INDIAN OCEAN TRADE: A REASSESSMENT OF THE POTTERY FINDS FROM A MULTIDISCIPLINARY POINT OF VIEW (3 RD CENTURY BC-5 TH CENTURY AD, 2015 (original) (raw)
2015, Vicino Oriente
Pottery is a key material of the ancient Indian Ocean trade network and its study provides an understanding of transcultural interactions. This study demonstrates that a reassessment from a multidisciplinary point of view offers new and original interpretations of known existing material. Even though we undeniably have a better comprehension of the Western material due to more advanced studies, these research results prove that it is necessary to dismiss the established Rome-centric perspective. In particular, a re-evaluation of the pottery finds in Western Indian Ocean countries strongly supports the idea that South Arabia and India played a primary role in international exchanges between the 3 rd century BC and the 5 th century AD. In the 3 rd century BC an important trade network arose in the Indian Ocean. Traders and sailors were the main characters in this scenario. Although these groups are usually only considered for their professional role, the reciprocal influence of their travels can be seen in the material culture and art of Roman Egypt, India and South Arabia. The trade routes crossing the Indian Ocean were important and active not only in the exchange of material goods, but also in connecting different cultures. Economic and trade relations allowed a country to open up beyond its borders, promoting a real cultural outflow. The history of Indian Ocean trade dates back to at least the second half of the 3 rd millennium BC when Mesopotamian ships called at the Harappan ports at the mouth of the Indus river (in present-day Pakistan). Subsequently this kind of international trade decreased due to political instability and economic recession. Even so, in the long period between the end of proto-historical trade and the Hellenistic period, Indian and Arab merchants learned how to exploit the monsoon. However we cannot know when they first crossed the Indian Ocean. Monsoon exploitation was a definite technical advantage for Arabs and Indians who – before Greek traders came on the scene – were for a period the only ones engaged in sea trade between the East and the West. 1 This sea route gave rise and new life to many harbours and port towns along the Indian Ocean shores, fostering a lively exchange network. The two ends of the Indian Ocean routes were India and Egypt; between them – at least at the beginning – Arabian ports played the role of entrepôts (fig. 1). Even Egypt, for most of the goods imported, was simply a middle passage to the Mediterranean routes. All inquiries into Indian Ocean trade should be multidisciplinary; only a comparison of different sources of information can shed some light on the topic by combining the evidence and interpreting it in context. As is often the case in archaeology, and for this trade route, pottery is a good guide to understanding such a phenomenon. However, it is
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