Economia e territorio nell’Adriatico centrale tra tarda Antichità e alto Medioevo (sec. IV–VIII): i contesti abruzzesi

Archaeology has assumed a fundamental role in the evaluation of trade and production networks between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. On the basis of recent acquisitions, the Abruzzi area, between the 4th and the 8th century, may be seen to be part of a complex system of commercial and economic relations with the Adriatic and Mediterranean areas, based on imports but also on regional production. Its strategic position favours contacts with the Mediterranean area, through the Adriatic routes, but also with continental Europe, from which new cultural impulses come. The viability of the economic–commercial structures is supported by an effective settlement network, in which the minor centres play a major role, and above all by the infrastructural system that ensures a strong permeability between the coastal areas and the internal ones.