Sea of Treasures

A Cultural History of Ancient Indian Ocean Trade

How goods and people in motion across the ancient world were entangled through consumption

The ancient world was a far more interconnected place than is often assumed. Maritime routes across the Indian Ocean, by no means peripheral, made these connections possible. In Sea of Treasures, Jeremy Simmons puts forth an entirely new perspective on Indian Ocean commerce, starting with commodities of trade and the patterns of consumption that resulted from their importation. Looking beyond the mechanics of long-distance travel or the economics of Indo-Roman exchange, Simmons considers the consequences of objects in motion: how Indian Ocean imports shaped the lives of humans throughout the wider ancient world. In his exploration of textual and archaeological sources from both the Mediterranean basin and the Indian subcontinent, he traces a series of sensuous and intellectual e