Geochemical Evidence for Long-Distance Exchange

Edited by M. D. Glascock (2002). Bergin and Garvey, Westport, CN.

A Geochemical Vector for Trade: Cyprus, Asia Minor, and the Roman East

D. A. Parks and H. Neff

Abstract

Provenance studies in archaeology identify the movement of non-local materials between societies. Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA), a geochemical characterization technique, generates data for linking artifacts to their raw sources. In this paper, we rely on INAA to compare the chemical signature of a jar sherd recovered from the Micronesian island of Yap to a geochemical database consisting predominantly of storage jars collected in the Philippines to gain a view on Yapese intercultural exchanges of the recent past. Integrating archaeological and ethnohistoric data, we present a Pacific example of globalization - specifically, the dragon jar is of southern Chinese origins; the mode of transport was likely European; and the negotiation of the vessel was Yapese. We argue the Yapese recontextualized the exotic jar as a prestige good, and that apart from evidence for long distance exchange, the jar sherd is an indication of a changing political economy during early intercultural engagements. In the advent of Europeans in the western Pacific, the Yapese emphasized new exotic prestige goods acquired through long distance exchange to enhance and maintain their social ranking and political authority. We propose that rare exotic goods may have replaced part of the genealogical legitimization important in the Yapese political economy when acute depopulation disrupted previous inheritance conventions.

Number of samples in dataset: 130

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