Trade, the beginning of a journey

Trade provides a way to connect different worlds. The Ancient Near Eastern societies were no exception. From the earliest times onwards, raw materials and goods were transported within this network of commerce. These first connections started rather small and close to home.See Mario Liverani. International Relations in the Ancient Near East 1600-1100 B.C. Hampshire; New York: Palgrave, 2001, p. 1-2.

However, when central states arose and gained power, facilities to trade further across land and seas became accessible. For instance, Egypt exchanged wood and precious oils with the Levant through ‘The Way of Horus’.See: Samuel Mark. ‘The Long Arm of Merchantry: Trade Interactions’. In Pharaoh’s Land and beyond: Ancient Egypt and Its Neighbors, edited by Pearce Paul Creasman and Richard H. Wilkinson, 115–32. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017. Individuals could also earn a living by becoming an international merchant, sometimes acting on behalf of the state. This is clearly illustrated in the case of Assyrian merchants bringing caravans loaded with tin and textiles to Anatolia in exchange for silver and gold. See: Michel, Cécile. ‘Economy, Society, and Daily Life in the Old Assyrian Period’. In A Companion to Assyria, edited by Eckart Frahm, 80–107. Wiley, 2017.

Over time, routes and pathways expanded. Meanwhile, international relations were more of a rule than an exception. Specialist techniques were developed to produce precious objects out of raw matter, such as jewelry of gold. Such objects were extremely popular among the elite of the Ancient Near Eastern societies. Thus, besides the commerce of raw materials, finished prestigious objects were also traded. These objects exhibited typical motifs from the country of origin.

At first, the Ancient Near Eastern empires, such as Egypt, Babylonia and Assyria, were largely independent in this network of exchange. They controlled their own borders and were mostly governed by native rulers. This came to a final end when Persia, led by Cyrus ‘The Great’, began a series of conquests in the Near East around 550 BCE (Fig. 2). Eventually, he was succeeded by Cambyses and then Darius (Fig. 3), who established the Achaemenid Persian Empire, which stretched over the entire Near East (Fig. 4). See Kuhrt, Amélie. ‘The Achaemenid Persian Empire (c. 550-c. 330 BC): Continuities, Adaptations, Transformations’. In Empires: Perspectives from Archaeology and History, edited by Susan E. Alcock, Terence N. D’Altroy, Kathleen D. Morrison, and Carla M. Sinopoli, 93–123. Cambridge University Press, 2001. Politically, the states lost their advantage of independence, but culturally they flourished. The fact that all those former independent states were now linked in one empire, made it even easier to transfer goods, ideas, and motifs. Especially Egypt’s contribution to the Achaemenid Persian Empire seems to be of large influence. It is this exact setting in which the necklace should be seen, showing motifs from Egypt, Iran and other parts of the Near East as a result of deep-seated connections.Abdi, Kamyar. ‘Bes in the Achaemenid Empire’. Ars Orientalis 29 (1999): 111–40.