Eivind Heldaas Seland
Most of my research addresses how economy, political power, and ideology/religion interacted in early states/complex societies in the the ancient world. In particular I work with the Indian Ocean/Red Sea region and the Near East, but I am also interested in the Mediterranean and Central Asia.
Currently I am investigating how the physical environment influenced travel and communication along both sea and land routes. I also study how historians, archaeologists and paleoclimatologists have cast climate as an agent of historical change, in order to identify good models of climate-society interrelation.
My last project was a series of exploratory workshop co-orgaized with Nordic colleagues: Globalization, Urbanization and Urban Religion in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Roman and Early Islamic periods. (Joint Committee for Nordic research councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences (2018-2019).
Some while ago I finished a four-years project funded by the Research council of Norway: "Mechanisms of cross-cultural interaction: Networks in the Roman Near East". (2013-17). The project investigated networks of commercial, religious and political nature within and across fluctuating imperial borders in the Near East in the Roman period.
My postdoc was on the trade of Palmyra, Syria and how it related to the different overland and maritime networks of the ancient world. I have also worked with Indian Ocean trade and global history, and continue to engage with all these topics.
My research is also featured in this piece on the UiB web-pages:http://www.uib.no/en/hf/116979/lessons-past
My Norwegian-language blog, globalhistorie.blogspot.com, is only updated occasionally, but I post much of my popular-history writing there.
Currently I am investigating how the physical environment influenced travel and communication along both sea and land routes. I also study how historians, archaeologists and paleoclimatologists have cast climate as an agent of historical change, in order to identify good models of climate-society interrelation.
My last project was a series of exploratory workshop co-orgaized with Nordic colleagues: Globalization, Urbanization and Urban Religion in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Roman and Early Islamic periods. (Joint Committee for Nordic research councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences (2018-2019).
Some while ago I finished a four-years project funded by the Research council of Norway: "Mechanisms of cross-cultural interaction: Networks in the Roman Near East". (2013-17). The project investigated networks of commercial, religious and political nature within and across fluctuating imperial borders in the Near East in the Roman period.
My postdoc was on the trade of Palmyra, Syria and how it related to the different overland and maritime networks of the ancient world. I have also worked with Indian Ocean trade and global history, and continue to engage with all these topics.
My research is also featured in this piece on the UiB web-pages:http://www.uib.no/en/hf/116979/lessons-past
My Norwegian-language blog, globalhistorie.blogspot.com, is only updated occasionally, but I post much of my popular-history writing there.
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Journal articles by Eivind Heldaas Seland
The article is open access, and can be downloaded at
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-014-9172-5
The article is open access and can be downloaded from the publisher.
The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the most likely route from Palmyra to the Euphrates, combining a number of approaches. Travel descriptions and results of earlier archaeological surveys will be used in context with ethnographic evidence, satellite imagery, GIS modelling and network analysis in order to identify the most likely route taken by caravans from Palmyra to the Euphrates.
doi: 10.2143/AWE.13.0.3038738
The oasis settlement of Palmyra in modern Syria was turned into a major commercial centre by the caravan trade across the Syro-Mesopotamian steppe during the three first centuries AD. The rise of this trade route depended on the political situation along the Euphrates as well as on the agency of the Palmyrene elite, but would never have been possible without the use of Camelus dromedarius – the one-humped camel. This paper aims to explore the significance of the camel for the caravan trade across the Syrian steppe. What influence did the qualities and limitations of the pack animal have on travel times, travel seasons, capacity, infrastructure, and caravan size. The final question we must answer concerns the nature of the relationship between Palmyra and her neighbours on the steppe. Answers are sought in ancient epigraphic, iconographic, literary and archaeological material, but also through the comparative study of early modern travel descriptions and military handbooks of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Published online first. Printed version scheduled for November 2014.
