Ancient Economic Behaviors and Chemical Analyses - ISNAP ...
Ancient Economic Behaviors and
Chemical Analyses
How LA-ICP-MS helped us understand behaviors
such as market capture and competition
Presentation to the PIXE group
University of Notre Dame
September 18, 2009
Indian Ocean Exchange
• Oldest evidence of commercial exchange, ca
4000-3000 B.C.E.
• Proto-Industrial Production for Trans-Oceanic
Commerce between South Asia, Mesopotamia, the
Levant and North Africa
• Heavy Dependence on Texts for understanding the
behaviors
• Archaeometric Analysis mainly used for Sourcing
and Provenance
From Provenance to Behavior
• Combining text and provenance analysis
– Many answers on production
• Quality of Production
• Targeted consumers
• Imitations
• Restrictions on Production
• But even more questions on behaviors not in the
texts:
– Smuggling, Dumping, Outsourcing, Market Capture
– Illicit production
• Important Questions
Towards Economic Behaviors
• Archaeology
– Provides These Surprises and Clues to Unexpected
Behaviors
• Combined with Archaeometry and Econometrics
– Clues to alternative and “hidden” economic patterns
• Bring in Ethnography
– Ethnographic and oral historical work on ethnic
merchants, traders, entrepreneurs
– Conservatism of business strategies
– Bricolage
– Clues to Ancient Economic Behaviors
Creating Models for Testing
• Ethnographic work on merchant responses
– Tested through archaeometry
• Compositional analysis
• Provenance analysis
• Model how merchants would be expected to
behave
• Based on observed “real” behaviors of
contemporary or past merchants
Testing Models
• Derive Expected Archaeological and
Archaeometeric Patterns
• These patterns are emergent properties of the
modeled behaviors
• Analysis using LA-ICP-MS
– Non-destructive
– Bulk Samples
– High resolution in ppm and ppb
– Comparable to INAA
– Cost-effective
• Time period
– 1000-1800 C.E.
• Asia and Africa
• Prestige
ceramics
– Gifts
– Commercial
Goods
Targeted Ceramics
Ceramic Types
Chinese
Celadons
Chinese
Blue
and
White
Porcelains
• Stonewares - Celadons
900-1600 CE
– Southern China
– Green Glaze
– Hard Ceramic Body
– Found across Old
World
– Major Kilns in China
• Blue-and-White
Porcelain
• 1200 - present
– Southern China
– Thin Transparent Glaze
– Hard Porcelain
– Cobalt designs
underglaze
– Highly Sought After
– Major Kilns in China
Problem of Imitation
• If something is “expensive enough, it will
be faked” (Rosenfeld)
• Are Southwest Asian Celadon/Blue-and-
Whites just mere “imitations?”
– Innovation
– Experimentation
– Create own styles for market demand
• Threatened to replace Chinese dominance
Imitation Blue-and-White and
Celadon ceramics
1 cm
1 cm
Relations between the state and
commerce in China
• Attempts to control trade
• Restrict commerce
• Taxes, duties, and levies on commerce
• Heavy regulation of export trade
• Frequent embargoes on export
• Exceptions: Tang - Sung, Early Yuan, Ming
Yongle (1403-1425 C.E.)
Modeling Responses
Proposition
• Given constant demand
• Pressure to produce and export
• Faced with competition
– Loss of Market share
• Traders will react by
– Shifting to other commodities
– Intensifying production/export, keep market share
Main Strategy:
Invest in Informal Economy
Chinese Informal Economy
• Ample historical evidence
• Used Guanxi to sustain networks
• The informal economy included
– Merchants, entrepreneurs
– Craftspeople
– Officials and Nobility
– Smugglers and pirates
– Overseas traders
• Diasporan Chinese, other Asians and then Europeans
Trace and Major Element
Analysis Using LA-ICP-MS
• Focus on the Glaze
• Used Trace elements
– Co, Rb, Ni, Cu, Sr, Mn, Zr
– Used by other researchers for provenance
analysis (Cheng et al 2002, 2005)
• Major Element Al and Na in Oxide
Composition
Principle Components Analysis 1
Principle Components Analysis 1
Ceramic
Known Chinese
Blue and White
Known Islamic
Known Chinese
Celadon
Principle Components Analysis 2
Principle Components Analysis 2
Chinese Blue-and-Whites
Co, Rb, and Ni sig. loaded
Middle Eastern Sherds
Cu sig. loaded
Chinese Celadon
Sr, Mn, Zr, sig. loaded
Principle Components Analysis 3
Possible Southwest Asia
Blue-and-Whites: n = 4 (2% ot Total)
Celadon: n = 3 (3% of Total)
Chinese Blue-and-Whites: n = 190 (92% of total)
Chaul: n = 72/78 (92%), Mtwapa: n = 110/124 (88%)
Chinese Celadons: n = 79
(86%of Total)
Southeast Asia,
Japan, Korea
n = 9 (5 % of total)
n = 10 (11 % of total)
Results
• The results clearly show that
– Chinese porcelains and celadons dominated the assemblages at
Mtwapa and at Chaul (93% total)
– Chinese merchants retained their edge and market share
• We can conclude that the need to keep an edge led to the
development of a vast
– Informal entrepreneurial economy
– That formed the basis for the emerging Chinese economy of the
18th and 19th centuries.
Dating A Trade Boom
Commercial Boom in the Indian Ocean 1500-1600
Chinese Merchants would have responded
Against Imitation and Restrictions
Dating Chinese Ceramics through Mn-CO and Mn-FE
Trace elements in Cobalt
Foreign vs Local Cobalt
Different Mn, Fe, Co proportions
Documented use of different sources of Cobalt by Different
Chinese Dynasties
Expected Trend for Chinese Blue-and-White Sherds
Ease of Restrictions
Trade BOOM
Dating the Sherds: Mn-Co Ratios
• Foreign vs Local Cobalt, Different Mn-Co ratios
• High between 1403-1430 and after 1600 C.E (> 4.5).
• Low otherwise (< 4.5)
Dating the Sherds: Mn-Fe ratios
• Low between 1403-1430 CE (>0.35)
• High after 1600 CE (> 0.35)
Expected (line) vs Observed (bar)
Changes in Chinese Blue-and-Whites
Mtwapa: n = 43
Chaul: n = 31
Mtwapa: n = 8
Chaul: n = 7
Mtwapa: n = 0
Chaul: n = 3
Merchant Response to Boom
Chinese Merchants
Responded to Trade Boom and the
Resulting increases in Demand
by
Intensified Production
despite
Internal Restrictions and External
Imitation by reverting to
Informal Economy
General Conclusions
• Traders will react against adverse conditions
• Given sufficient demand and need to keep market
share
• Profit despite restrictions
• Assumptions on the efficacy of state control of
commerce need to take into account
– Rebellion
– Resistance
– Resilience
• Of Trading Communities
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