Page 134 - Life & Land Use on the Bahrain Islands (Curtis E Larsen)

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competition between caravan and sea trade during the Parthian period can be seen
as an influence on Gulf trade. Thus, Roman and Byzantine efforts to circumvent
Parthian and early Sasanian controlled caravan routes to the Far East through use
of the Red Sea maritime route may have contributed to an avoidance of the
Arabian Gulf at times when Palmyrene overland trade through Charax was
restricted. Reuse of the gulf by long distance trading forces only reinitiated the
entrepot condition.

Limitations
Tbe qualitative model presented here ignores, in part, the various important
subsystems that Renfrew includes as necessary for analysis of a culture.
Subsistence and social subsystems are handled in only a general manner.
Technological and symbolic subsystems are not addressed. This is due partially to
intent and partially to a lack of reasonable data. Ttie intent has been to point to
the obvious subsystem, that of trade and communications, and display its force as
an explanatory device for the observed phenomena. This simplistic model
underlines what appears to be the obvious in discussions of Bahrain’s history and
archeology. Among the various factors that influenced Bahrain, maritime trade is
invariably held paramount. No assessment has been attempted for the more
mundane archeological evidence from other parts of the islands. One such topic is
land use. It is too simple to see the dynamics of Bahrain relegated to a single trade
subsystem when others should be considered. Yet, external trade is undeniably an
important factor. For the sake of completeness, anomalies must occur in the
external trade model.
Tbe most striking contradictions are found during the first millennium
A.D. Historic and archeological evidence from other parts of the Gulf region argue
that the Sasanian Empire maintained one of the most widespread and well
conceived maritime networks in history, connecting Persia with India, Ceylon, and
the Far East. Whitehouse and Williamson (1973) display archeological evidence for
this trade in the form of Indian ceramic forms at various Sasanian sites along the
Persian coast. These same forms have not yet been reported from Bahrain,