Abstract

Trade/exchange in premonetary Greece is a controversial subject that has been much influenced by the debates on economic theory, the major ones being substantivism and formalism. The present volume, which contains the contributions to a workshop entitled "Trade and Production in Premonetary Greece: Aspects of Trade" held in 1993, deals in large part with this issue. The first article, "Value and Exchange in Premonetary Societies: Anthropological Debates and Aegean Archaeology" by Sofia Voutsaki, regards the various ideas around the concept of value from an anthropological viewpoint, while Birgitta L. Sjöberg in "The Mycenaean Economy. Theoretical Frameworks" looks at alternatives to substantivism in the Mycenaean Late Bronze Age. Hara Georgiou, "The Role of Maritime Contacts in the Prehistoric Cyclades", Ann-Louise Schallin, "Trade in the Bronze Age Cyclades", and Angelia Papagiannopoulou, "The Change in Late Cycladic Pottery Production and Its Trade Implications", all deal in different ways with the Cyclades, relations between them, and their trade. In "Trade in the Late Bronze Age", Carole Gillis raises the issue of middleman traders in long-distance trade and offers trade models for the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean. Peter Day and Halford Haskell present some results from their on-going study of transport stirrup jars in "Transport Stirrup ]ars from Thebes as Evidence for Trade in Late Bronze Age III". In "The Shaft Grave Phenomenon. A Dead End?", Iphigenia Tournavitou looks at the Shaft Graves from a new point of view. For the Iron Age, Jan Paul Crielaard compares Phoenician and Greek settlements and trade in the Central Mediterranean in "How the West Was Won: Euboeans vs. Phoenicians" while Christina Risberg in "Production and Trade at Asine" presents some results of her iron slag studies and their implications for Asine. Finally Mark Lawall discusses premonetary trade residues in 5th c. Greece in an article entitled "Premonetary and Monetary? A Note on Trade in the Fifth Century". The majority of the authors advocate pluralism in trade/exchange systems.

Key words: Aegean Bronze Age trade, Aegean Iron Age trade, ancient trade, substantivism, formalism, premonetary economic theory, trade and production.