The nature and scale of the Late Bronze Age economy in the Eastern Mediterranean for the period 1400-1175 B.C

• Main Author: Padgham, Keith
• Published: Swansea University 2008
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.752158

The question addressed by this thesis is the following: 'What was the scale of the Late Bronze Age economy of the Eastern Mediterranean for the period 1400-1175 B.C., and what does this say about whether the economy was formalist or substantive in nature?' After over a century of debate, the nature of the Late Bronze Age economy remains unresolved. This thesis attempts to add a new perspective to this debate by quantifying the scale of the manpower of the non-agrarian sector of the economy. These workers provided goods and services for state infrastructure projects, trade, and the conspicuous consumption needs of the elite. The approach taken provides answers as to whether the non-agrarian sector of the economy was in fact 'minimalist' in scale. The evidence has been accumulated from a wide range of textual, archaeological, ethnographic, archaeo-scientific, and experimental archaeology with the aim of reaching a conclusion as to whether the economy was embedded in the institutions of the state (substantive) or whether it was selfregulating in nature, by means of a market that responded to the forces of supply and demand (formalist). Two regions have been selected to represent the Eastern Mediterranean: Cyprus and Egypt, and these were chosen because they display a range of contrasting characteristics which represent two types of agrarian practice and two economies of different size. The findings of this study show that the economies of both Cyprus and Egypt were not minimalist in scale, and that some attributes normally associated with formalism were in place by the end of the LBA. The overall operation of the economy, however, was still deeply embedded within the institutions of the state and therefore substantive in nature.