Where Huns' Blood Drew
It is in fact a long time that our knowledge of the Huns has not been satisfactory due to the mainstream scholars using exclusively the Byzantine and European — occasionally the Arabic — sources for their researches.
The Neanderthal dead: exploring mortuary variability in Middle Palaeolithic Eurasia
The question of whether or not Neanderthals buried their dead has received considerable attention over the last few decades and has played a central role in exploring the similarities and differences between Neanderthals and early anatomically modern humans.
The divergent evolution of coinage in eastern and western Eurasia
This paper offers a concise comparative assessment of some key features of the ‘Aegean’ and ‘Chinese’ models of coinage.
A comparative perspective on the determinants of the scale and productivity of maritime trade in the Roman Mediterranean
I argue that imperial state formation was the single most important ultimate determinant of the scale, structure, and productivity of maritime commerce in the Roman period. Hegemony and subsequent direct rule created uniquely favorable conditions for maritime trade by cutting the costs of predation, transactions, and financing to levels that were lower than in any other period of pre-modern Mediterranean history.
Coin quality, coin quantity, and coin value in early China and the Roman world
How was the valuation of ancient coins related to their quality and quantity? How did ancient economies respond to coin debasement and to sharp increases in the money supply relative to the number of goods and transactions? I argue that the same answer – that the result was a devaluation of the coinage in real terms, most commonly leading to price increases – applies to two ostensibly quite different monetary systems, those of early China and the Roman Empire.