ABSTRACT
A Byzantine merchant ship, while on a return voyage from the Fatimid Syrian coast to the environs of Constantinople, sought anchorage, perhaps in bad weather, at Serce Limani, a natural harbour on the southern Anatolian coast directly north of the island and city of Rhodes. Particularly in the case of a small coastal merchant ship, the crew occasionally would have camped on land while obtaining fresh water, wood, or diet supplements. Two tons were raw glass that had been broken up into small chunks to facilitate its transport. Those on board the ship were engaged in what appears to have been a rather marginal level of maritime commerce involving a few cargoes of fairly substantial size and quite a number of much smaller, seemingly personal cargoes. The chapter conclude that the owners had repeatedly used cooking ware and food storage jars to transport wine cargoes but had sold only the wine, keeping the amphoras for future transport of wine.
