Dr.Haggai Olshanetsky
About
haggai1990@gmail.com
Haggai Olshanetsky is a historian and archaeologist specializing in the Hellenistic to Late Antique periods.
His interdisciplinary research spans ancient Judaism, military and environmental history, and the economic integration of minorities in antiquity.
He has held postdoctoral positions at the University of Basel, studying climate change in Roman Egypt, and at the University of Warsaw, focusing on Judean religions during the Persian and Hellenistic eras.
An author of over two dozen scholarly works, Olshanetsky is set to begin a lectureship at the University of Ghana, where he will continue exploring the societal transformations and cultural intersections of the ancient world.
Lecture Abstract:
The Mishna and Talmud are often viewed as sources concerned solely with Jewish law, religion, and society. However, these texts also illuminate wider aspects of the ancient world, including Rome’s trade with India, and particularly Jewish connections to India. Long before Roman control of the eastern Mediterranean, commerce between the Mediterranean and India flourished and expanded under Hellenistic rule. Scholarly discussion of this trade has focused mainly on archaeological finds from Egypt’s Eastern Desert, papyri, and Roman authors such as Pliny and Strabo. Yet most Roman references date to the 1st century BCE–1st century CE, while trade activity peaked in the 1st–2nd centuries CE, raising questions about gaps or biases in the surviving evidence. The Mishna and Talmud provide an overlooked perspective on this issue. They preserve numerous discussions, anecdotes, and legends referencing Indian goods, such as spices, gems, and textiles, as well as interactions between Jewish merchants and eastern trade networks. These references suggest sustained contact between Jewish communities and India well into the later Roman period. This presentation analyses these rabbinic mentions of Indian commodities and trade to better understand the role of Jewish intermediaries in Indo-Roman exchange. A dedicated database compiles these sources to demonstrate how rabbinic literature enriches the study of ancient commerce. Ultimately, the Talmud and Mishna reveal not only the global scope of Jewish experience but also their unique position within the economic and cultural exchanges linking Rome and India.