Gold and Silver at the Crossroads in Highland Ethiopia

Author : RAYMOND A. SILVERMAN and NEAL W. SOBANIAR

Year : 2004

Using the archaeological record, European travelers' accounts, ethnographies and the authors' recent historical and ethnoarchaeological research, this article examines the production and uses of objects made from gold and silver by both elites and common folk. Drawing on evidence from both the Christian societies of the central and northern highlands with northeast Africa and the eastern Mediterranean, and the Muslim societies of the eastern highlands with the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, the authors demonstrate how these two spheres of exchange have stood for thousands of years at a crossroads of intense cultural

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