Trade and Nomads: The Commercial Relations between the Negev, Edom, and the Mediterranean in the Late Iron Age.

JUAN MANUEL TEBES

Journal of the Serbian Archaeological Society

Serbian Archaeological Society

Lugar: Belgrado; Año: 2006 vol. 22 p. 45 - 62

0352-5678

This paper gives a current reassessment of the evidence of trade between the Negev, Edom, and the Mediterranean in the Late Iron Age. Textual (Assyrian, Biblical) and archaeological data -especially the distribution of Edomite wares in the Negev- are used to propose a model in which trade was controlled by the local nomadic pastoral groups. The Edomite wares were  manufactured by the heterogeneous ethnic groups (either Edomites or other peoples) living in Edom and the Negev during the Late Iron Age. The archaeological evidence argues that the traffic in  Arabian incense between southern Jordan and the Mediterranean was controlled by the nomads  living in the Negev and Edom.