Copying of Economic Strategies in Eastern Mediterranean Inter-regional Tableware Trade

Abstract Ceramic tableware evidence from the Roman East reveals clear evidence of influence of tablewares on each other (through distributions, stamps, and morphologies), suggestive of a competitive market. In this chapter we evaluate the plausibility of a theory describing this influence and possible competition: did tableware traders have limited or abundant access to each other’s tableware buying strategies, and did they use this information to their advantage by letting it guide their own commercial strategies? To explore whether this is a viable theory, we formulate three hypotheses using an agent-based model (H1, no access to economic information and individual learning; H2, limited access and unbiased learning; H3, complete access and success-biased learning) and statistically compare their simulation results to the archaeological data using approximate Bayesian computation. The individual modification of tableware traders’ buying strategies without access to others’ economic information is revealed as the most plausible hypothesis (H1), whilst copying the most successful trader’s buying strategy enabled through complete access to all traders’ buying strategies was the least plausible hypothesis (H3). Although these results confirm the need for inter-regional tableware traders to innovate their buying strategies individually, they firmly reject the idea that this innovation was driven by copying from other traders or having access to others’ strategies. We discuss how this result is complementary with previous work that did not conceptualize wares as distinct products and showed the need for access to information about supply and demand at markets (rather than about traders’ strategies). We believe this important insight lends further support to theories of product differentiation and producer-level mechanisms.