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.12773/arwh.2016.4.2.191
Dataset and zoomable figures available at http://bora.uib.no/handle/1956/11470
The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea is a Roman period guide to trade and navigation in the Indian Ocean. Justly famous for offering a contemporary and descriptive account of early Indian Ocean trade, the work has been sub- ject to and a point of departure for numerous studies. Its extensive influence on scholarship is, however, also problematic, as it reflects the limited infor- mation and cultural and personal bias of its unknown author. Arguably this might have led scholars to overemphasise so-called western or Roman par- ticipation in early Indian Ocean trade. Network analysis allows us to map, visualize and measure interconnectedness in the Periplus Maris Erythraei. Many of these connections are not explicitly mentioned in the text, but by connecting not only places with places, but also products with places that export and import them, we get a partly different impression of Indian Ocean trade from that conventionally gathered from the Periplus. It allows us to ask questions about the relationship between coastal cabotage and transoceanic shipping, to identify regional trading circuits, and unexpected centres of long-distance exchange.
The article is open access, and can be downloaded at
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-014-9172-5
The article is open access and can be downloaded from the publisher.
The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the most likely route from Palmyra to the Euphrates, combining a number of approaches. Travel descriptions and results of earlier archaeological surveys will be used in context with ethnographic evidence, satellite imagery, GIS modelling and network analysis in order to identify the most likely route taken by caravans from Palmyra to the Euphrates.
doi: 10.2143/AWE.13.0.3038738
The oasis settlement of Palmyra in modern Syria was turned into a major commercial centre by the caravan trade across the Syro-Mesopotamian steppe during the three first centuries AD. The rise of this trade route depended on the political situation along the Euphrates as well as on the agency of the Palmyrene elite, but would never have been possible without the use of Camelus dromedarius – the one-humped camel. This paper aims to explore the significance of the camel for the caravan trade across the Syrian steppe. What influence did the qualities and limitations of the pack animal have on travel times, travel seasons, capacity, infrastructure, and caravan size. The final question we must answer concerns the nature of the relationship between Palmyra and her neighbours on the steppe. Answers are sought in ancient epigraphic, iconographic, literary and archaeological material, but also through the comparative study of early modern travel descriptions and military handbooks of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Published online first. Printed version scheduled for November 2014.
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.12773/arwh.2016.4.2.191
Dataset and zoomable figures available at http://bora.uib.no/handle/1956/11470
The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea is a Roman period guide to trade and navigation in the Indian Ocean. Justly famous for offering a contemporary and descriptive account of early Indian Ocean trade, the work has been sub- ject to and a point of departure for numerous studies. Its extensive influence on scholarship is, however, also problematic, as it reflects the limited infor- mation and cultural and personal bias of its unknown author. Arguably this might have led scholars to overemphasise so-called western or Roman par- ticipation in early Indian Ocean trade. Network analysis allows us to map, visualize and measure interconnectedness in the Periplus Maris Erythraei. Many of these connections are not explicitly mentioned in the text, but by connecting not only places with places, but also products with places that export and import them, we get a partly different impression of Indian Ocean trade from that conventionally gathered from the Periplus. It allows us to ask questions about the relationship between coastal cabotage and transoceanic shipping, to identify regional trading circuits, and unexpected centres of long-distance exchange.
Offprint from Alexandra Hilgner · Susanne Greiff · Dieter Quast (eds) GEMSTONES IN THE FIRST MILLENNIUM AD MINES, TRADE, WORKSHOPS AND SYMBOLISM. Verlag des Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Mainz, 2017.
The Indian ships at Moscha and the Indo-Arabian trading circuit
Summary
Periplus Maris Erythraei, the first-century AD merchant’s guide written in Greek, mentions ships sailing from India calling at Moscha Limên, which is generally identi ed as Sumhuram/Khor Rori in modern Oman. These ships are said to have spent the winter at Moscha “because of the late season” (Periplus 32), and modern commentators have considered them to be Indian ships on their way home after trading voyages to Arabia. While this is probably true, it might not be the whole truth. There should be no need to spend two sailing seasons for a return trip from India to Arabia, and different passages in the Periplus and other classical literature, combined with later Arab and European experiences with Indian Ocean navigation, build a case for these ships being ready to set out on the last leg of a wider Indian Ocean circuit. This sheds new light on the maritime contacts of the Arabian Peninsula in antiquity and on the economy of the port of Moscha/Khor Rori.
Keywords: Indian Ocean, navigation, Khor Rori, monsoon trade, Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Arabia
The prosperity of the ancient city of Palmyra was founded on the operation and protection of caravans between the Persian Gulf, the Euphrates and the Mediterranean. The rise of caravan trade across the Syrian Desert depended on the commercial networks of the Indian Ocean, Central Asia and to some extent also in the Mediterranean, and took place despite the existence of a well-established route of communication by way of the Euphrates valley. This article aims to explain the emergence of the desert route, by investigating Palmyra's potential in the geopolitical situation of late Hellenistic and early Roman / Parthian periods and the relationship between the maritime and overland aspects of Palmyrene commerce.
The essays in this volume on the one hand reflect Meyer’s wide scholarly interest and evolving research focus in addressing periods from the Bronze Age to 20th century reception and geographical areas from China to the western Mediterranean, but are brought together by his openness to different and novel approaches to ancient history, combined with his insistence on methodological stringency. For Meyer, history is social science applied to the past. His scholarship and teaching are consistent in being theoretically and methodologically informed by the social sciences. This is an approach that he has also advocated among colleagues and passed on to his students. It is thus only fitting that methods and models serve as the common denominator for this volume in his honor. The following essays fall within either of two categories: the first group explicitly discusses how different methods, models and theoretical approaches unlock new insight into the ancient world and exemplifies this through empirical studies; the other starts with empirical case studies in order to demonstrate the potential of different methodological approaches.
The first three papers address possibilities opened by advances in archaeological methodology. Knut Krzywinski, Gidske L. Andersen and Richard H. Pierce describe how RPAS mapping may help unlock the history of the likely ancient Beja capital of Nubt in the Red Sea Hills of present-day Sudan. Jørgen Bakke and Hege Bakke-Alisøy consider the use of existing road networks as a point of departure for the investigation of past communication patterns in the Greek landscape of Arcadia, while Andreas Colinet-Schmidt demonstrates how the evidence of stones quarried in Palmyra can be used to date the monuments of the ancient Syrian city.
The second group contains three studies addressing the potential of theoretical modelling to shed light on historical problems. Tomas Larsen Høisæter shows the applicability of network models to the study of trade along central Asian segments of the so-called Silk Road in Late Antiquity. Tønnes Bekker-Nielsen argues the continued relevance of central place theory, much challenged by such network approaches, to the study of urban structures in hierarchical systems like the Roman Empire, while Eivind Heldaas Seland applies formal GIS modelling in combination with so-called common-sense geography in order to approach sailing patterns in the Roman-period Red Sea.
Three contributors take iconography as their point of access to ancient society. Reinert Skumsnes is directly inspired by Meyer’s ethnographic work in Turkey in his approach to the feminine element in Egyptian New Kingdom tomb paintings. Rubina Raja addresses depictions of men with camels in Palmyra, while Eleonora Cussini investigates food and drink in Palmyrene iconographic and epigraphic sources. The latter paper connects with the next two, which also address epigraphy. Michael Gawlikowski investigates the kinship relations of a Palmyrene elite family while Aleksander Engeskaug explores the potential of a quantitative approach to Middle Persian inscriptions.
Synnøve des Bouvrie and Leonardo Gregoratti investigates the ancient world through the lens of social anthropology. Des Bouvrie demonstrates the potential of anthropological theory and method for the study of Greek tragedy, while Gregoratti outlines how the concept of the Third Space can help us better understand dynamics between states, empires, cities and nomads in the Roman-period Near East. Ingvar B. Mæhle uses comparative method in order to reconstruct the political history of the Greek city state of Tegea within the frame of political variation within the Greek and Roman worlds, and Lise Hannestad studies Seleukos I’s use of the epithet ‘Macedonian’ through a methodical use of historical source criticism.
