The Indian Ocean in the Ancient Period

In 2001 a project entitled "Trade, migration and cultural change in the Indian Ocean" was launched at the Department of History, University of Bergen, with funding from the Norwegian Research Council. The project was planned to be the first joint project in a program called "The Indian Ocean History Program". From the beginning, the project invited interested researchers in other disciplines at the university (mainly in archaeology, anthropology and classics) to take part in our research seminar series in 2001-2002 in which work in progress and completed papers were presented. In addition, the project sought to establish more permanent research links with foreign researchers and research institutions concerned with the Indian Ocean. In order to promote international cooperation in the field of Indian Ocean research, three workshops were organised in Bergen, 2001, 2002, 2004, in which papers on a broad range of topics were presented and discussed. What binds the individual projects together is the focus on the movement of commodities, people, cultural features and ideas, and the durable networks and links that these created and the local impact around the Indian Ocean. The areas most focused on have been East Africa centred on Zanzibar, the Red Sea Region, the Persian Gulf and Southern Arabia, and finally on western and southern India. This volume shows parts of the research that has been undertaken by project members and associates. Most of the articles in this anthology were presented at the 2004 workshop. They focus on the Indian Ocean in the ancient period.