ABSTRACT
While regional studies as a field emerged in the late twentieth century, geographically defined regions and the human conceptualization of regions itself – in contrast to bordered polities and circumscribed areas – have been part of human life from the proverbial time immemorial. People living in 1500 bce had knowledge about region-specific luxury products from far away, with ornamental shells from the Indian Ocean reaching as far as the Alps for trade. Tools made of an Aegean Sea island’s obsidian were found in the same alpine mountain region, indicating that long-distance trading routes also existed for practical products. Historical memory, as taught in Europe, begins with the Fertile Crescent as a region of agricultural production for human survival and enjoyment of food. Sources on the histories of the millennia have usually paid attention to interregional networks while overlooking intraregional networks and the movements of long-distance traders.
