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What about Mediterranean bronze age though? There you have a trade based civilisation that AFAIK was far ahead of its Asian counterparts, possibly with the exce
by m_mueller 8y ago
What about Mediterranean bronze age though? There you have a trade based civilisation that AFAIK was far ahead of its Asian counterparts, possibly with the exception of the Indus Valley civilization. Also, I think that Rome was about on the same level as Han dynasty China, whether you look at trade, military, administration, technology etc. - it doesn't seem right to call one the center of civilization and the other a backwater.
- beat 8y agoI'm actually wanting to do a bit more investigation into the Bronze Age stuff. Long, long ago, I read Buckminster Fuller arguing that the Bronze Age could not have been centered in the Middle East (as we usually assume), because there's simply no significant tin deposits there. The only place in the world where copper and tin occur naturally together is in Thailand. And bronze is important because bronze fittings are essential for any seafaring ships larger/more complex than Polynesian pontoons. The only major tin deposits near Babylon are in the British Isles... and how do you get there? I need to fact-check that, though. If Fuller is right, it really is a huge twist on the story of early global trade.