Summary This book offers new and innovative perspectives on long-distance trade between Europe, the Mediterranean area, the Middle East, Africa, India and China during the Early Medieval period. The archaeological data and historical insights presented in this volume are without exception of great interest, often exciting, and more than once astonishing. The goods which travelled between the continents in the timespan under discussion (ca. 6th to 12th centuries) include pottery in all shapes and forms, textiles, coins, metal, lava millstones, glass, marble columns, rock-crystal beads, and also plants used for incense. The scope of the contributions includes the wide-ranging economic contacts of a Viking community, the changing patterns of long-distance trade in the Byzantine Empire, the spread of Chinese pottery to Africa, the Near East and Europe, the information on maritime routes provided by shipwrecks in the Java Sea, the reconstruction of an incense trade network, and the production and distribution of textiles as well as stone objects in the Middle East and beyond. The varied approaches in this volume underline that the movement of objects in Early Medieval times over vast distances not only reflect mechanisms of exchange, but also imply social networks and the transfer of ideas. Thus, Riches Beyond the Horizon sheds compelling light on a world which was much more complex and much more interconnected than has often been assumed. TABLE OF CONTENTS Joanita Vroom, Preface Hagit Nol, Long distance trade in the Early Medieval period: A general introduction Natalie Kontny, Arabo-Islamic geographies: Indian Ocean trade in Ibn KhurradKit (fl. 884 CE) Sterenn Le Maguer-Gillon, Elusive remains: Identifying incense trade routes in western Asia from biodegradable commodities (ca. 7th-13th centuries) Dashu Qin & Justin Ching Ho, Chinese ceramics exported to Africa during the 9th-10th centuries Guangcan Xin, Maritime trade in Southeast Asia from the 9th-10th centuries: A study of the Belitung and Cirebon Shipwrecks Joanita Vroom, From Xian to Birka and back: Constantinople as a nodal point in long-distance contacts during the early Middle Ages (ca. 6th-12th centuries) Hagit Nol, Rolling stones: Distribution patterns of marble, basalt and beach rock from Early Medieval Israel (ca. 7th-11th centuries) Orit Shamir & Alisa Baginski, Early medieval textiles from excavations in Israel (9th-13th centuries) trade and Transfer Ralf Wiechmann, Advancing into unknown lands: The numismatic material of Gros Stromkendorf near Wismar during the Early Viking age (ca. 8th-9th centuries)