The Cairo Geniza—hundreds of thousands of texts from an eleventh-century Egyptian synagogue—offers an intimate view of labor, trade, taxation, food, textiles, and daily life across the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean, in a period studied mostly from the perspective of Christian Europe.

Merchants, Spices, and Love Letters: Uncovering Lives across the Medieval Mediterranean and Indian Ocean a lecture by Marina Rustow as part of the public programme of the exhibition Allspice | Michael Rakowitz & Ancient Cultures highlights discoveries from the last five years.