Arabian Trade Research Articles

Trade, Kingdom, and Empire: Edom and the South Arabian Trade

AbstractDuring the first millennium BCE, extensive trade networks linked the South Arabian and Mediterranean worlds. While these trade networks are well known for their transport of highly lucrative materials, these connections afforded myriad economic and diplomatic opportunities for the intermediaries located along its routes, and held significant bearing on the political economies of southern Levantine kingdoms. While the wealth and opportunity afforded by the Arabian trade to these kingdoms are frequently invoked—particularly in relation to Edom—such references, and related discussions of the Arabian trade, are often restricted in their chronological scope and reliant on limited data. Recent scholarship on Edom, however, has substantially contributed to a more detailed understanding of settlement trajectories and shifts in sociopolitical organization, which, combined with recent archaeological research on varied aspects of the Arabian trade, necessitate an expanded synthesis of the trajectory of this trade and its relation to Edom. This work thus presents first an outline of the diachronic trajectory of the Arabian trade in relation to the southern Levant using textual and material culture data, and second, analyzes it within the context of sociopolitical developments in the late Iron Age kingdom of Edom. Ultimately, this work argues for a close association between the flourishing of long-distance trade in the southern Levant and the presence of sedentary sociopolitical complexity in southern Transjordan, as evident in the kingdoms of Edom and later Nabataea.

The Formation of Edom: An Archaeological Critique of the “Early Edom” Hypothesis

According to the Early Edom hypothesis, the late Iron II kingdom of Edom in southern Jordan emerged from the complex copper-producing society of early Iron II Faynan. A review of the archaeological evidence from the final publication of the Faynan excavations demonstrates that the hypothesis is untenable. There was a chronological gap of 50 to 100+ years between the end of settlement at Faynan, at the end of the 9th century b.c.e., and the earliest settlement in the Edom Highlands; evidence of decreasing social and political complexity at Faynan; no continuity in the scale or technology of copper production at Faynan between early and late Iron II; and completely different settlement patterns at early Iron II Faynan and in the late Iron II highlands, indicating a different economic and social basis. The evidence suggests that early Iron II Faynan was short-lived and linked to the contemporary society in the Negev Highlands, through administration, economy, and workforce. The kingdom of Edom and late Iron II settlement developed in the late 8th century b.c.e. under Assyrian stimulus, which had a direct impact on the expansion of settlement and agriculture, the production of pottery and other goods, and the Arabian trade across the Negev.

Residue analysis evidence for wine enriched with vanilla consumed in Jerusalem on the eve of the Babylonian destruction in 586 BCE.

The article presents results of residue analysis, based on Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer (GC-MS) measurements, conducted on 13 ceramic storage jars unearthed in the Babylonian destruction layer (586 BCE) in Jerusalem. Five of the jars bear rosette stamp impressions on their handles, indicating that their content was related to the kingdom of Judah's royal economy. The identification of the original contents remains is significant for the understanding of many aspects related to the nutrition, economy and international trade in the ancient Levant. The study shed light on the contents of the jars and the destruction process of the buildings in which they were found. The jars were used alternatively for storing wine and olive oil. The wine was flavored with vanilla. These results attest to the wine consumption habits of the Judahite elite and echo Jerusalem's involvement in the trans-regional South Arabian trade of spices and other lucrative commodities on the eve of its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar.

The Unique Specialised Economy of Judah under Assyrian Rule and its Impact on the Material Culture of the Kingdom

ABSTRACT The geography of Judah is unique among the territorial kingdoms of the southern Levant, featuring four distinct regions with the potential for exploitation in different economic strategies. In the Iron IIB the vassal kingdom experienced a dramatic economic transformation directed by the Assyrian empire, from traditional Mediterranean subsistence to specialised economy based on its four zones: viticulture in the highlands, oleo-culture in the Shephelah, services to the Arabian trade in the Beersheba Valley and date and exotic plant groves in the Dead Sea Valley oases. This high-risk/high-gain system may clarify the development of advanced administration, which, in turn, explains the unique features in the material culture of Judah compared to neighbouring kingdoms: The system of stamped handles and weights and the proliferation of scribal activity. The division of the kingdom into districts, as portrayed in Josh 15, is connected to this reality, and hence probably originated slightly earlier than conventionally argued.

Culinary Traditions in the Borderlands of Judah and Edom during the Late Iron Age

Cooking pots and culinary practices can be used as a sensitive proxy for social identities. Through an analysis of culinary traditions in the northeastern Negev—the borderland region between the Iron Age kingdoms of Judah and Edom—a complex narrative of social interaction between diverse social groups can be identified. This article demonstrates patterns of social and economic alliances, migration and intermarriage through spatial and temporal analyses of the distribution of cooking pot types. The resultant portrait is the outcome of opportunities afforded by the South Arabian trade network traversing the borderland region.

