Social Network Analysis of Delian Seal Bearers in the late Hellenistic period

Objective

The DelSeaNet project aims to analyse the social and economic networks of the Greek island of Delos, a major place in the Hellenistic Mediterranean (3rd to 1st c. BC). A very large amount of seal imprints discovered 50 years ago will open new perspectives for that when submitted to the interdisciplinary method of Social Network Analysis (SNA). Delos was reputed to be the birthplace of Apollo. Gradually, the trading port became a focal point for Mediterranean networks. After 167 BC, Delos was ruled by Athenians, but the cosmopolitan population settled in the island became majority. In 88 and 69 BC, Delos was ravaged by the king Mithridates VI and never regained its former prosperity. Today, the island is one of the most important archaeological sites in Greece. The so-called Maison des Sceaux is an edifice of the ancient city, built after 167. It has been destroyed by fire in 69. The enigmatic owners of this vast complex kept many papyri archives, most of which were contracts relating to large-scale trade. In 69 these archives burned, but 26000 seal imprints applied to the clay that sealed the documents baked. The complete set concerns a period of 60 years corresponding to the most active period in Delian history. However specialists of this material have focused uniquely on iconography. My intention is to adapt an innovative method of SNA, employing numerical tools and algorithms, to archaeological sources. I argue that the imprints show interpersonal networks which will help to better understand the trade networks of Mediterranean. These networks will shed light on the way in which private traders, city-states and Hellenistic kingdoms organise the Mediterranean trade networks and reflect a globalizing trend at the scale of the whole Mediterranean space and beyond. Adapting SNA to the context of classical archaeology will be benefit for the scholars, by bridging different fields of research and offering the possibility of reinvesting the method in other sources.