Eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age Trade in Archaeological Perspective: A Review of Interpretative and Empirical Developments

In the Bronze Age Mediterranean, trade was a key mechanism that defined the era's political, social, and economic dynamism. This paper reviews recent methodological and empirical developments in the study of trade in the Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean, with a focus on the Late Bronze Age. The complexity of the relevant evidence presents nontrivial interpretative challenges, and a variety of schools of thought concerning the methods and approaches best suited for enlightening economic exchange through the study of archaeological remains co-exist. New insights based on empirical study of archaeological evidence have primarily coalesced around topics that have long been central to the study of trade, especially the sources and destinations of metal resources and the distribution of ceramic containers and their contents. Developing areas of emphasis, such as the roles of merchants and traders, have simultaneously emerged. Both novel methods and recent empirical insights highlight the difficulty inherent in attempts to relate artifacts to commercial exchange due to the variety of human and material mobilities apparent in the archaeological record. The path forward for understanding Bronze Age trade economies will require carefully tailoring research questions that may be answered in concrete ways with the evidence available and developing interpretative frameworks that can accommodate both bottom-up views emphasizing individual agency and generalizing models that facilitate comparison through space and time.

Automated summary

This paper reviews the methodologies and empirical developments in the study of trade in the Bronze Age Mediterranean, focusing on the Late Bronze Age. The complexity of the evidence presents challenges in interpretation, and different schools of thought exist regarding the best methods and approaches for studying economic exchange through archaeological remains. Recent insights have focused on the sources and destinations of metal resources, as well as the distribution of ceramic containers and their contents. New areas of emphasis, such as the roles of merchants and traders, have also emerged. The difficulty in relating artifacts to commercial exchange due to the diversity of human and material mobilities apparent in the archaeological record is highlighted.