#20. Diego Calaon: Wood, Water, and Slaves: How Venice Came into the World

Diego Calaon

Wood, Water, and Slaves: How Venice Came into the World

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Venice suffers from its legends. Legends narrate Venice as a symbol of the end of the Roman Age. Venice represents the place where the noble Romans rescued themselves from the barbarian hordes: Venetians would have been forced to move to an unwelcoming island among the marshes to be free and safe. Venice - the legends say - became Byzantine and was able to resist the Lombard and the Carolingian wars. Venice’s freedom and prosperity would derive from its independence, its Roman origins, and its ability to be different from the uncivilized Barbarians.

Nothing more wrong. Venice is a quintessential consequence of the fruitful encounter between the heirs of the classical Mediterranean world and the German North European tradition. Venice can be explained bringing together Carolingian, Lombard, Islamic, Post-Roman, Byzantine tradition. Furthermore, Venice can be asses through its unique landscape: water, mud, and wood are the reasons by which Venice was built.

A crucial aspect of the early medieval Venetian market system was enacted through the slave control. Venice supplied the Early Islamic world with European enslaved workforces, trading them in the port of Alexandria. Further, the management of local labor forces - slaves and semi-slaves - was one of the main concerns of the early medieval aristocracy. The conquest of the Mediterranean economy was possible thanks to the control of the skilled labor forces employed in crucial activities, such as ships construction, forest management, and channels/ports improvements.

How can modern archaeology provide a holistic research around a central site of the medieval Europe? GIS analyses allow identifying the location of the early settlement. Comparisons with other contemporary lagoon sites permit a tentative material reconstruction of early Venice. A comprehensive environmental approach will help to define the sustainability of the site and the reasons for its abandonment. Modeling activities will encourage the reconstructions of the settled areas, and ideas about the social structure of the first Venetian communities. An anthropological and sociological reassessment of the political narratives will shed light on the interpretation of old archaeological excavated material.

Sustainability, ecology, migration, labor control: the history of Venice - but also the history of the Mediterranean in the Early Middle Age - can be rewritten taking into account a very contemporary perspective. We have been told that history helps us to understand the past and decide the future. At the contrary, I do think archaeology and history are much more a political artifact than we are ready to admit. The materiality of the past, however, might be very relevant for understanding our present. Appreciating the entanglements between the archaeological remains and our contemporary ways of life, we will be more informed on the interpretation on the fast transformation of our material world.

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Diego Calaon

Diego Calaon was awarded the prestigious Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship by the European Community in 2014, for his three-year project “Voices of Venice” to pursue his research in the anthro-ecological reappraisal of the Origin of Venice. For this investigation, he will be hosted by the Stanford University.

Dr. Diego Calaon is a post-classical archaeologist. He is the site director of the archaeological project in Torcello (Venice, Ca’ Foscari University). The excavation aim is to investigate the Late Antique and Early Middle Age origins of the “Serenissima.” In the last ten years, he worked as site director in several archaeological projects in Venice Area (San Giacomo in Paludo, San Lorenzo d’Ammiana, Torcello, Comacchio, Treviso). Diego Calaon has also been actively involved in the Venetian colonial project in Dalmatia (“Stari Bar Project” in Montenegro and “The Heritage of Serenissima” in Croatia) directed by Sauro Gelichi and Mitja Gustin. The project aims have been to evaluate the impact on the local communities of Venetian and Ottoman trade systems.

Diego Calaon is also an associated researcher on the “Mauritian Archaeological and Cultural Heritage project” (M.A.C.H). Through this project, he has expanded his global and colonial expertise concerning the reconstruction of the past, going beyond the traditional chronological boundaries inscribed by Italian and European training systems.

Methodologically, his archaeological research has focused primarily on landscape transformations during the Early Middle Ages in the Adriatic region. Using GIS and a holistic approach to data management, I have worked on the impacts of both short and long-term landscape and ecological changes. His Ph.D. research was innovative resulting in a thorough rewriting of the history and ‘place’ of Early Medieval emporia, principally Venice and Commachio, redefining them as key hubs between the eastern Mediterranean and northern European economies.

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