‘Invisible’ Archaeology? Investigating Slave Trading as a Link between Scotland and the Mediterranean in the 6th Century

Early medieval slavery has been described as having an ‘invisible’ archaeological footprint, but recent work has demonstrated that slaving in particular left its mark in the evidence of trade networks. This has highlighted a need to reevaluate existing archaeological evidence for long-distance trade and to think about whether slaving is truly invisible or simply in need of more critical evaluation. This paper will pose such questions within the framework of the sixth-century trade between western Britain and the Mediterranean, well-attested in the archaeological record through discovery of glass, amphorae, and luxury items at sites surrounding the Irish Sea. Mediterranean interest in an Irish Sea trade zone can be explained in southwest Britain by the desire for tin and lead, but reasons for trade with what is now Scotland are less clear. This paper will explore textual and archaeological evidence to query the existence of a slave-trading network and to think about what social and political factors may have driven Gaulish or Byzantine merchants to enslave people from the edge of the known world.