ARCHAEOLOGY, ECONOMICS AND EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE

This paper assesses the contribution Richard Hodges has made to the archaeological study of the early medieval economy. After a review of methodology, three themes are considered: reciprocal exchange; the emporia; and regions and markets. The nature of exchange may be more complex, and more difficult to characterise, than Hodges allows. It is argued that the role of the king in exchange has been exaggerated, particularly with regard to Dorestad, while the extent to which inland regions and inland ports were involved in exchange may have been underestimated; this has led to a false appreciation of the emporia. Further work is needed to characterise the economy of the regions of early medieval Europe.     

Reconstructing ancient Maya animal trade through strontium isotope (87Sr/86Sr) analysis

This study explores the potential for using strontium isotope analysis (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) to study ancient Maya animal exchange. Traditional zooarchaeological methods of studying trade rely on the identification of animals found outside their natural geographic or habitat ranges. Isotopic analysis provides an additional means of identifying and sourcing non-local animals. ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values from Maya zooarchaeological remains indicate that regional and long-distance transport and exchange of animal goods was more common than previously recognized. Widely distributed animals including deer and peccary were among the animals exchanged, which questions their common interpretation as locally-acquired resources. The isotopic results contribute to our understanding of how animal products were integrated into Maya economic and exchange networks. The research is also relevant to human mobility studies in Mesoamerica.     

Trace element fingerprinting of ceramic building material from Carpow and York Roman fortresses manufactured by the VI Legion

Trace element compositions of raw clay, fired clay and Roman ceramic building material (CBM) from Carpow Roman fortress, Newburgh, Scotland and the city of York, England have been determined through the use of inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICPMS). It is confirmed that the firing of clay does not disturb any of the sample’s trace element composition and that trace element protolith identification is an applicable tool for fingerprinting the source of material used in CBM construction. It is also demonstrated through the particular proportions of LREE/HREE; Th/Co; La/Sc; La/Lu; Eu/Sm values on CBM from Carpow that these material were likely manufactured from clay used in the York Roman tile manufacturing industry, therefore suggesting importation. The transport of CBM from York to Carpow provides a useful addition to known examples of the long-distance shipping of CBM. It is postulated that similar analysis to that conducted here could be used to identify important trade networks within the Roman Empire.     

陕西临潼康家龙山文化遗址1990年发掘动物遗存

一、前言 陕西临潼康家遗址是龙山时期的村落遗址,面积约１９万平方米。自１９８１年以来,曾进行过多次发掘①,出土了大量动物骨骼,本文将分析１９９０年夏秋两季发掘中出土的动物遗存。 １９９０年发掘是在遗址的中南部进行的,发掘 １０ × １０米探方１个（１２６）。康家遗址Ｔ２６的龙山地层厚度约３米,发现迭压多层的房屋一排,房前的院子里有许多灰坑。大部分兽骨出于灰坑和房屋的夯土墙内。发掘报告尚未发表,但为叙述方便本文根据建筑遗迹的分布情况初步将龙山文化地层分为早晚两期。早期：厚度约２米,每层房基包括４间房屋…     

Exchange networks of the Early Bronze Age Gulf: The imported ceramics from Kalba 4 (United Arab Emirates)

Imported ceramics from Early Bronze Age contexts in southeast Arabia illustrate a complex multidirectional network of material and social interactions at this time. Significant socioeconomic changes that occurred in the Hafit (3200–2800 B.C.) and Umm an-Nar (2800–2000 B.C.) periods have been linked to external demand for copper, which is argued to have stimulated a change in subsistence patterns. Similarly, disruption to long-distance exchange networks by external factors has been cited as driving change at the end of the Umm an-Nar period. Archaeological evidence from the region suggests a shift in the direction of exchange from Mesopotamia to the Indus occurred around the middle of the third millennium B.C. However, a recent analysis of Mesopotamian historical sources has highlighted the scale of state-organised textile production for export to the lower Gulf in the later third millennium B.C. The site of Kalba 4 has a stratified sequence of occupation deposits dating from the Umm an-Nar and Iron Age (1300–300 B.C.). In this study, a typological analysis of imported ceramics is used to locate the Kalba in the chronological framework of the region and discuss the changing networks of long-distance exchange that were operating. The imported pottery at Kalba 4 indicates that the inhabitants of the site were exchanging goods with a range of polities, including southern Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley (Meluhha), southeast Iran (Marhashi) and Bahrain (Dilmun). A significant quantity of Late Akkadian ceramics at the site suggests it became an important location for Mesopotamian trade at this time.     

