How Ancient Economies Fell Apart: Interview with Professor Sarah Murray

Tides of History

Wondery / Patrick Wyman

Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 6.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2022

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We're often told that trade was central to the interconnected world of the late Bronze Age, but what were people really trading? Why did trade matter so much? And what happened when that trade disappeared? Professor Sarah Murray is an archaeologist and an expert on the economy of Mycenaean Greece - and how and why it fell apart.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to Tides of History, add free on Amazon Music.
0:04.2	Download the app today.
0:05.2	Hi everybody, from Wondery, welcome to another episode of Tides of History.
0:23.2	I'm Patrick Weimann, thanks for joining me.
0:26.2	Trade was the glue that held the fascinating, far-reaching world of the late Bronze Age
0:29.9	together.
0:30.9	Tinned from Central Asia, Copper from Cypress and Sardinia, Gold and Glass from Egypt, exotic
0:35.4	resins and wine and storage jars produced in Canaan, all of them traveled long distances
0:40.1	to reach the people who wanted them.
0:42.1	A multitude of connections, the stuff that created and interconnected and international
0:45.9	world, all built off this foundation.
0:48.5	When that trade declined around 1200 BC, that system of connections came to an end with
0:52.4	profound consequences that have often been described as the Bronze Age collapse.
0:57.1	Few parts of this world show a starker contrast between the late Bronze Age and what followed
1:01.0	than Miseni and Greece.
1:02.7	But what do we really know about trade in both the Misenian period and what came afterward?
1:06.8	What kinds of things were traded and in what quantities?
1:09.4	And why did trade actually matter so much?
1:13.0	Nobody is better suited to help us answer those questions than today's guest.
1:16.4	Sarah Murray is an assistant professor of classics at the University of Toronto and she
1:19.9	is an expert on the archaeology of Greece in the late Bronze and Early Iron Ages.
1:24.1	Her work is focused on trade and its role in the Misenian economy, including a book entitled
	...

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