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Economic Aspects of Settlement in the Oasis of Bukhara, Uzbekistan: An Archaeo-Economic Approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2021

Rocco Rante Open the ORCID record for Rocco Rante [Opens in a new window]  and
Federico Trionfetti
Rocco Rante
Affiliation:
Louvre Museum 75058 Paris Cedex 01 ArScAn, équipe Asie CentraleFrance Email: [email protected]
Federico Trionfetti
Affiliation:
Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, EHESS, Centrale Marseille, AMSE Maison de l'économie et de la gestion d'Aix 424 chemin du viaduct 13080 Aix-en-Provence France Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This paper focuses on the new approach studying variations in city size and the impact that the Silk Road had on the structure of cities, demonstrated through the study of economic aspects of the Bukhara oasis. We use archaeological data, compare the ancient economy to modern ones, use modern economic theory and methods to understand ancient society, and use what we have learned about the ancient economy to understand modern economies better. In sum, we explore the past through the present and the latter through the former. Our main finding is the generation of models able to answer to the city-size distribution in different territories, comparing them between the past and the present. This study first revealed that, through Zipf's Law, we found similarities between modern post-Industrial Revolution and medieval economics. Secondly, we also found that in ancient times the structure of the city was linked with the local economic demand. We have demonstrated this through the study of cities along the Silk Road.

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 31 , Issue 4 , November 2021 , pp. 581 - 596
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

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