Regev/Painting the Mediterranean, 2. Trade and Diaspora Networks

How did the Phoenicians trade, carry, and distribute their products, items, and wares? To answer these questions, we need to dwell on the theoretical paradigms of long-distance trade and how such models conform to the Phoenician mode of operation. Theories based on modern global economic and political structures are not suitable for explaining the Phoenician phenomenon (Shipley 1993: 271–3). Phoenician networks operated for very long periods, during which global circumstances changed. Hence, one encompassing global theory cannot describe the changes and periodic adaptations of the Phoenician trade networks into other global systems. Two broad and flexible frameworks are more suitable for understanding the enduring Phoenician long-distance trade: the network and the diaspora. Phoenicians began to operate elaborate and multiple networks in the Late Bronze Age which, by the Iron Age, became organized and based on diaspora networks.