The urban systems of medieval Mali

Urbanism in medieval Mali was closely connected with long-distance trade but conforms only partly to Vance's mercantile model. Local periodic markets also existed, arranged in a pattern similar to that outlined in Skinner's modification of Christaller's central place theory, although they were not always connected with cities and were subsidiary to the long-distance trading system. Many aspects of urbanism in medieval Mali, however, had little to do either with long-distance trade or withlocal marketing and may be analysed more lucidly by invoking cultural phenomena than through established models of urban systems.     

The Economics of Saltfish Production in the Aegean During the Classical and Hellenistic Periods

Despite a dearth of literary and archaeological evidence for the commercial production of salted fish or fish sauces in the Aegean during the Classical and Hellenistic periods it has been argued, based on a variety of proximate data, that such production must have been common. This paper suggests those arguments are probably wrong. It argues first that the absence of archaeological evidence for regional Aegean production and trade is itself not necessarily meaningful since a similar absence exists for the Black Sea region during the Classical and Hellenistic periods when commercial production and trade is otherwise well attested; in the Black Sea the most common varieties of saltfish were produced without the use of permanent installations such as salting vats and shipped not in amphoras but in large baskets, thereby leaving little trace in the archaeological record. Evidence for regional Aegean production is also, however, largely absent from the literary and epigraphic sources where a number of key pieces of evidence have been misinterpreted. The evidence suggests instead that commercial catches even of species well suited for preservation would have been marketed fresh. This can be explained in part by the fact that in the Aegean different environmental constraints obtained. More importantly, institutional factors often would have made the commercial production and trade of salted fish and fish sauces uneconomical. Even where local conditions of glut periodically prevailed the possibility of household production may have prevented the development of commercial production on any meaningful scale.     

Evidence of an Eleventh-Century AD Cola Nitida Trade into the Middle Niger Region

Kola nut (Cola cf. nitida) and Safou fruit (Dacryodes edulis) remains have been discovered in eleventh- to fourteenth-century archaeological contexts at Togu Missiri near Ségou in Mali. These remains are evidence of early trade in perishable foodstuffs from the West African forest zone into the Middle Niger region. On the basis of these finds, this paper argues that long-distance trade links were well established by the end of the first millennium AD. It thereby supports the hypothesis that dates the inception of trade between the West African forest zone and the savanna regions to the first millennium AD. The circumstances of the find are discussed, as are the implications for our understanding of the wider exchange network based on the Niger River system in the late first and early second millennium CE.

     

Ancient bronze technology and nomadic communities of the Middle Gobi Desert,Mongolia

The Xiongnu period of Mongolian prehistory (ca. 3rd century BC–AD 2nd century) is notable for the emergence of an expansive nomadic state and major changes in metallurgical and ceramic technologies. A number of Xiongnu period and pre-Xiongnu period bronze and bronze-related artifacts from the site at Baga Gazaryn Chuluu in the Middle Gobi province of Mongolia were examined for their chemical compositions and microstructures. They include finished objects, leftovers from casting, and pieces of slag from copper smelting and the assemblage likely represents a combination of local and regional production as well as long-distance exchange items. Results show that the entire bronze manufacturing process, from smelting to fabrication, is represented at BGC sites and bronze working may have been technologically self-sufficient, though ore sources are still uncertain. Our evidence suggests that this bronze assemblage was the result of two different technological traditions characterized by either the dominant use of arsenic, enforced apparently by restriction in tin supply, or the profuse use of both tin and lead. The arsenic-based tradition was observed in the majority of pre-Xiongnu period objects while the tin and lead recipes were verified in most objects dating to the Xiongnu period. This shift in bronze tradition may reflect changes in inter-regional interaction with frontier groups beyond the Gobi Desert and with the early state societies of China.     

Shell Middens, Ships and Seeds: Exploring Coastal Subsistence, Maritime Trade and the Dispersal of Domesticates in and Around the Ancient Arabian Peninsula

The Arabian Peninsula occupies a critical position at the intersect of several major Old World landmasses. Inland aridity and a major coastal perimeter have long made maritime activities critical to Arabia’s cultural trajectory. A wealth of recent studies, not previously synthesised, suggest not only that the peninsular littoral offered a rich resource base for thousands of years of human occupation in the region, but also that Arabia witnessed some of the world’s earliest seafaring and maritime exchange activities, and played a role in Bronze Age maritime trade that has often been underestimated. Maritime activities were closely linked to developments in agriculture, which not only fuelled trade and exchange, but were also impacted on by the dispersal of domesticates along early maritime corridors. While regional specialisation has to some degree prevented consideration of the maritime prehistory of the peninsula as a whole, it is clear that there are interesting parallels, as well as important differences, between cultural trajectories in different parts of the peninsula.     

