City and Countryside in Byzantine Anatolia: Amorium

Amorium is a key site for the period AD 700-900 owing to its historical importance as the capital of the Anatolic Theme. The well preserved remains provide an exceptional opportunity to study the layout and function of the Byzantine city, and the destruction layers from the capture of Amorium by the Arabs in 838 create a fixed horizon and reference point for the entire archaeology and material culture of early to mid-ninth century Anatolia. The evidence from twenty years of excavation points to a large and prosperous city, where various trades and crafts were practised and which served as the centre of vibrant rural community engaged in agriculture as well as animal husbandry. Pottery and coin finds provide good indicators of the level and nature of economic activity, and the evidence from Amorium provides new insights that appear at odds with accepted views of the Byzantine world in the Early Medieval period.