Summary This paper investigates the economic and political transformations of the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean (late eleventh to mid‐fourteenth centuries AD) through the lens of material culture and Social Network Analysis (SNA). Using the distribution of seven types of glazed pottery as archaeological indicators, the study examines changing patterns of connectivity and the structural positions of sites within regional exchange systems. By applying SNA to presence/absence datasets, the analysis reconstructs the topology of interaction networks revealing a shift from a Byzantine‐centred system to one increasingly shaped by Italian maritime powers and the Crusader States, with the events of 1204 marking a critical turning point. Interpreted within a world‐systems perspective, the results trace the relocation of core functions from Byzantine centres to Italian city‐states, while highlighting the resilience of long‐established hubs within the reconfigured system.
Katerina Ragkou (Tue,) studied this question.