Long-Distance Exchange and Inter-Regional Economies

An undulating flow of multi-scalar exchanges pulsed across the surface of Aegean from the beginnings of the Bronze Age in the third millennium to the transition into the Iron Age nearly two thousand years later. Such exchanges were variable in nature. Most probably occurred within a rather circumscribed environment, involving neighboring communities operating across the many real but traversable geographical boundaries that characterize the Aegean landscape ¿ ridges separating mountain plateaus, rocky coastal stretches between bays, or narrow straits amidst archipelagos. This Element is focused on the less-frequent but important long-distance exchanges that connected people in the Aegean with the wider Mediterranean and European world, especially focusing on interactions that may be classified as 'economic'. After reviewing basic definitions and discussing some methods and materials available for studying long-distance exchange, this Element presents a diachronic assessment of the geospatial, scalar, and structural characteristics of long-distance exchange and inter-regional economies.

List of contents

1. Introduction; 2. Framing Long-Distance Exchange; 3. Long-Distance Exchange in the Early Bronze Age; 4. Long-Distance Exchange and Economy in the Cretan Bronze Age; 5. Long-Distance Exchange and Economy in the Mycenaean Aegean; 6. Long-Distance Exchange and Economy in the Postpalatial Aegean; 7. Changing Currents and Future Directions in Aegean Trade and Economy; 8. Conclusions; References.

Product details

• Authors: Sarah C Murray, Sarah C. Murray, Sarah C. (University of Toronto) Murray
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 18.01.2024
• EAN: 9781009478595
• ISBN: 978-1-0-0947859-5
• No. of pages: 84
• Series: Elements in The Aegean Bronze Age
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Pre and early history; prehistory, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Archaeology, Mediterranean Sea, Maritime / nautical trades, Ancient History, Archaeology by period / region, bronze age, Ancient history: to c 500 CE, Mediterranean countries, Prehistoric archaeology, Maritime and nautical trades