Ağ

(İng. network)

Göndermeler

Diğer

Persia’s hegemony over Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Levant brought political stability, whilst its efficient communications networks and infrastructures, such as the great Royal Highway, helped facilitate trade (Herodotus 5.52–4).

Instead, economic historians are now beginning to approach ancient economies from the perspective of social and commercial networks, seeking to understand how these networks were organised, operated and maintained (an approach which is starting to yield far more positive results).

Organised around an irregular network of narrow streets and winding paths, these residential districts tended to be overcrowded and densely packed. With little or no room to expand outwards, many homeowners solved the problem by expanding upwards, meaning that the typical Phoenician house had two or more storeys (when present, the upper floors replicated the layout of the lower storeys).