Two Vanished African Maritime Traditions and a Parallel from South America

Maritime traditions that extend along coastlines are more vulnerable to disruption and disappearance than areal trading networks. The paper describes two cases from Africa, the likely early movement of Bantu speakers down the coast of West Africa and the Swahili trading diaspora that reached southern Mozambique by at least the seventh century. Both of these have disappeared from the ethnographic and historical record but can be recovered through archaeology and linguistics. A parallel is made with the trade route that linked the coastal region of Peru and Ecuador with Western Mexico and may have been active from as early as 4,000 bp until the Spanish conquest. The hypothesis is that areal networks, such as those in island Southeast Asia and the Pacific, which are driven by colonisation and bidirectional exchange, are more likely to persist because they are more resilient due to the number of broken ‘links’ they can withstand. Linear expansions may be driven by a quest for trade and resources but are usually not necessary to survival.     

Archaeology of Trade in the Western Indian Ocean, 300 BC–AD 700

In the millennium after 300 BC, the western Indian Ocean emerged as a main hub of Old World exchange. Study of this commerce long depended on separate regional archaeologies and a handful of literary sources with Western/Roman bias. A recent surge in scholarly interest has led to a vast increase in data that has fostered a more balanced understanding of the commercial, human, and material aspects of ancient Indian Ocean trade. This review summarizes recent research on the topic and assesses its significance to wider scholarly debates on scale, organization, connectivity, agency, and social cohesion in ancient trade and exchange.     

Trading places: Quentovic and Dorestad reassessed

In any list of Carolingian emporia, Quentovic and Dorestad feature prominently, yet the numismatic evidence reveals a complete contrast between the two. In the late eighth and early ninth centuries, contrary to popular belief, Quentovic was of very little economic significance. At the same time, Dorestad was booming, reaching the peak of its prosperity around 820. Only thirty years later, the situation was dramatically reversed: Dorestad rapidly declined and disappeared, while Quentovic enjoyed a remarkable renaissance. This challenges the current theory that the emporia disappeared in the mid-ninth century, to be replaced by the emerging towns.     

Lines of Desire: Power and Materiality Along a Tanzanian Caravan Route

The caravan routes that connected the East African interior to the coast are well known from the nineteenth century, when trade along them was intense and increasingly formalised. It is understood that this brought important changes in the structure of society, in people–object relations and in the opportunities for the exercise of power; we also assume that this situation differed from pre-colonial periods, yet very little archaeological work has examined that assumption. Understandings of the incorporation of this region into a larger world of commodity exchange have been based upon implicit assumptions about the role of trade; these often stress the underdevelopment of East Africa. Yet it is necessary to examine the ways in which foreign goods were made commensurable with valuables and assets in the regional economy before it is possible to discuss the ways that access to these goods may have affected local power structures. This paper attempts such an analysis, through a focus on two areas in the interior which have been the subject of recent archaeological field work. By tracing the specific histories of their interaction with objects before and during the nineteenth century, it examines the assumption that the accumulation of exotic objects was necessarily the basis of authority. Instead, it will be argued that the ways in which new opportunities and objects were incorporated were specific and local, fitting within existing schemes of understanding and the authorisation of power.     

Bulk stable carbon and deuterium isotope analyses of bitumen artifacts from Hacinebi Tepe, Turkey: reconstructing broad economic patterns of the Uruk expansion

This research addresses issue of inter-regional trade for the world's first colonial trading system, the economic expansion of state societies from southern Mesopotamia into southwest Iran and southeast Anatolia, through the use of stable carbon and deuterium isotope analyses of bitumen artifacts. The key goal of the project was to get beyond simply the identification of trade (Schwartz, M., Hollander, D., Stein, G., 1999. Paléorient 25 (1), 67–82) and examine broad regional patterns in the exchange system. To this end, the methodological approach of this research was focused on the reconstruction of general exchange patterns using a large sample set. The results of these analyses suggest the utility of bulk isotopic analyses in the identification of broad regional patterns, serving as a complement to detailed isotopic and molecular work on asphaltene extractions of bitumen (Connan, J., Nishiaki, Y., 2003. Vol. II: Chalcolithic Technology and Subsistence. The University Museum – The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, pp. 283–306). Some of the data indicate changes in the organization of trade at the site of Hacinebi in southeast Turkey and suggest large economic changes in Anatolia associated with the Uruk expansion.     

