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There is a long tradition of studies of the Indian Ocean trade focused almost exclusively on the trade between Roman Egypt and India. Less attention has been paid to the formative period of early historical long-distance trade in the Indian Ocean. The aim of this paper is to discuss some aspects of the development of this trade, based on an analysis of the South Asian pottery found at two different settlements: Sumhuram in the Sultanate of Oman and Tissamaharama in Sri Lanka.

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Abstract Multidisciplinary research on the metallurgy-related items and features from the ancient South Arabian harbour of Sumhuram, in southern Oman, have shed light on ancient copper and iron production and use at the site, pointing out what appears to be a definitely unusual practice in particular for what concerns copper alloying. In this paper, the archaeometallurgical data are summarised and discussed with the aim of showing that the existence of a copper working tradition specific to South Arabian centres can be tentatively postulated and that at least two different networks of metal production and exchange probably existed, centred on the opposite sides of the southern Arabian Peninsula.

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