As you understand, this is a bid for new research. This time, I will review the basics of the Trans-Saharan trade during the Little Age of Discovery (XIV century). This overland exchange was a highway for transporting wares, technologies, and ideas among vast expanses of West Africa, linking diverse cultures of the Mediterranean coast, the Sahara oases, the Sahel grasslands, and the forest belt on the way to the Guinea Bay.
An essential part of this commercial network was the gold trade. The 'yellow metal' was panned in the shallows of the rivers, in the knee-deep water, or mined in the shafts.
At this stage, I have started collecting the material. Many years ago, I wrote an article by the same title. Nowadays, I will try to expand it. It will be the last chapter of Unit I of my new project.
Unit I: The Little Age of Discovery: European Maritime Adventures in the
Fourteenth century
1: How Wide Spans the Ocean
Sea
a) The
Heated Argument with Herodotus
b) The
Vigorous Controversy with Columbus
c) Conclusion
2: Beyond the Pillars of Hercules
a) The
Evil Omen
b) Passing
through the Eye of the Needle
c) Locking
Horns in the Unceasing Crusade
d) The Mediterranean Breakout
3: The Rediscovered Islands
a) The
Priority of Discovery
b) The
People Behind the Scenes
c) The
Norman Conquest
d) The
Royal Conquest: All Walks of Death
e) The Sugar Islands
f) Reassessment
4: The Quest for the river of Gold
My second research focuses on Gobekli Tepe, an ancient mount in Turkey which dates to the X-VIII
millennium BCE. I denounce as ludicrous calling the site a temple. In my view, this is an early ritual site with a unique background that is worthy to investigate. I would like to clarify my ideas on what is a temple, making comparisons with other prehistoric sites, and showing the origin of the sacred mound in Mesopotamia.
If I succeed, though I am just collecting the material, it might be my contribution to the reevaluation of my first project about the onset of the urban society in Mesopotamia. See my book, "Dawn and Sunset: A Tale of the Oldest Cities in the Near East".
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