eastward, suggesting both population diff usion and ex-
change systems. Because distances were oft en great and
contact infrequent between societal territories, trade prob-
ably happened spontaneously. In other northern locations,
however, trade occurred regularly between coastal and in-
land groups to obtain staples that their own environments
did not off er. For example, during the Mesoamerican Clas-
sic Period (150–650 c.e.) sea mammal oil and blubber were
traded by coastal peoples to interior peoples in exchange for
furs of the caribou, fox, and wolverine. A basic form of this
exchange tradition probably dates back several thousand
years. A similar geographic exchange principle between in-
terior and coast also was thought to exist in the southeast-
ern region of North America.
In the Adena-Hopewell interaction sphere, centered
in present-day Ohio with satellites spread throughout the
greater Midwest, mound builders gathered periodically for
funeral ceremonies and construction. Evidence suggests that
some form of exchange occurred, even if it was only labor.
Craft specialization, including pipes and polished stone ar-
tifacts, all highly transportable, off ered prime opportunities
for trade. Researchers have found a surprising concentration
of Adena-style artifacts, such as stone tubes, Adena points,
birdstones, gorgets, and shell and copper beads as far east as
the Chesapeake Bay. Materials for Hopewell grave goods were
brought in from great distances. Other traded items include
obsidian from what is today Yellowstone Park in Wyoming,
conch and turtle shell, shark and alligator teeth from Florida,
mica and chlorite from North Carolina and Tennessee, blu-
ish fl int from Indiana, and chalcedony from North Dakota.
While down-the-line, or intervillage, exchange systems mayhave accounted for some of the imports, long-range trading
or mining expeditions also seem to have been involved.
Evidence throughout the Andes region supports a tradi-
tion of long-distance trade. In the period of 2000–1500 b.c.e.
trade between coastal Ecuador and Amazonia is supported by
ceramic developments, fi gurine traditions, and the presence
in coastal Ecuador of a type of coca indigenous to the Amazon
regions. In Peru evidence of long-distance trade is found in a
medicine man’s outfi t discovered near Lake Titicaca and dated
to the fourth century b.c.e. Th e outfi t is attributed to a type
of traveling herbalist called a callahuayas, whose business
was the long-distance transfer of goods and ideas. Remains of
food, arts, and craft s at Chavín de Huántar, the center of the
northern Peruvian Chavín culture (ca. 900–ca. 200 b.c.e.), in-
dicate extensive outside relations, including a far-fl ung trade
network presumably facilitated by llama trains. In one exam-
ple, obsidian from Huancavelica, some 290 miles south, was
found at Chavín de Huántar.See also agriculture; borders and frontiers; building
techniques and materials; calendars and clocks; ce-
ramics and pottery; cities; crafts; economy; empires
and dynasties; employment and labor; exploration;
food and diet; foreigners and barbarians; inven-
tions; language; metallurgy; military; mining, quar-
rying, and salt making; money and coinage; roads and
bridges; seafaring and navigation; ships and ship-
building; slaves and slavery; social organization;
storage and preservation; textiles and needlework;
transportation; weights and measures; war and con-
quest; writing.- Of the designated ports on the Erythraean Sea, and
the market-towns around it, the fi rst is the Egyptian
port of Mussel Harbor. To those sailing down from
that place, on the right hand, after eighteen hundred
stadia, there is Berenice. Th e harbors of both are at
the boundary of Egypt, and are bays opening from the
Erythraean Sea. - On the right-hand coast next below Berenice is the
country of the Berbers. Along the shore are the Fish-
Eaters, living in scattered caves in the narrow valleys.
Further inland are the Berbers, and beyond them the
Wild-fl esh-Eaters and Calf-Eaters, each tribe governed
by its chief; and behind them, further inland, in the
country towards the west, there lies a city called
Meroe.- Below the Calf-Eaters there is a little market-town on
the shore after sailing about four thousand stadia from
Berenice, called Ptolemais of the Hunts, from which the
hunters started for the interior under the dynasty of the
Ptolemies. Th is market-town has the true land-tortoise
in small quantity; it is white and smaller in the shells.
And here also is found a little ivory like that of Adulis.
But the place has no harbor and is reached only by small
boats. - Below Ptolemais of the Hunts, at a distance of
about three thousand stadia, there is Adulis, a port
Th e Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: Travel and
Trade in the Indian Ocean by a Merchant of the First Century,
excerpt (ca. fi rst to third centuries c.e.) Greece1108 trade and exchange: primary source documents0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1108 1108 10/10/07 2:31:06 PM