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In recent years, trade has become one of the principal foci of archaeological research. There are two reasons for this. The first is pragmatic: trade can be studied. The objects of trade, or at least the imperishable ones, can frequently be found, modern analytical techniques allow the determination of the source, and quantitative methods inspired by geography permit generalizations about distribution patterns. The second reason is theoretical: in the past, the development of human culture and cultures has often been seen primarily in material terms (subsistence, technology, economy—for instance by Childe) or primarily in spiritual terms (social relations, religion, knowledge of the world—for instance by Frankfort). Recently the relationship between these two arbitrarily separated areas has been more fully appreciated, as we have become aware of their total and integral interdependence. Trade is an activity which closely relates these two groups of subsystems; it requires organization as well as commodity, and it implies criteria of value and measure. The crucial importance of the study of trade today is that it offers a practical way of investigating the organization of society in social terms as well as purely in economic ones.