Description
Abstract: The discovery of new material - both archaeological and textual - has had a profound impact on our understanding of networks and trade across Western Asia and northeast Africa in the late Old Kingdom. New inscribed materials and continued interrogation of the biographical inscription of seal-bearer of the god Iny has widened the potential geographical reach and economic scope of his expeditions. Dugurasu of the Ebla archive, now identified as Egypt, exposes a previously hidden network of long-range royal exchange, trade emissaries and mercantile middlemen across the eastern Mediterranean. Transcontinental commodity exchange for raw materials and finished goods indicate that networks spread further east than previously suspected. The interconnected world of the late Old Kingdom reflects networks that likely had a long prior existence, and that developed further in the succeeding Middle Bronze Age. This paper brings together these evidential strands to shape the picture of this early dynamic trading system, which shifted with the advent of the 4.2 ka BP event at c. 2200 BC.| Period | 5 Jun 2026 |
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| Event title | 9th Old Kingdom Art and Archaeology Conference |
| Event type | Conference |
| Conference number | 9 |
| Location | New Haven, United StatesShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |