DSBcB19 Trade in Antiquity

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
Taught in person.
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Tomáš Štěpánek (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Mgr. Tomáš Štěpánek
Department of Classical Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Jitka Erlebachová
Supplier department: Department of Classical Studies – Faculty of Arts
Prerequisites (in Czech)
! DSBcB019 Trade in Antiquity
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
In the weekly lectures made by contact education, students, through the analysis and interpretation of the available written and archaeological sources, will get insight into the origin and development of trade in the ancient world. The specificity of this lecture is given by the width of its scope and the seemingly unthinkable (intangible) theme - trade. The main topics of the teaching are subjectively selected business/market/trade phenomena (the emergence of trade, money, slave trade, etc.), but also the historical period viewed from the perspective of the trade (late Bronze Age, the Late Antiquity).
Learning outcomes
Student will be able to:
- Identify and summarize important features of the ancient trade
- Identify and describe ancient economic trends
- Apply business/market insight into ancient history
- Analyze current scientific knowledge in the ancient economy
Syllabus
  • 1. Introduction and basic literature
  • 2. Origin of trade - Neolithic, Sumer, Egypt
  • 3. Trade in Bronze Age - the Minoans, Hittites, Myceneans
  • 4. From Sea peoples to first coins
  • 5. Phoenician and Greek colonization
  • 6. Italy and barbarian world to turn AD I
  • 7. Italy and barbarian world to turn AD II
  • 8. Trade routes that connected the Mediterranean region to the outside world
  • 9. Trade between Antiquity and the Middle Ages
Literature
    required literature
  • Toutain, Jules (1979). The Economic Life of the Ancient World. Ayer Publishing. ISBN 0-405-11578-4.
  • Lindsay, W S (2006). History of Merchant Shipping and Ancient Commerce. Adamant Media Corporation. ISBN 0-543-94253-8.
  • ZIMÁK, Alexandr. Mezi třemi světadíly : obchod a lidé na vlnách Středozemního, Černého a Rudého moře.. Online. 1. vyd. Praha: Libri, 2008. 253 s. ISBN 9788072773770. [citováno 2024-04-23] info
    recommended literature
  • L S Etheredge, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, The Rosen Publishing Group, 15 Jan 2011, ISBN 1615303294
  • Hendin, D. (2007). Ancient Scale Weights and Pre-Coinage Currency of the Near East, Amphora Books, NY. ISBN 978-0-9654029-4-1.
  • Elisseeff, Vadime (2000). The Silk Roads: Highways of Culture and Commerce. Berghahn Books. ISBN 1-57181-221-0.
  • P D Curtin - Cross-Cultural Trade in World History Cambridge University Press, 25 May 1984 ISBN 0521269318
  • Burns, Thomas Samuel (2003). Rome and the Barbarians, 100 B.C.-A.D. 400. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-7306-1.
  • Silver, Morris (1983). Prophets and Markets: The Political Economy of Ancient Israel. Springer. ISBN 0-89838-112-6
  • The Oxford handbook of Greek and Roman coinage. Online. Edited by William E. Metcalf. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. xviii, 688. ISBN 9780199372188. [citováno 2024-04-23] info
  • Coinage and identity in the Roman Provinces. Online. Edited by C. J. Howgego - Volker Heuchert - Andrew Burnett. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. xv, 228, [. ISBN 9780199237845. [citováno 2024-04-23] info
  • BERTMAN, Stephen. Handbook to life in ancient Mesopotamia. Online. New York, N.Y.: Facts On File, 2003. xii, 396. ISBN 0816043469. [citováno 2024-04-23] info
Teaching methods
lectures (two hours per week), practical exercises
Assessment methods
activity in lessons, written test
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
The course is taught once in two years.
The course is taught: every week.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2020, Spring 2022.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2025, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/spring2025/DSBcB19