: using network analysis to study trade and movement in the Mediterranean in the 11th to 14th centuries

Abstract

This study uses network approaches to study late medieval Mediterranean trade and movement and test the validity of using network methods to investigate the past. Historical literature largely focuses on merchant communities and which cities were most central for trade. In this article, two networks, one created from archaeological finds and the other from the writings of four medieval travellers, are analysed using various Social Network Analysis centrality measures and Complex Systems Science models and are compared to each other in order to explore the importance of various Mediterranean settlements and the ways in which movement occurred around the region, investigating whether they challenge or support current understandings. Network methods are shown to be useful approaches with various potential future developments to more fully explore the late medieval Mediterranean. These networks both support and challenge current historiographical views of Mediterranean trade and movement. Many of the same settlements are identified as central, and the importance of islands for movement is supported. However, some smaller settlements, which are infrequently mentioned in current historical literature are revealed as central. Movement also appears to have relied on small stopping points, rather than following express routes between a few important centres.