Marduk Hammurabi very kindly shared a link to a site which discusses trade in the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean in the first century CE: The Voyage around the Erythraean Sea. The Erythraean Sea is the ancient name of the Red Sea, but to the Greeks, it encompassed a much larger area. The Periplus Maris Erythraei is an anonymous description by a Greek speaking Egyptian merchant of the maritime trade routes between Egypt, east Africa and around the Arabian peninsula. Marduk also left me a link to a another short piece on this at wikipedia.

Lional Casson, author of Travel in the Ancient World and Libraries in the Ancient World, both of which I throroughly enjoyed, has written a book about this ancient manuscript, The Periplus Maris Erythraei: Text With Introduction, Translation, and Commentary, which is available through amazon booksellers for only $475.00. I need to find something cheaper to get interested in. *G*

"Periplus" ...is this another earlier name for ship's rutters? There is another word, I think, in the back of my mind someplace, that's similar to periplus. I can't look it up, I don't remember it. Or maybe it doesn't exist, except in my imagination? Someone, please put me out of my misery!