DEVELOPMENT OF ΤΗΕ AEGEAN-ARABIAN CONTACTS DURING THE 1ST MILLENNIUM BCE: A HISTORICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL OVERVIEW

Abstract

An outline of some major contacts between societies from the Arabian Peninsula to the Aegean world during the 1st mil-lennium BCE is presented. It considers the trade progression from the Late Bronze Age to the end of the 1st Millennium BCE and discusses the value and insight of long historical arcs and structures, the importance of large-area historical surveys through different strands of historical, and archaeological evidence for the interpretation of persistent patterns of trade. Trade routes, exchanges of products, technological developments, diplomatic relations, as well as climatic, migra-tory, and demographic features, are discussed.

On the basis of evidence from trade in metals and aromatics, navigation and transportation technologies, as well as water management strategies in remote and arid locations which is further supported by contemporary historical sources, in-scriptions, and recent archaeological discoveries, this publication describes the long-term structures of interaction and exchange between the Arabian and the Aegean worlds. These structures, we argue, can be summed up into the notion of an “Aegean-Arabian axis” in which products and culture were tangibly shared.

With regards to the Hellenization of societies in Western Asia, the case of the Nabataeans demonstrates the cultural and economic impact of trade and the selective import of cultural and aesthetic tropes, as seen in the architectural evidence from Petra and Mada’In Salih.

This approach, alongside the growing complexity and regulation of trade, provides a basis from which to estimate the scale and degree of the impact and effects of events and structures such as, climate, economic crises and large demographic migrations, have had on regional economies by pinpointing changes in consumption, or deviation of a route due to shifting realities that make-or-break societies along nodal points on the Arabo-Aegean Axis. By outlining aspects that connect the Arabian and Aegean worlds such as technologies, customs, seafaring, water systems, and domestications that supported the intensification of trade throughout the 1st millennium BCE, we elucidate some diachronic contacts along the Aegean-Arabian axis. This newly defined case area examines qualitatively the development of connectivity between distant socie-ties of the Aegean Sea and the Arabian Peninsula. The arbitrary delineation of unconventional regions shows how tangible historical links can be produced which emphasize different axes of connections that would otherwise be less visible, less recorded, or omitted. The description of long-term interactions and exchanges between the Arabian and the Aegean worlds demonstrably form an “Aegean-Arabian axis” where products and culture were shared.