Trade Triad An Atlas of Trade Through Time

The Full Timeline of Trade

Over a hundred events spanning early exchange networks to today's global logistics. Combine filters, search, and switch between chronological and card views.

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10 events found

Early Exchange Networks

c. 9000 BCE

Obsidian Trade Networks of Anatolia

Archaeological excavations at sites such as Catalhoyuk and across the broader Fertile Crescent show that obsidian from volcanic sources in central and eastern Anatolia was carried…

Central Anatolia and the Fertile Crescent (modern Turkey, Syria, and Iraq) · Middle East & West Asia

c. 7th millennium BCE

Obsidian Exchange in the Bismarck Archipelago

Geochemical sourcing of stone tools recovered on islands across the Bismarck Archipelago shows that obsidian quarried on New Britain was being moved by sea to neighboring islands …

Bismarck Archipelago, New Britain and New Ireland (modern Papua New Guinea) · Southeast Asia

c. 7000 BCE

Obsidian Networks of Jomon Japan

Jomon-period communities in the Japanese archipelago obtained obsidian from a limited number of volcanic sources, including Mount Wada and the island of Kozushima, and distributed…

Japanese archipelago, including Honshu and outlying islands (modern Japan) · East Asia

c. 5000 BCE

Dentalium Shell Exchange on the Pacific Northwest Coast

Dentalium, a small tusk-shaped shell harvested from deep coastal waters near Vancouver Island, was gathered and distributed through exchange networks reaching far into the interio…

Pacific Northwest coast of North America (modern British Columbia and Washington State) · The Americas

c. 4000 BCE

Flint Axe Trade of Neolithic Europe

Neolithic farming communities across Western Europe mined high-quality flint at sites such as Spiennes in modern Belgium and Grand-Pressigny in modern France, then shaped it into …

Western and Northern Europe, including flint mining sites in modern Belgium, France, and England · Europe

c. 3500 BCE

Nile Valley Exchange Between Egypt and Nubia

In the centuries before Egypt's political unification, communities along the Nile in Upper Egypt and Nubia exchanged goods such as ivory, ebony, incense, gold, and ostrich-eggshel…

Nile Valley, Upper Egypt and Lower Nubia (modern Egypt and Sudan) · Africa

c. 4th millennium BCE

Lapis Lazuli Exchange From Badakhshan

Lapis lazuli, a deep-blue semi-precious stone, was mined almost exclusively in the mountains of Badakhshan in what is now northeastern Afghanistan. Finds of worked lapis in burial…

Badakhshan region (modern Afghanistan), with exchange reaching Mesopotamia and Egypt · Central Asia

c. late 4th millennium BCE

Jade Exchange in the Liangzhu Culture

The Liangzhu culture of the lower Yangtze River region began producing finely worked jade objects, including ritual discs known as bi and tubes known as cong, in the late fourth m…

Lower Yangtze River region near modern Hangzhou, China · East Asia

c. 3300 BCE

Proto-Accounting Tokens of Uruk-Period Mesopotamia

In the final centuries before the emergence of writing, communities in southern Mesopotamia used small fired-clay tokens of standardized shapes to represent quantities of goods su…

Southern Mesopotamia, including the city of Uruk (modern Iraq) · Middle East & West Asia

c. 3000 BCE

Spondylus Shell Exchange in the Andes

Thorny oyster shells of the genus Spondylus, harvested from warm Pacific waters off the coast of modern Ecuador, were carried inland and southward to early Andean communities in m…

Pacific coast of modern Ecuador, exchanged inland to the central Andes (modern Peru) · The Americas