Commerce and Colonization in the Ancient Near East

by: Aubet, M.E.

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.

Discusses the importance of Byblos and other centers for the study of Near Eastern trading colonies from the third millennium BC
Examines price differences among regions and unequal distribution of resources as the starting point of ancient trade and colonization
Presents the trading colony as a characteristic feature of the ancient Near East

Table of Contents
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.

Commerce and Colonization in the Ancient Near East

by: Aubet, M.E.

• ISBN-13: 9780521514170 / 978-0-521-51417-0
• ISBN-03: 0521514177 / 0-521-51417-7
• Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2013