anthropologists have paid as much attention as Veblen did both to the
complexities of conspicuous consumption and to the reciprocal invest-
ment of effort and imagination in productive pursuits. The ubiquitous
heaps offired ceramic, the miles of defensive enclosures and paved paths,
and the massed stone sunk to make breakwaters, are all silent witnesses
to the same instinct in the north Aegean during thefirst millenniumbc.
Carpets, textiles, and dressFor Veblen, aesthetic beauty and cost were closely related. But these were
not stable quantities. What is more, objects that start off being desirable
and rare might end up being considered essentials.‘As items which
sometimes fall under this head, and are therefore available as illustrations
of the manner in which this principle applies, may be cited carpets and
tapestries, silver table service, waiter’s services, silk hats, starched linen,
many articles of jewellery and of dress.’^51 Again, many of these items,
particularly carpets, tapestries, and silverware, feature prominently in the
repertoire of socially desirable artefacts in the environment of the north
Aegean. The suggestion that what starts off as a restricted commodity,
Fig. 4.9.Olynthos (House A vi 3), dining room mosaic showing the mounted
Bellerophon with his hunting dog.
(^51) Veblen 1899 [2007], 68–9.
Thelongue duréein the north Aegean 161