Derived from the author's doctoral dissertation (Stanford Univ., 2013)

Includes bibliographical references (p. 283-334) and index.

Scope and content: "During the last several decades, the extent and variety of movements and relationships between peoples of the Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age have been the subject of much debate. Likewise, the intertwined nexus of problems concerning the nature and cadence of the notional 'collapse' of the Mycenaean world at the end of the Late Bronze Age (LBA), its relationship with the following Early Iron Age (EIA), and the articulation of both periods with Archaic and Classical history comprise a similarly popular area of research. This book is an historical study, based on textual and archaeological evidence, that lies at the intersection of these two topics. Geographically the focus is Greece, both the mainland and Crete, but given that this is a study of long-distance trade a broadening of spatial scope will occasionally be appropriate"-- In this book, Sarah Murray provides a comprehensive treatment of textual and archaeological evidence for the long-distance trade economy of Greece across 600 years during the transition from the Late Bronze to the Early Iron Age. Analyzing the finished objects that sustained this kind of trade, she also situates these artifacts within the broader context of the ancient Mediterranean economy, including evidence for the import and export of commodities as well as demographic change. Murray argues that our current model of exchange during the Late Bronze Age is in need of a thoroughgoing reformulation. She demonstrates that the association of imported objects with elite self-fashioning is not supported by the evidence from any period in early Greek history. Moreover, the notional 'decline' in trade during Greece's purported Dark Age appears to be the result of severe economic contraction, rather than a severance of access to trade routes.