World History I

Chapter 6: Chiefdoms and Early States in Africa and the Americas
600 BCE-600 CE

31: Wed, Dec 17, 2025

This assignment is under revision for 2023-2024.

Please post in the forum for the day a short essay in response to this question:

The text mentions the rise of ports and towns on the east Africa coast in the first century CE. While we have not yet discovered the exact location of Rhapta, one of the cities which was prominent at the time, we do have the Hellenistic account The Periplus Maris Erythraei, or "Voyage around the Erythrian Sea", written around 50 CE by a Greek-speaking Egyptian merchant. The account isn't very long, so read through it. Also take a look at the Map of places mentioned in the Peryplus of the Erythaean Sea.

• What kinds of goods are being traded between the different regions?
• How would control of a unique luxury good give merchants or the ruling classes power?
• How would market-towns differ from other cities or villages?
• What goods do you not recognize? For example, what is malabathrum?

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