TRANSPORT AMPHORAS AND MARKET PRACTICES 273
Uncertainty in markets and a network-dependent response to such prob-lems do not disqualify ancient exchange from being considered under the
rubric of the market. But they are considered as such without reference to
the presence or absence of household self-sufficiency, the scale of produc-
tion or transactions, the degree of labor specialization, or the integration of
price-creating mechanisms throughout the system. In other words, this chapter
has enlisted archaeological evidence alongside other sources to articulate ways
of thinking about ancient markets without engaging in the endless struggle to
define thresholds of activity and autonomy of behavior that can be considered
a market economy as opposed to something more ‘primitive’ or minimalistic.
Once the possibility is raised that the ancient agora operated more like themodern Greek laiki market and less like Carrefour, then other institutional
aspects of similarly socially embedded markets can be explored: when and why
producers enter their goods into the market, expectations and goals for profit,
and – to return at last to the other theme of this volume – the intersection
between ideologies of self-sufficiency and participation in such markets.