[MR] trade between medieval Israel and China

[sigrune at aol.com]

Personally I think the articles are a bit misleading in two separate ways:


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The presence of .2% of pottery from China does not imply a direct link of trade. That kind of number can be accounted for from individual resale among trade routes.??Piecemeal lots or individual pieces?could have had a route like this: China-India(original customer)-West Africa-Egypt-Greece-Cyprus-Acre; or China-Western China-Pakistan region-Baghdad-Damascus-Arce.


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I feel it is erroneous to call this kind of?extand artifacts as evidence of "Trade", there is no indication from this evidence that China was purposefully sending items west to gain a recognized market in pottery in the Eastern Med region. Stuff gets?around, we already know that there was a continuous chain of trading people from the tip of Spain to Vietnam who would trade with neighbors on either side of them.? China might not have known the name of Arce (but probably- or at east they?had a name for it), but they new there was a market "over there" and that was the target of their goods... they might have been selling to Bagdahd, but they?knew that the goods were intended?to go on from there through other merchants.??? 


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I also feel that there is proof of?"direct" trade between?China and the Mediterranean region, I seem to recall evidence of Persia having trade contracts with the Chinese kingdoms, and there have been fragments of Chinese silk found in Ptolomeic Egypt.?


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Maybe I am just grumpy today.


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-Takeda




> Evidence  of trade between Israel and China during Crusader  times:> _http://tinyurl.com/yue7jg_ (http://tinyurl.com/yue7jg)