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4 results

The Aztec Economy

The Aztec Economy
  • Frances F. Berdan
  • Published online:
    25 April 2023
    Print publication:
    18 May 2023
  • The Aztec Economy provides a synthesis and updated examination of the Aztec economy (1325–1521 AD). It is organized around seven components that recur with other Elements in this series: historic and geographic background, domestic economy, institutional economy, specialization, forms of distribution and commercialization, economic development, and future directions. The Aztec world was complex, hierarchical, and multifaceted, and was in a constant state of demographic growth, recoveries from natural disasters, political alignments and realignments, and aggressive military engagements. The economy was likewise complex and dynamic, and characterized by intensive agriculture, exploitation of non-agricultural resources, utilitarian and luxury manufacturing, wide-scale specialization, merchants, markets, commodity monies, and tribute systems.

  • Three - The Community of Households

  • Kenneth Hirth, Pennsylvania State University
  • Book:
    The Organization of Ancient Economies
    Published online:
    31 August 2020
    Print publication:
    17 September 2020, pp 43-75

  • Summary

    Informal institutions are the voluntary social arrangements established between households that are used to solve problems that they cannot resolve on their own. Examples from seven ancient and premodern societies are used to illustrate the operation of informal institutions to mobilize labor, establish and maintain interhousehold social networks, obtain spouses, construct intergroup trade networks, and supply emergency support to avoid household failure.

  • Beta Samati: discovery and excavation of an Aksumite town

  • Michael J. Harrower, Ioana A. Dumitru, Cinzia Perlingieri, Smiti Nathan, Kifle Zerue, Jessica L. Lamont, Alessandro Bausi, Jennifer L. Swerida, Jacob L. Bongers, Helina S. Woldekiros, Laurel A. Poolman, Christie M. Pohl, Steven A. Brandt, Elizabeth A. Peterson
  • Journal:
    Antiquity / Volume 93 / Issue 372 / December 2019
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    10 December 2019, pp. 1534-1552
    Print publication:
    December 2019
    • Article
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      • Open access
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  • The Empire of Aksum was one of Africa's most influential ancient civilisations. Traditionally, most archaeological fieldwork has focused on the capital city of Aksum, but recent research at the site of Beta Samati has investigated a contemporaneous trade and religious centre located between Aksum and the Red Sea. The authors outline the discovery of the site and present important finds from the initial excavations, including an early basilica, inscriptions and a gold intaglio ring. From daily life and ritual praxis to international trade, this work illuminates the role of Beta Samati as an administrative centre and its significance within the wider Aksumite world.

The Archaeology of the Bronze Age Levant
  • From Urban Origins to the Demise of City-States, 3700–1000 BCE
  • Raphael Greenberg
  • Published online:
    21 October 2019
    Print publication:
    07 November 2019
  • The Levant - modern Lebanon, southern Syria, Jordan, Israel and Palestine - is one of the most intensively excavated regions of the world. This richly documented and illustrated survey offers a state-of-the-art description of the formative phase of Levantine societies, as they perfected the Mediterranean village economy and began to interact with neighboring civilizations in Egypt and Syria, on the way to establishing their first towns and city-state polities. Citing numerous finds and interpretive approaches, Greenberg offers a new narrative of social and cultural development, emulation, resistance and change, illustrating how Levantine communities translated broader movements of the Near Eastern and Mediterranean Bronze Age - the emergence of states, international trade, elite networks and imperial ambitions - into a uniquely Levantine idiom.