Trade, Traders and the Ancient City

280 Pages·1998·1.63 MB·English

by  Helen Parkins

TRADE, TRADERS AND THE
ANCIENT CITY
TRADE, TRADERS
AND THE ANCIENT
CITY
Edited by
HELEN PARKINS and
CHRISTOPHER SMITH
London and New York
First published 1998
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
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© 1998 selection and editorial matter Helen Parkins and
Christopher Smith; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Helen Parkins and Christopher Smith
and the contributors to be identified as the Authors
of this Work has been asserted by them in
accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by
any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known
or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book has been requested
ISBN 0-203-97903-6 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-415-16517-2 (Print Edition)
Contents
List of figures and tables vi
Notes on contributors viii
Preface ix
List of abbreviations x
1 Time for change? Shaping the future of the ancient 1
economy
HELEN PARKINS
2 The Old Assyrian merchants 15
AMÉLIE KUHRT
3 Traders and artisans in archaic central Italy 31
CHRISTOPHER SMITH
4 Trade on the Black Sea in the archaic and classical 51
periods: some observations
GOCHA R.TSETSKHLADZE
5 Ceramics and positivism revisited: Greek transport 73
amphoras and history
MARK LAWALL
6 The grain trade of Athens in the fourth century BC 99
MICHAEL WHITBY
7 Land transport in Roman Italy: costs, practice and the 125
economy
RAY LAURENCE
8 Trade and traders in the Roman world: scale, structure, 145
and organisation
v
JEREMY PATERSON
9 Trade and the city in Roman Egypt 165
RICHARD ALSTON
10 Trading gods in northern Italy 199
MARK HUMPHRIES
11 Ancient economies: models and muddles 221
JOHN K.DAVIES
Index 253
Figures and tables
Figures
5.1 Chian imports to Athens represented as a percentage of total 85
imports in each period
5.2 Numbers of Chian imports to Gordion compared to total 86
datable imports and the Chian imports expressed as a
percentage of the total datable imports per period
9.1 Communications from Oxyrhynchus (excluding 185
Oxyrhynchite), first to sixth century AD
9.2 Communications from Oxyrhynchus (including 187
Oxyrhynchite), second century AD
9.3 Communications from Oxyrhynchus (including 188
Oxyrhynchite), third century AD
9.4 Zones of contact 190
10.1 Map of north-eastern Italy and the north-western Balkans, 205
showing the location of bureaux of the publicum portorii
Illyrici, centres of commercial activity by the Barbii family
of Aquileia, and centres of Isiac and Mithraic worship
10.2 Map of northern Italy showing the location of Jewish and 207
Christian communities by the early fourth century
10.3 Plan of the southern part of Aquileia, indicating the location 215
of Theodore’s church complex, the imperial horreum and the
extent of the tetrarchic expansion of the city
11.1 Flow diagram of resource movement, stage 1: modified 241
household autarky
11.2 Flow diagram of resource movement, stage 2: complex 243
flows
11.3 Flow diagram of resource movement, stage 3: interactions 245
with the public economy
vii
Tables
9.1 Roman Egypt: traffic registered in the customs accounts 176
9.2 Roman Egypt: communities in contact with Karanis 178
Contributors
Richard Alston is Lecturer in Classics, Royal Holloway, University
of London.
John K.Davies is Professor of Ancient History and Classical
Archaeology, University of Liverpool.
Mark Humphries is Research Associate, Gesta Martyrum
Romanorum Project, Department of Religions and Theology,
University of Manchester.
Amélie Kuhrt is Professor of Ancient Near Eastern History,
University College, University of London.
Ray Laurence is Lecturer in Classics, University of Reading.
Mark Lawall is Adjunct Professor, Classics Department, University of
Manitoba.
Helen Parkins is British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, and Research
Fellow, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.
Jeremy Paterson is Senior Lecturer in Classics, University of
Newcastle.
Christopher Smith is Lecturer in Ancient History, University of St
Andrews.
Gocha Tsetskhladze is Research Fellow in Classics, Royal Holloway,
University of London.
Michael Whitby is Professor of Classics and Ancient History,
University of Warwick.
Preface
In any understanding of the ancient world, the trader must play a role.
So much of our archaeological record is represented by goods which
have moved from their point of origin to a different point of deposition;
how they got there, and who carried them, is the focus of this volume.
By focusing on trade and the trader however, it should not be thought that
we intend this to be a wholly commercial study; all the contributors
show that the exchange of goods is inseparable from social and political
factors. Hence, the city; one part of the economic structure of the ancient
world.
Several of the chapters here were originally delivered as papers at a
conference held at the University of St Andrews on 11 and 12 July 1995.
We are grateful to the participants at that conference for the stimulus
and excitement they provided, and to the various other scholars who
have subsequently offered us papers for publication. We are also
grateful to the School of Greek, Latin and Ancient History, the Society
for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, the Classical Association for
Scotland, the Foundation for Hellenic Culture, and the Carnegie Trust
for financial support. Finally, we would like to acknowledge the
encouragement which Professor Geoffrey Rickman has given to the
editors individually, and the generous hospitality which he offered at the
conference.
Helen Parkins
Christopher Smith