Lesson 22_ Narrative _ Aegean Prehistoric Archaeology

8/10/2019 Lesson 22_ Narrative _ Aegean Prehistoric Archaeology

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Lesson 22: Narrative

Aspects of Mycenaean Trade

1. The Cape Gelidonya Shipwreck

Location

The Wreck

The Ingots

Tin

Bronze Scrap

Pottery

Weights

Scarabs

Cylinder Seal

Conclusions

2. The Amber Trade

3. General Remarks on Trade in the Aegean Late Bronze Age

Raw Materials

Manufactured Goods

Agricultural Produce

The Cape Gelidonya Shipwreck

Location

The wreck lies in ninety feet of water on a rocky bottom off the point of a small island located just offshore from

Cape Gelidonya, which forms the western end of the Gulf of Finike, the major gulf on the south coast of Asia

Minor. The cape is known today, and was known in antiquity, as a dangerous point for coastal shipping.

The Wreck

Very little of the ship itself was preserved because of the rocky bottom on which it settled and the strong currents

in the area which prevented the wood of the ship from being covered in the marine silts necessary for the

preservation of ship timbers in submarine environments. Most of the archaeological remains consist of the ships

cargo, whose distribution on the bottom indicates that the ship settled evenly rather than tipping over in the

process of sinking. The most striking portion of this cargo is a series of copper and bronze ingots, mostly of the

four-handled or so-called oxhide type weighing ca. 20 kgs. (= 45 lbs.) apiece. The oxhide ingots were found

stacked in three major piles, although some of these stacks had slid apart down the rocky slope of the bottom over

the centuries. Traces of matting on many of the ingots suggest that there were layers of matting between the

individual ingots in the stacks. Most of the smaller bun and slab ingots were also found in stacks. The rest ofthe metal cargo, consisting of both complete and fragmentary bronze implements, was found scattered throughout

the site, although often patchily concentrated in the form of small clumps. These tools had probably been stored

originally in wicker baskets, one partially preserved example of which was found. The distribution of the metal

AEGEANPREHISTORICARCHAEOLOGYThis site contains information about the

prehistoric archaeology of the Aegean.
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Syrians, but others feel that the Minoans may have been replaced in this role, as they were in so many others, by

the Mycenaeans. Vassos Karageorghis, the director of the Cypriot Antiquities Service, feels that the copper

industry on Late Bronze Age Cyprus was entirely contolled by the Cypriots. At the moment, we simply do not have

convincing evidence as to which, if any, national group dominated the production of copper and its distribution

throughout the eastern Mediterranean in the 14th and 13th centuries B.C.

Samples from a substantial number of copper ingots of oxhide type have been subjected to lead-isotope analysis

with the aim of establishing the source of the copper they contain. The ingots from the Cape Gelidonya and UluBurun wrecks are (almost?) without exception cast from Cypriote ores, as are all the LM III ingot fragments from

the Minoan harbor site of Kommos. But the LM I ingots from Ayia Triadha have a lead isotope signature

incompatible with a Cypriot source and may be derived from Anatolian ores. Sardinian ingots have been claimed

to be products of Cypriot ores on the grounds of their lead isotope ratios, although this makes little sense in view

of the frequency of copper ore sources on Sardinia itself; of course, the Sardinian sources have not yet been shown

to have been exploited during the Bronze Age, so it is just conceivable that Cypriot metal may have been

transported to the island from the eastern Mediterranean when the traffic in metal ingots was dominated by

Cypriot and Aegean (whether Minoan or Mycenaean) carriers.

The Bun or Plano-Convex Type

Measuring ca. 0.20 m. in diameter and 0.03-0.04 m. thick, twelve complete ingots, eight almost complete, nine

broken half-ingots, and fragments of other miscellaneous ingots of this type were found in the Gelidonya wreck.

Of three such ingots analysed, one analysed by Bass was of bronze (87% copper, 7% tin) while two others analysed

in 1976 were of pure copper. It has now been suggested that all of these ingots were actually of pure copper, Bass

bronze analysis having somehow resulted from a confusion of samples in the laboratory. None of the ingots of this

type bear markings. Plano-convex ingots are common throughout the eastern Mediterranean in the Late Bronze

Age and are normally of pure copper. Early examples of Middle Bronze Age date are known from Acemhyk and

Alaca Hyk in central Anatolia. Although similar in terms of metallic composition to the oxhide ingots, bun

ingots are smaller, hence more portable, and were probably cast more simply within the base of the smelting

furnace rather than in moulds located outside the furnace.

