Theme:
Mediterranean seascapes
Session format:
Session, made up of a combination of papers, max. 15 minutes each
Title:
Entrepreneurs and Merchants in the Late Bronze Age – Early Iron Age Mediterranean
Content:
Most recent studies of trade and exchange in the Late Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean have focused on long-distance maritime trade, either because the products are generally easier to identify (exotica, raw materials, luxury goods) and/or have privileged (royal or palatial) gift exchange as the mechanism for that trade, in large part because of Late Bronze Age textual evidence. In the Aegean, increasing attention has been paid to short- to medium-distance trade, due to the recognition of the importance of “small world” exchange networks. In this session, we consider all scales of maritime trade and exchange as existing on a continuum from the small worlds within the Aegean to the greater Mediterranean world. By focusing on non-palatial exchanges, we are able to draw attention to the role of merchants and entrepreneurs in effecting these exchanges at all levels, from intra-polity to long-distance trade. Though the products and polities involved may be different in the Early Iron Age than in the palatial Late Bronze Age, we argue that some of the mechanisms of trade at all levels remain the same, that is through merchants. Recognition of the role of merchants in the Late Bronze Age economies brings about a better understanding of the economies of the palatial Aegean period and in the transition to the pre-polis Early Iron Age.
Keywords:
Merchants, exchange, Aegean, political economy
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Main organiser:
Professor Daniel Pullen () 1
Co-organisers:
Professor Dimitri Nakassis (United States) 2
Prof. Lorenz Rahmstorf ()
Affiliations:
1. Florida State University
2. University of Colorado
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