Thank to an interdisciplinary approach involving archaeology and scientific analysis, Merovingian ceramic and glass found in the Meuse-valley have been studied. This approach allowed us to elaborate a typochronology for these type of artifact and moreover to shed some light on the history of craft, economic aspects and the cultural impregnations of this particular time. Aside from the darkness that can be associated to this period, Merovingian craftmen still mastered specific skills and technological evolutions took place. Until the middle of the VIth century, trade networks were not abandoned. For glass production, raw material seems to be imported from Mediterranean regions and glass final products as well as clay vessels were still exported at a regional scale. Between the end of the VIth and the VIIth century, glass becomes rare and new types of ceramic locally made appears. In cemeteries, living settlements and productions sites, both crafts underline economical and cultural modifications in the Meuse-valley. Finally, at the end of the Merovingian period, ceramic and glass reflect new consumptions behavior that came into sight announcing the transition to the Carolingian world.

This thesis aims to study the commercial mechanism of Ravenna in the Late Antiquity from the point of view of the amount, type and provenance of the imported stone artefacts (fragments of architectural decoration, revetments slabs, opus sectile, sarcophagi), based on the study of archaeological material from the site of the basilica and the monastery of San Severo in Classe (Ravenna). Ravenna represented an important administrative and cultural center in the 5th and 6th century, connecting western and eastern artistic influences and focusing herself on trade and production. Determination of the stone artefacts from the San Severo locality was principally based on the archaeometric methods and on the combination of archaeologic and geologic approach as well. Specific archaeometric methods (macroscopic, geochemical and mineralogical-petrographic analyses) together with a quantitative evaluation were applied. Many scientific works, dedicated till this time to the art history of late antique Ravenna and dealing also the argument of ravennate "marbles" presumed the prevailing provenance from Proconnesos and usual commercial relations between Ravenna and Constantinople as well. Constantinople played a role of a mediator of oriental localities and Ravenna. The hypothesis concerning the provenance of the...