We will be known by the tracks we leave behind: Exotic lithic raw materials,mobility and social networking among the Côa Valley foragers (Portugal)

The aim of this study is to establish different socio-cultural models based on lithic raw material sourcing integrated with regional rock art distributions to infer social behaviours within the context of central Iberian Upper Palaeolithic societies. Specifically, we focus on Upper Palaeolithic hunter–gatherer mobility and social interaction in the Côa Valley. This study relies on a knowledge of regional geology and field work to identify the sources of the lithic raw material found at Côa Valley Upper Palaeolithic sites. We expose the context of use and discard of flint, which is naturally absent from the region, and other local materials. From this, we present a GIS based analysis concerning space, time and least-cost paths travelled. This analysis, along with the environmental data available, forms a baseline to evaluate different anthropological models on hunter–gatherer lithic use, mobility, and social networks. We conclude with a three-level model for social interaction, in the context of aggregation activities between different social meta-groups, which involves embedded procurement, long-distance raw material exchange, and symbolic community, reflected in the largest known open-air Upper Palaeolithic rock art concentration.     

The spatial economy of North American trade fairs

Through a study of trade fairs, this article illustrates that relational approaches to economic geography are not limited to the sphere of economic and social relationships. These relationships are influenced by and, in turn, shape material realities, such as specific infrastructure and the labour market, in a reflexive manner. Trade fairs are “relational events” that bring together regional, national, and often international producers, users, suppliers, and other agents of a value chain or technology field for the purpose of exchanging knowledge about technological and market developments, building partnerships, and maintaining existing networks through learning by interaction and observation. However, these events are also situated in space and time, grounded in the contexts of particular industries, trade patterns, public and private investments, as well as the economic geographies of places. Focusing on North America, this article presents and analyzes data on the economic geography of trade fairs and their regional economic impact (number of events, exhibitors, attendees, exhibition space). It explores regional trade fair patterns and dynamic changes in major trade fair cities by emphasizing the role of history and industry context.     

K/AR DATING AS A MEANS OF SOURCING LEVANTINE EPIPALAEOLITHIC BASALT IMPLEMENTS

Through K/Ar dating of basalt implements from two Mount Carmel late Epipalaeolithic sites and samples of locally occurring basalts, it was possible to demonstrate clearly that the prehistoric inhabitants of these sites did not utilize the locally available Upper Cretaceous (88–77 My) basalts. The dates of the basalt implements are of Tertiary-Quaternary age (3.7-<0.250 My) which suggests the exploitation of basalt exposures at least 60 km east of the sites. This is the first direct evidence for long-distance exchange/trade of an essential raw material in the Levant as early as 13000 BP.     

Fowler's Type G Penannular Brooches Reconsidered

Abstract

Analysis of coin finds in an area of NE. England employs and modifies methods developed for Iron-age and Romano-British assemblages alongside quantitative analysis developed specifically for Anglo-Saxon coinages. The results illustrate that observed patterns of coin loss do represent the overall coin loss for the study area, and sites can be confidently compared to each other and the region as a whole. The role and function of coinage apparently changes dramatically over the period from a medium of long-distance trade in the early period to a cash currency by the Viking takeover of York. A review of 'productive sites' suggests that these sites can only be adequately interpreted through analysis of their assemblages against the background of the regional circulation of coinage and artefacts.     

Organising regional production networks in Southeast Asia: implications for production fragmentation, trade, and rules of origin

The globalisation of economic activities has fundamentally reshapedthe relationships between production and trade. The cross-borderproduction activities of transnational corporations (TNCs) havenot only deepened spatial divisions of labour, but also complicatedour understanding of international trade patterns. The developmentof intricate regional production networks by global corporationshas major implications for production fragmentation, internationaltrade, and rules of origin in the global economy. Empiricallygrounded in a study of regional production networks controlledby Singapore-based TNCs, this paper aims to make a modest contributionto the emerging literature on production fragmentation and rulesof origin. Based on an analysis of empirical data from a surveyof 63 parent Singapore-based manufacturing TNCs that have cross-borderoperations in Southeast Asia, I found that their spatial productionfragmentation is rather limited. Most of their Southeast Asiansubsidiaries cater to local markets, or manufacture components/partsfor the regional production facilities of their major globalcorporation customers. I also consider the implications forbusiness strategies and public policies in relation to productionfragmentation and rules of origin in Southeast Asia.