Jeroboam II in Transjordan

ABSTRACT Archaeological finds and biblical references indicate that in the early 8th century BCE, the time of Jeroboam II, the Northern Kingdom expanded in the south as far as Kuntillet Ajrud in northeast Sinai and in the northeast to the Irbid Plateau and the southern Bashan. This seems to demonstrate Israel’s interest in dominating the two branches of the Arabian trade routes—the Darb el-Ghazza in Sinai and the King’s Highway in Transjordan. Against this background, I discuss the possibility that Israel also extended its rule or domination to Edom and to other sectors of Transjordan.

Invasion genetics of a human commensal rodent: the black rat Rattus rattus in Madagascar.

Studies focusing on geographical genetic patterns of commensal species and on human history complement each other and provide proxies to trace common colonization events. On Madagascar, the unintentional introduction and spread of the commensal species Rattus rattus by people may have left a living clue of human colonization patterns and history. In this study, we addressed this question by characterizing the genetic structure of natural populations of R.rattus using both microsatellites and mitochondrial sequences, on an extensive sampling across the island. Such data sets were analysed by a combination of methods using population genetics, phylogeography and approximate Bayesian computation. Our results indicated two introduction events to Madagascar from the same ancestral source of R.rattus, one in the extreme north of the island and the other further south. The latter was the source of a large spatial expansion, which may have initially started from an original point located on the southern coast. The inferred timing of introduction events-several centuries ago-is temporally congruent with the Arabian trade network in the Indian Ocean, which was flourishing from the middle of the first millennium.

The Pottery of Khirbet En-Nahas: A Rejoinder

Smith and Levy (2008) have published an assemblage of pottery from the copper production centre of Khirbet en-Nahas in Jordan. Based on their interpretation of the 14C dates from the site and contra the accumulated knowledge on the ceramic typology of the Levant they argue that this pottery dates to the Iron I and Iron IIA, and that there was no later activity at the site. We show that much of the Khirbet en-Nahas pottery dates to the Iron IIB–C. We argue that the charcoal samples sent for radiocarbon dating originated from the waste of industrial activity at the site in the Iron I and Iron IIA, while the pottery came from a post-production activity in the Iron IIB–C — an activity that included the construction of a fort on the surface of the site. We propose that the fort was built along the Assyrian Arabian trade route, at the foot of the ascent from the Arabah to the Assyrian headquarters of Buseirah.

Ancient Caravanserais: An Archaeological View from 'Aroer

The caravanserai formed a typical public institution of trading cultures during the pre-industrial periods. To introduce a preliminary model for the identification of caravanserais in the archaeological record, general characteristics typical of ancient caravanserais will be discussed (function, location, architectural layout) based on a combination of archaeological and ethnohistorical evidence. The preliminary model is based on six aspects: accommodation, animal keeping, existence of trade centres, protection, food preparation and consumption and water supply.The archaeological case-study that will be used here is Tel 'Aroer in the Negev. The architectural remains and the material culture that were revealed outside the fortifications, in a public building from Area A (Stratum II – end of the seventh and the beginning of the sixth centuries BCE) will be described and analyzed in light of the proposed model and in relation to the existence of the long distance South Arabian Trade system during the Late Iron Age.

Early Assyrian Contacts with Arabs and the Impact on Levantine Vassal Tribute

A survey of Assyrian documentary evidence suggests that the fall of Damascus represented a watershed event for the spread of Arabian commerce and culture to eastern Syria, the Assyrian heartland, and eventually Babylonia. Assyria made and maintained geographic contact with Arabs as a result of Arabian traffic through the intermediate Levant and not by direct routes from Mesopotamia to Dumah or Haʾil. Arabs were evidently well established north of the Gilead prior to 732 B. C. E., but were largely restrained from trading farther east until Tiglath-pileser III removed the Aramaean stranglehold. Growing Assyrian familiarity with the characteristic largess of Arabian trade, moreover, coincided with more specific, and probably more austere, tribute impositions on vassal states in Palestine.

Tribes, Trade, and Towns: A New Framework for the Late Iron Age in Southern Jordan and the Negev

Recent research on the Transjordanian Iron Age kingdoms stresses their tribal nature, involvement in the Arabian trade, regional variation, and the mixture of pottery traditions. To determine how this system functioned in southern Jordan (Edom) and the Negev, 19th-century ethnographic data from the same area is used to derive a model of how different tribal groups interacted. The model is based on five aspects: territory and movement, trade, interaction with a gateway town, relationship to central government, and relationship with an imperial power. It is proposed that this model can be appropriately applied to the late Iron Age in southern Jordan and the Negev. Edom was composed of largely independent tribes connected by bonds of allegiance, who interacted with others from Arabia, the Negev, and the west, and controlled the trade among Arabia, Edom, the Beersheba Valley, and Gaza. Certain towns on this route were gathering places for such groups or centers controlling Assyrian interests in the Arabian trade.

New Directive Issued By the Saudi Arabian Trade Mark Office

New Directive Issued By the Saudi Arabian Trade Mark Office

New Directive Issued by the Saudi Arabian Trade Mark Office

New Directive Issued by the Saudi Arabian Trade Mark Office

Arabian Trade and Socio-Political Conditions in the Negev in the Twelfth-Eleventh Centuries B. C. E.

Arabian Trade and Socio-Political Conditions in the Negev in the Twelfth-Eleventh Centuries B. C. E.