applications of water power around the Mediterranean as well as advances in water-powered milling technology, the use of hydraulic mining techniques in the Spanish gold and silver mines and the gigantic industrial scale on which those mines were worked in the first and second centuries (with levels of output that would not be reached again till the nineteenth century, some , years later!), the existence of well-organised commercial and banking networks, and the widespread use of money are all indications of how much we tend to under -estimate the sophistication of the Roman economy. This raises the issue of labour and of the use of slavery. *Transhumance is the herdsman’s regular annual movement between the higher mountain regions and low- lying ground in search of pasture for sheep and other flocks. A N E MPIRE A CROSS T HREE C ONTINENTS ACTIVITY Archaeologists who work on the remains of pottery are a bit like detectives.
Can you explain why? Also, what can amphorae tell us about the economic life of the Mediterranean in the Roman period? T HEMES IN W ORLD H ISTORY