investigated so far, and although most of the published evidence is more
or less contemporary with the Persian Wars and their aftermath, with the
kinds of ceramics that occur at various locations in the Thasianperaia,
there is nothing to suggest that this was an internationalemporionlater
in thefifth century and thereafter. The hilltop is located south of the
coastal road (which was later incorporated into the Via Egnatia).
Another upland site, on a steeper acropolis on the northern side of the
main coastal road, lying just east of the modern town of Akontisma, was
heavily fortified with a masonry wall and towers in the period of Cas-
sander (c. 316 – 297 bc). Although the two hilltops are close enough to the
coast and to the main east–west coastal access route, neither is especially
well located for inter-regional commercial purposes. A slave market near
Nea Karvali seems even less likely, given the fact that there was such a
market at Abdera, less than 30 km away. An inscription found at Abdera,
dating to the middle of the fourth centurybc, provides clear evidence
that Abdera was the main focus of slave sales in this period. It is unlikely
that there would have been a rival centre of inter-regional slave exchange
so close to Abdera.^90
The organization of slave markets is still very imperfectly understood.
The Abderitan text records a law concerning the sale of slaves (andra-
poda) and pack animals—mules, asses, donkeys, cattle, and horses are all
mentioned. Regulations were set out for the kinds of pledges or surety
that should be made by the sellers to buyers concerning the health of
those creatures being sold, with strict time schedules for the incubation
of known diseases, including (with respect to human medical com-
plaints) a year for epilepsy, ten(?) months for bowel diseases, four days
for fever, and a variety of identifiable illnesses in cattle and horses, with
corresponding periods of prior monitoring, listed in the damaged lower
part of the text. Damage to the right-hand side of the text means that
there is some ambiguity about the purpose of the security (eggue) that
was required, presumably in case of the cancellation of a sale (ll. 4–5).
This immensely interesting document suggests that there were regular
sales of animals and, to a lesser extent, perhaps, people, in the agora of
Abdera, and that consequently this law was introduced to regulate not
just live sales, but to ensure that there was sufficient institutional provi-
sion for the kinds of problems that might arise when dealing with
character, modest agricultural communities, important to the Greeks because they gave
access to the interior’.Inventory, 866–7, no. 638 (note proximity to the Vassova salt lake);
M. Nicolaidou and I. Patera, 2005; Chankowski 2010, 245.
(^90) SEG 47, 1026;I ThrAegE3, 186–90 and pl.1; Chandezon 2003, no.23; Andreau and
Descat 2006, 104.
Societies and economies 121