What does this tell us about the Crusades?
Not only did the crusades facilitate cultural merging within the eastern Mediterranean, but it also acted as the touchstone for eastern Mediterranean influence on Europe. The crusades were a time of extensive trade and travel which would influence the European world in terms of their art and design. In the 12th and 13th century, Italian mercantile cities, like Venice, began controlling a lot of Byzantine ceramic trade within the eastern Mediterranean. Byzantine potters were powerful in their position on the map between the Islamic and Christian worlds and helped influence European art and objects. Ceramics were easily traded items and their unique iconography would relate their position to the Holy Land and showcase the crusaders' travels there. Ceramics from the eastern Mediterranean would be valuable to a European crusader, acting as a reminder of their cross-cultural crusade.