Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity (Key Themes in Ancient History)

Historians have long argued about the place of trade in classical antiquity: was it the life-blood of a complex, Mediterranean-wide economic system, or a thin veneer on the surface of an underdeveloped agrarian society? Trade underpinned the growth of Athenian and Roman power, helping to supply armies and cities. It furnished the goods that ancient elites needed to maintain their dominance - and yet, those same elites generally regarded trade and traders as a threat to social order. Trade, like the patterns of consumption that determined its development, was implicated in wider debates about politics, morality and the state of society, just as the expansion of trade in the modern world is presented both as the answer to global poverty and as an instrument of exploitation and cultural imperialism. This 2007 book explores the nature and importance of ancient trade, considering its ecological and cultural significance as well as its economic aspects. Cover 1 Half-title 3 Series-title 4 Title 7 Copyright 8 Dedication 9 Contents 11 Preface 13 Chapter 1 Trade and the ancient economy 17 The great debate 18 Trade and modernity 22 Definitions 25 Approaches 27 Chapter 2 Ecology and economics 33 Modes of accumulation 33 Ubiquity and variety 35 Cost, speed, risk 42 Uncertainty 45 Chapter 3 Commodities and consumption 51 Consumption 52 Luxuries and staples 55 The capacity to consume 59 Pleasure, discrimination and fashion 62 Cities and wars 65 Commodities 68 Chapter 4 Institutions and infrastructure 71 The costs of exchange 74 Measuring goods 76 Enforcing agreements 80 Controlling trade 86 Finance and organisation 89 The educated trader? 92 Chapter 5 Markets, merchants and morality 95 Markets and marketing 96 The trouble with trade 98 Exchange and society 101 Chapter 6 The limits of ancient globalisation 106 Trade and development 107 Globalisation and its limits 110 The return to normality? 112 Bibliographical essay 119 OLD DEBATES 119 NEW APPROACHES 119 SOURCES 120 ECOLOGY 121 CONSUMPTION 121 INSTITUTIONS 121 IDEOLOGIES 122 THE END OF ANCIENT TRADE 122 References 123 Index 133 In this innovative book Dr Morris seeks to show the many ways in which the excavated remains of burials can and should be a major source of evidence for social historians of the ancient Graeco-Roman world. Burials have a far wider geographical and social range than the surviving literary texts, which were mainly written for a small elite. They provide us with unique insights into how Greeks and Romans constituted and interpreted their own communities. In particular, burials enable the historian to study social change. Yet hitherto they have been conspicuously under-studied. Ian Morris illustrates the great potential of the material in these respects with examples drawn from societies as diverse in time, space and political context as archaic Rhodes, classical Athens, early imperial Rome and the last days of the western Roman empire. The methods and arguments used have relevance for historians, anthropologists and sociologists of other cultures and societies, and it is one of Dr Morris' and the series' major aims to enable interdisciplinary exchange of ideas across conventional academic frontiers "Historians have long argued about the place of trade in classical antiquity: was it the life-blood of a complex, Mediterranean-wide economic system, or a thin veneer on the surface of an underdeveloped agrarian society? Trade underpinned the growth of Athenian and Roman power, helping to supply armies and cities. It furnished the goods that ancient elites needed to maintain their dominance - and yet, those same elites generally regarded trade and traders as a threat to social order. Trade, like the patterns of consumption that determined its development, was implicated in wider debates about politics, morality and the state of society, just as the expansion of trade in the modern world is presented both as the answer to global poverty and as an instrument of exploitation and cultural imperialism. This book explores the nature and importance of ancient trade, considering its ecological and cultural significance as well as its economic aspects."--Jacket

The chief purpose of this book is to show how burials may be used as a uniquely informative source for Greek and Roman social history. Burials permit a far wider range of inference and insight than the literary texts produced by and for a narrow social elite, and by studying them in depth Dr. Morris is able to offer new interpretations of social change in Graeco-Roman antiquity. The major interdisciplinary importance of the book lies in its attempt to break down barriers between archaeologists and historians of different societies and cultures.