Deep-water shipwrecks provide an opportunity to investigate ships away from the destructive dynamics of coastlines and approaches to harbors where most ancient wrecks to date have been found. Such exploration expands the potential for finding wrecks of periods for which relatively few are known. One such period is the 6th and 7th c. in the E Mediterranean. Studies of cargo assemblages from the few known wrecks of the later Roman period reveal a partial picture of interlinked and overlapping trade networks that incorporated major and minor ports in the adjacent provinces.1 Various trading modes may be discerned, including cabotage, short-haul trade, inter-regional commerce, and private long-haul trade. Largely missing thus far are the wrecks of ships that participated in the annona transport, the “backbone of Late Roman shipping”.2 Each year, an enormous fleet of private ships under state contract hauled thousands of shiploads of Egyptian grain from Alexandria to Constantinople for public distribution,3 but no shipwrecks explicitly associated with these fleets have been found. Also largely invisible are the non-commercial transports associated with the annona militaris, the fiscal supply of foodstuffs destined for armies stationed on the empire‘s borders. The state supply-system became more formalized in 536 when Justinian created the quaestura exercitus, a prefecture that was granted administrative control and jurisdiction of Moesia Secunda, Scythia, Caria, the Aegean islands, and Cyprus.4 Evidence suggests that the quaestor‘s main task was to ensure the supply, by sea, of agricultural products from the Aegean and NE Mediterranean to troops on the Danube frontier.5 While no definitive grain ships have been found in the E Mediterranean — what M. McCormick has called the “annona paradox”6 —, shipwrecks with the larger cargoes expected of state supply have remained rather elusive.

中文翻译：

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东地中海的深水沉船：晚期罗马交流的缩影

深水沉船提供了一个机会，让我们有机会远离海岸线的破坏性动力和通往迄今为止发现大多数古代沉船的港口的途径来调查船舶。这种探索扩大了寻找已知相对较少时期残骸的潜力。一个这样的时期是 6 世纪和 7 世纪。在东地中海。对罗马后期为数不多的已知残骸中的货物组合的研究揭示了相互关联和重叠的贸易网络​​的部分图景，这些网络包括邻近省份的主要和次要港口。1可以识别出各种贸易模式，包括沿海运输、短途贸易、区域间贸易和私人长途贸易。到目前为止，大部分失踪的是参与海难的船只残骸番荔枝运输，“晚期罗马航运的支柱”。2每年，根据国家合同，庞大的私人船队将数千船埃及粮食从亚历山大港拖到君士坦丁堡进行公共分发3，但没有发现与这些船队明确相关的沉船。同样在很大程度上不可见的是与番荔枝，为驻扎在帝国边境的军队提供的食品财政供应。536 年查士丁尼创建练习题, 一个被授予行政控制权和管辖权的县Moesia Secunda, Scythia、卡里亚、爱琴海群岛和塞浦路斯。4有证据表明，财务官的主要任务是确保通过海运将爱琴海和地中海东北部的农产品供应给多瑙河边境的部队。5虽然在东地中海没有发现明确的谷物船——M. McCormick 称之为“Annona 悖论”6- 预计国家供应的较大货物的沉船仍然相当难以捉摸。