Study provides surprisingly complex portrait of ancient trade networks
May 23, 2017 by Christopher Packham report
(Phys.org)—The study of ancient civilizations, particularly those that did not leave extensive writing in the archaeological record, is reliant on the evidence of other kinds of material artifacts. And one of the keys to understanding large, complex societies is mapping the circulation of such artifacts. An international research collaborative recently published a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on the production and circulation of artifacts in the south-central Andes during 400 BC to 1000 AD.
The study challenges existing centralized network models of interaction in favor of a decentralized network structure. The researchers built the largest provenance database ever constructed for the region, taking a multianalytical approach that considered lithic sources, pottery analysis, and comparisons of clays and fabrics. These materials and artifacts had previously only been studied separately. The wide-ranging collection of data resulted in a complex, sprawling portrait of northwest Argentina during the Formative Period.
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https://phys.org/news/2017-05-surprisingly-complex-portrait-ancient-networks.html#jCp
