ABSTRACT
Early studies of Indian Ocean trade during the Early Historic Period attributed its nascence to the advent of Roman merchants and traders in the western portion of the Indian Ocean.1 Indeed, Sir Mortimer Wheeler’s excavations at Arikamedu appeared to support such a hypothesis with its evidence of the dramatic transformation of ‘simple fisher-folk’ living ‘a leisurely and enterprising fashion just above subsistence level’.2 Subsequent excavations at Arikamedu in south India and Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka have demonstrated, however, that substantial levels of inter-regional trade flourished before the Roman contact.3 This fresh evidence has contributed to the overturning of established Eurocentric models that suggested Indian Ocean trade was the sole preserve of Roman traders, in which South Asia played a passive role. In its place, we now stress the presence of a pervasive tradition of trade and exchange
which began in the Iron Age and continued to link across the Indian Ocean arena until the establishment of European maritime hegemony in the eighteenth century CE.4 Despite general acceptance of this theoretical re-orientation, much archaeological and historical focus has tended to remain on the quest for evidence of Roman contact and for the recording of the presence or absence of ‘Roman’ material. This focus has, in turn, led to the neglect of South Asian materials which have not been researched so vigorously or published so fully. This paper will focus on three wellknown but less-intensively studied ceramic forms-Arikamedu Type 10, Arikamedu Type 1 (Rouletted ware) and Torpedo Jars in order to exemplify their largely unexploited potential in reconstructing networks of trade and exchange in the Indian Ocean during the Early Historic Period
INTRODUCTION
The city of Anuradhapura, capital of Sri Lanka from the fifth century BCE to the eleventh century CE, has played a pivotal role in Indian Ocean trade from early island trade exchanges to international networks stretching from Egypt to China (Figure 2.1). Within this paper, the sequence of this trade is traced through the excavations at trench Anuradhapura Salgaha Watta 2 (ASW2), with specific case studies on Arikamedu Type 10, Rouletted ware and Torpedo jars detailing the evidence for local and international trade.5 It will also demonstrate that, as well as receiving luxury objects from afar, Anuradhapura played an important role in co-ordinating the sourcing and finishing of elite goods for both internal consumption as well as export. This new evidence has also demonstrated the flaws associated with uncritically accepting Eurocentric models which have stressed that Indian Ocean trade was the sole preserve of Roman traders, in which South Asia and South Asians played more passive roles.6 Instead, it is now clear that inter-regional trade was
thriving long before the appearance of Roman contact within the Indian Ocean, and that this trade continued to flourish long after it disappeared. Indeed, it was not until the sixteenth century CE, that the overwhelming technological advances of the European trading companies allowed western hegemony over this trade.
