c. 700 CE–c. 1450 CE
Trans-Saharan trade: gold, salt, and enslaved people
Trade & global routes · Caravanas · Oro · Sal · Esclavitud y trata
Caravans connected the Sahel, Sahara, and Mediterranean through gold, salt, textiles, and other goods under diverse authorities and intermediaries. They also sustained the capture, purchase, and forced movement of enslaved people: violence constitutive of these networks, not an equivalent commodity or side effect. Arabic sources and later archives are uneven; they must be read alongside archaeology, oral traditions, and the histories of African societies.
Precision, calendar, and review
- Start
- year · approximate
- End
- year · approximate
- Calendar and convention
- Historical-era years; the source calendar is not identified. No conversion of days is assumed.
- Year zero
- The scale goes from 1 BCE to 1 CE without year zero. Changing era names changes labels only.
- Documentary review
- Date not recorded
Reading the date: duration of a process.
Sources
- www.metmuseum.org (opens in a new tab)
Source provenance and scope
- Publication date
- Pending verification: the source could not be accessed
- Bibliographic date checked
- 2026-09-23
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This record is an editorial synthesis. Consult the sources to check claims and their limits. Chronological relationships alone do not establish causation.