Archaeology of Trade in the Western Indian Ocean, 300 BC–AD 700. (original) (raw)
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Vicino Oriente, 2015
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
Priestman, 2021: Ceramic Exchange and the Indian Ocean Economy (AD 400-1275). Volume I: Analysis
Free open-access download available at: https://doi.org/10.48582/ceramicexchange\_vol1
By around AD 750–800 the Indian Ocean emerged as a global commercial centre. A sophisticated trade network had been established involving the movement of goods from Japan and China in the east, to southern Africa and Spain in the west. However, the Indian Ocean’s commercial system has been relatively understudied, with many of the key assumptions regarding its development based on narrative textual sources and selective archaeological evidence. This study sets out the case for the unique significance of quantified ceramic finds as an indicator of long-term changes in the scale and volume of maritime exchange in a period for which few other sources of systematic economic history survive. The publication presents archaeological data from thirteen sites distributed across the western Indian Ocean, including Siraf (Iran), Anuradhapura (Sri Lanka) and Manda (Kenya). The ceramic assemblages are considered in terms of their general compositional characteristics and the distinctions between local, regional and long-distance exchange. The volume concludes with a discussion of how this data can be used to address the broader issues of long-term economic change and the relationship between state power in the Middle East and the commercial networks of the Indian Ocean operating via the Persian Gulf.
Indian merchants abroad: Integrating the Indian ocean world during the early first millennium CE
Journal of Global History
With the rise of post-colonialism during the latter part of the twentieth century, more focus has been given to non-western perspectives (the so-called nativist turn). In the case of Indian Ocean trade during the early first millennium CE, the view that ‘Roman’ merchants and sailors were the near-exclusive movers of goods, who were also (indirectly) responsible for commercial developments within South Asia, has largely fallen into abeyance. Rightly, the agency of those in South Asia has been acknowledged. The present article goes beyond this basic premise and considers how we can assess evidence demonstrating the role played by sailors and merchants from South Asia. In particular, it is suggested these merchants and sailors played an important role in connecting the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal regions.
Networks and social cohesion in ancient Indian Ocean trade: geography, ethnicity, religion
The Indian Ocean is famous for its well-documented Jewish and Islamic trading networks of the medieval and early modern periods. Social networks that eased the challenges of cross-cultural trade have a much longer history in the region, however. The great distances covered by merchants and the seasonality of the monsoons left few alternatives to staying away for prolonged periods of time, and shipwreck, piracy, and the slave trade caused people to end up on coasts far away from home. Networks of merchants developed in the Indian Ocean region that depended on a degree of social cohesion. This article draws up a map of selected merchant communities in the western Indian Ocean, and argues that geographical origin, ethnicity, and religion may have been different ways of establishing the necessary infrastructure of trust. The article is open access and can be downloaded from the publisher.
Commodity Flows, Diaspora Networking, and Contested Agency in the Eastern Indian Ocean c. 1000–1500
TRaNS: Trans -Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia
Recent revisionist approaches to early pre-1500 eastern Indian Ocean history draw from and cross-reference epigraphic, archaeological, art historical, literary, cultural, textual, shipwreck, and a variety of other primary and secondary sources as these document the evolution of Southeast Asia from roughly 300 to 1500, before significant European regional presence became a factor. This study's focus is the transitional importance of c. 1000–1500 Indian Ocean international maritime trade and transit from the South Asian shorelines of the Bay of Bengal to the South China and Java Seas, which is conceived to have temporarily produced an inclusive eastern Indian Ocean zone of contact. In this then ‘borderless’ region there were a variety of meaningful contacts and material, cultural, and knowledge transfers that resulted in synthesis of Indian, Chinese, Middle Eastern, and Southeast Asian cultures and populations made possible by enhanced international maritime trade connections befo...