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Archaeological evidence and the text of the Strategikon show that it was only in the late sixth century AD that the Roman-Byzantine military adopted the stirrup. It is now widely argued that the Avars, who settled in the Carpathian basin in the sixth century, played a key role in introducing iron stirrups to the Roman-Byzantine world. However, the evidence to support this assertion is limited. Although hundreds of stirrups have been found in Avar graves in the Carpathian basin, very few stirrups of sixth- or seventh-century date are known from the Roman-Byzantine empire - no more than seven - and only two of these are of definitively Avar type. The text of the Strategikon, sometimes argued to support this Avar source, can be interpreted differently, as indeed can the archaeological evidence. While the debate about the Roman-Byzantine adoption of the stirrup has focused mostly on finds from the Balkans, two early stirrups are known from Asia Minor, from Pergamon and Sardis. This paper presents a third, previously unpublished stirrup, from a seventh-century deposit at Aphrodisias in Caria; this is the first stirrup found in Asia Minor from a datable context. Here we present this find and its context, and use it to reconsider the model of solely Avar stirrup transmission that has dominated scholarship to date. So varied are the early stirrups that multiple sources of influence, Avar and other, and even a degree of experimentation, seem more likely to underpin the Roman-Byzantine adoption of this technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses and provides and inventory of stone cargoes of Roman and Byzantine Empire shipwrecks from the 2nd century B.C. through the 10th century, including its depiction on several charts. An overview of the shipwrecks of stone cargo on the Mediterranean Sea, including in regard to the role it plays in offering information on maritime trade, is provided.

This paper is a preliminary report on the eighth and final fieldwork (Spring 2006) season of the excavations at Euesperides (Benghazi). Work continued in Areas P and Q on the Sidi Abeid mound, in Area R in the lower city and on the processing of finds from the 2006 and previous seasons. In Area P excavations continued below the primary floors of the antepenultimate phase in Room 5a where a series of inter-cutting pits beneath the primary floor provided a section through the stratigraphy to natural. The results of the work showed that occupation in the sixth to fourth centuries 8c was less intensive and accumulated at a slower rate than in the Hellenistic period. Three phases of early activity were represented, with the earliest levels dated to the period c. 580-560 BC. A comparable picture emerged in Area R, but in Area Q a second-phase set of buildings laid out in or after the late sixth century Be, with houses flanking the street, persisted until late in the life of the city. Excavations in Area Q Extension revealed a large circular building with an internal floor of terracotta sherds set in cement, tentatively interpreted as part of a set of public baths. A late reuse of the building was indicated by a number of plaster-lined tanks formed over the terracotta floor. The presence of the building was taken to indicate that the building and an associated street, aligned over an in-filled quarry, may have been inter-mural, suggesting that the late city was of greater size than hitherto thought. Selected finewares, coarsewares and amphorae from the excavations are presented, together with preliminary observations, resulting from the environmental sampling of occupation deposits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]