All the way from the Baltic: amber beads from an Iron Age grave at Hama, western Syria

Martin Nordvig Mortensen, Mette Marie Hald, Jacob Frydendahl, Stephen Lumsden, Pernille Bangsgaaard, Georges Mouamar, Marco Bonechi, Silvia Alaura

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelForskningpeer review

Abstract

Widening and diversifying trade networks are often cited among the boom and bust of Bronze and Iron Age worlds. The great distances that goods could travel during these periods are exemplified here as the authors describe the spectroscopic identification of Baltic amber beads in an Iron Age cremation grave at Hama in Syria. Yet these beads are not unique in the Near Eastern record; as the authors show, comparable finds and references to amber or amber hues in contemporaneous texts illustrate the high social and economic value of resinous substances—a value based on perceptions of their distant origin.
OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftAntiquity
Antal sider15
ISSN0003-598X
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 28 jan. 2025

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