The Politics of Ancient Trade

To paraphrase Teddy R, "Walk softly and carry a huge amount of evidence". The difficult part is choosing where to start. There is ample evidence -- on both sides of both oceans -- that heavy traffic was going both ways for a very, very long time. The copper "trade" is the linchpin of most diffusion theories, but the primary blank spot, up to now, has been "what did the Old World offer in exchange?" Tom Anderton may have a good candidate: wine. We'll describe Tom's hypothesis, the evidence of it, and the practicality (and sheer elegance) of it. Also, update some news, update CoPS, and update the Atlantic Conference news.