gold and silver objects, including coins. Another type of deposit consists of
votive offerings left in a sacred place associated with gods or ancestral spirits.
Often this was a particular spot in a river, marsh, or other body of water.
Goods found in tombs, hoards, and votive deposits are indirect indicators of
trade if it can be determined that they were not made locally.
A new field of archaeology that has proved fruitful although challen-
ging and expensive is maritime or nautical archaeology. Shipwrecks are little
time capsules, like grave sites except that the goods found in graves were
deliberately placed there. Occasionally underwater work allows for specta-
cular discoveries as, for example, the Uluburun shipwreck (discussed in
Chapter 5).
Sunken wooden ships deteriorate as do much of their cargoes but not clay-
based ceramics. Pottery remains can help archaeologists deal with two central
issues, dating and sourcing, thefirst a general matter in archaeological stu-
dies, the second more specifically related to questions involving trade.
Pottery is useful for the archaeologist because it was easily broken. When
that happened, there was usually no reason to clean up the mess, so the
shards were left where they fell. The material itself was virtually indestruc-
tible and could not be reused. Different places made pottery in their own
ways, and styles and decorative fashions changed over time. Also various
types of clay contained elements from different places, all of which give
archaeologists a good idea as to when and where a piece originated.
Unfortunately, archaeology can be of little help with organic commodities
referred to as “archaeologically invisible.” These include foods – grains,
spices, condiments, beverages, preservedfish, and vegetable oils–and such
products as papyrus, skins, unguents, medicines, cosmetics, salt, timber,
exotic woods, and many more as well as slaves. Textiles tend to disintegrate,
but spindle whorls do not. Raw materials such as metals and glass leave few
traces once they are converted intofinished products. And if metals don’t rot
and can’t be digested, most corrode, and all can be melted down, which is
frequently the fate of anything made of gold or silver. Once metal is alloyed
or remelted, chemical analysis cannot be used for sourcing. We must operate
under the realization that archaeological evidence is usually patchy, circum-
stantial, and ambiguous, and conclusions drawn from it are speculative and
can be overturned from new data uncovered on the next big dig.
Archaeologists deal in probabilities; they are usually cautious in drawing
conclusions and rarely make definitive statements. As a result, the literature
on long-distance trade is punctuated with sentences that begin with“it is
likely,”and the word“might”is used a lot.
Along with archaeological evidence, the other major source of information
on premodern long-distance trade is written accounts. Of course, the huge
bulk of everything written on trade and every other topic in the past has
been lost, and much material modern scholars would be ecstatic tofind never
existed because it was not considered important enough to record. If
8 Some introductory musings