The final group of papers explores the relationship between past, posterity and present. Per Bjarne Ravnå discusses the challenges that modern scholars encounter when using religious text, in this case the New Testament, as historical sources. Kiyohide Saito recounts the chance finding of evidence relating to the first modern Western visitors to Palmyra during the excavation of an ancient monument. Gullög Nordquist and Michael Lindblom report on the experiences encountered during the recent digitalization and online publication of the Swedish excavations in Asine (Greece) in 1926. Finally, Eva Maria Lassen brings past into dialogue with current debates in her inquiry into the use of Antiquity in discourse on human rights after 1948. The volume closes with a bibliography of Jørgen Christian Meyer’s scholarship compiled by Pål Steiner and a tabula gratulatoria.
This paper aims to explore the significance of the camel for the caravan trade on the Syrian steppe. Which influence did the qualities and limitations of the pack animal have on travel times, travel seasons, capacity, infrastructure and caravan size, and last but not least, for the nature of the relationship between Palmyra and her neighbours on her steppe? Answers are sought in ancient epigraphic, iconographic, literary and archaeological material, but also through the comparative study of early modern travel descriptions and military handbooks of the nineteenth and twentieth century.
In the first two centuries AD, commodities from Afghanistan and traded by way of Afghanistan held a prominent place in the maritime trade of the western Indian Ocean. This paper explores the maritime links between Afghanistan, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf as they appear in the first-century merchants guide Periplus Maris Erythraei and second century epigraphic and archaeological material from Syrian Palmyra, and asks why the maritime routes became attractive alternatives in this period despite the considerable detours constituted by them.
In the first three centuries CE, Palmyra was the hub of the caravan trade connecting Indian Ocean and Mediterranean by way of the Persian Gulf, the Euphrates and the Syrian Desert. As most scholars acknowledge, however, Palmyra was not on the most convenient route between Orient and Occident, the Euphrates being the preferred corridor of communication in most periods from the Bronze Age to the early 20th century. Different explanations have been offered for the rise of Palmyra as an intermediary in the ancient long-distance trade, most emphasising the role of local elites in the political setting on the border between settled land and desert and between large and rivalling empires. While not challenging these approaches, this paper aims to highlight the importance of protection as a necessary precondition of pre-modern trade, and argues how the special geopolitical situation of the fist centuries CE made it possible for Palmyra to offer this service at terms more favourable than along alternative routes.
The Liber Pontificalis, or "Book of Pontiffs" is an early medieval collection of biographies for the first ninety bishops of Rome. Silvester (314–335) was in office for most of the reign of Constantine I (306/312–337), who was the first Roman Emperor to tolerate Christian religion, and who financed the construction of a number of churches. Silvester's biography in the Liber Pontificalis contains lists of gifts given by the emperor for the upkeep of the churches he built in Rome. Many of these gifts were estates in different parts of the Roman Empire, some of them yielding as revenue commodities originating from Red Sea and Indian Ocean commerce.
The Liber Pontificalis has received little attention in the scholarship on ancient Red Sea commerce, and has mostly been utilised briefly as evidence of the fourth century economy, or church involvement in the eastern trade. This paper argues that it can also be used to study the early forth century Red Sea trade itself, through the pattern of distribution of products and estates mentioned in the text.
The prosperity of the ancient city of Palmyra was founded on the operation and protection of caravans between the Persian Gulf, Euphrates and the Mediterranean. The route across the Syrian Desert, however, depended on the networks of the Indian Ocean and to some extent also in the Mediterranean. This article explores the relationship between maritime and overland aspects of Palmyrene commerce. The ability of the Palmyrenes to handle both facets of ancient world trade was an important asset in the making of Palmyra as a commercial centre and in the emergence of the Palmyrenes as key agents in the commerce between Orient and Occident in the first three centuries CE.
1. Museology-Archaeopolitics
2. Urbanism