are these people that they were trading with who like what group of people was this in afghanistan or pakistan or india whatever it is now did they have a cultural name did or we've given them a cultural name like clearly they were mining something and having relationships and sending envoys and ambassadors or whatnot to allow for this trade but the the people in in the fertile crescent were trading with somebody and they knew who they were trading with, who were they trading with?

Well, there are a lot of names that go with these different people.

There are dozens and dozens of names in Neolithic and early Bronze Age cultures across that whole region.

They're made-up names because they did not have writing systems, and so we can't read the names of what they called themselves.

And so archaeologists will come up with names for people for a particular period or particular culture that are based on place names and things like that.

Or we'll make up a term like Neolithic, which means the new stone age, to refer to changes in technology.

But what you're discussing in terms of these early trade routes with areas to the east, for example, our trade with the Neolithic peoples of Afghanistan and of the Middle East.

I can live with

In any event,

Well, talking about names, and I'm glad that you brought it up, and I don't want to get really heavy about this because this is a non-academic audience.

I'm not talking to scholars.

There are probably some scholars listening, but that's not your main audience.

But it really helps to have a meaningful vocabulary.

And the vocabulary that archaeologists use goes back over 200 years.

First of all, with what's called the three-age system, which was the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age.

And

So I was wondering, um, if you could, uh, talk about that a little bit.

Yeah.

Well, uh, thank you, and that's exactly right.

Um, I've, uh, published an article on, on, on what I called, um, um, u- unintentional consequences of, of 2012 scholarship.

Um, but, uh, I actually traced it to, to, to where the meme began.

Uh, actually there...

D- different dimensions of the meme.

'Cause I don't think, I don't think enough people understand that.