Commerce and Colonization in the Ancient Near East

An analysis of the first colonialisms in history, tracing the eastern roots of the Phoenician colonial system in the first millennium BC.

Maria Eugenia Aubet (Author)

9780521514170, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 31 January 2013

424 pages, 75 b/w illus. 20 maps
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm, 0.73 kg

In this analysis of the first colonialisms in history, the eastern roots of the Phoenician colonial system in the first millennium BC are traced and the metropolis of Tyre is established as the final link in a long chain of colonial experiences in the ancient Near East. The author reviews some of the theories and debates about trade and the colonial phenomenon, scrutinises the colonial situations that arose in the East in a context of long-distance interregional trade, and analyses the examples where a metropolis with a mercantile tradition intervenes and acts as intermediary in different interregional exchange circuits. The book further develops the ongoing debate about the place of the economy in the ancient world and the pertinence of using features from modern economy - such as market, capital, private initiative, laws of supply and demand, and money - to explain the economies of the past.

Part I. The Debate Concerning Ancient Economy: 1. The first great debate: primitivists vs. modernists
2. Karl Polanyi and his view of ancient economy
3. Colonialism and cultures in contact: theorisings and critiques
4. The place of trade in ancient economies
Part II. Trade and Colonialism in the Near East: 5. State trade vs. private initiative
6. Uruk and the first colonialism
7. Byblos and Egypt: reciprocity and shared ideologies
8. The Assyrian trading circuit in Anatolia: the metropolis
9. The Assyrian trading circuit in Anatolia: the colonies
10. Final thoughts.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ], Classical Greek & Roman archaeology [HDDK], Archaeology [HD], Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]