The Slab Type

Measuring ca. 0.20-0.30 m. long by 0.06-0.08 m. wide by 0.01-0.015 m. thick, all nineteen of these ingots were

found in Area G. The three such ingots analysed had tin contents of 1.83%, 1.0%, and 5.27% but are mostly of

copper. The low tin content, too low for good bronze, may indicate that they were produced from remelted scrap

metal. There are no markings on these slabs, but since they have a uniform weight of ca. 1.0 kg. and were all found

in the hypothetical cabin area of the wreck, they may represent a primitive form of currency.

Tin

Under the copper ingots in Areas G and P were found three piles of powdery, white tin oxide, seemingly all that

remained of the tin which the ship was also carrying as part of its cargo. The source of tin for the Bronze Age

cultures of the Aegean is a very hotly disputed question. Although the ultimate source of the Gelidonya tin is

unknown, specialists are quite sure that it did not~come from Cyprus. The tin from this wreck is significant in a

larger sense as the earliest known, purely industrial tin after that recently found in much greater quantities and in

the form of oxhide ingots of metallic tin at the Ulu Burun wreck, which dates some 100-150 years earlier.

Bronze Scrap

This material includes a wide variety of objects useful in agriculture, woodworking, metallurgy, warfare, and

several purely domestic activities: picks, hoes, shovel, mattock, pruning hooks, sickle, double axes, adzes, axe-


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adzes, chisels, hammer, swage block, awls, nails, punch, needle, knives, spearheads, razor, spatula, bronze vessel

fragments, tripod stand fragments, spit, bracelets/anklets, rings, and hooks. Most of these were already

fragmentary at the time of the wreck and were presumably being transported for their scrap value. The best

parallels for most of these objects come from Cyprus, and it is therefore theorized that the last port of call in the

merchantmans voyage west to the Aegean had been on Cyprus.

Pottery

Relatively little pottery was found, and what there was was poorly preserved. The pottery may be characterized as

cosmopolitan and could have been readily obtained in Lebanese, Syrian, or Cypriot ports. There is some

Mycenaean pottery, but all of this is of types current in the Levant. Both Cypriot and Syro-Palestinian ceramic

types have also been identified. Unfortunately, the pottery cannot be closely dated; a fairly broad chronological

range of ca. 1250-1150 B.C. has been suggested for it.

Weights

Weights would have been necessary for a merchant captain conducting trade in any commodity but would have

been especially needed by one who dealt with metals which were normally alloyed, for the creation of such alloys

would have required reasonably precise measurements of the constituent metals, tin and copper in the case of

bronze. Of the sixty weights found on the wreck site, all but two were found in the cabin area. In view of the

difficulties encountered in excavating at a depth of ninety feet and because of the diminutive sizes of the weights

themselves, it is likely that the number of weights on the ship when it sank was a good deal higher. In shape, the

weights are sphendonoid (shaped like sling-bullets), domed, truncated conical, spherical with a flat base,

cylindrical, and discoid. Eight are of metal, fifty-two of stone. At least six weight standards were claimed by Bass

to be represented, namely:

(1) A standard based on a unit of 7.30 gms., identified as the Phoenician standard of 7.32 gms. Multiples of 4, 5,

6, 8(?), 9, 15, 20, 28, 32, and 64 units were identified among the weights.

(2) A standard based on a unit of 9.32-9.33 gms., identified as the Egyptian qedet. Multiples of 1, 3, 6, 7(?), 10, 19,

20(?), 25, 30, 49, and 50(?) units were identified among the weights.

(3) A standard based on a unit of 9.50 gms, identified as the Syro-Palestinian qedet. Multiples of 1, 5, 7, 8, 9(?),

30, and 4 1/2 (?) units were identified among the weights.

(4) A standard based on a unit of 10.30 gms., identified as the Syrian nesef. Multiples of 1, 2, 5, 18, 3 1/2, and 4

2/3 units were identified among the weights.

(5) A standard based on a unit of 10.50 gms, identified with some hesitance as the Phoenician nesef. Multiples of

1, 1/3, 4 1/3, 2 1/2, 7 1/2, 3 2/3, 3 1/3, 4 2/3, and 6 2/3 units were identified among the weights.

(6) A standard based on a unit of 11.50 gms, identified as the Canaanite shekel. Multiples of 4, 5, 6, 8, 7 1/2, 6 2/3,

and 8 2/3 units were identified among the weights.

(7) A standard based on a possible unit of 12.30 gms., the identity of which remains unknown. Multiples of 1 and

possibly of 4, 7, 4 1/2, and 5 1/2 units were identified among the weights.

These weights were viewed by Bass as allowing the merchant to trade with Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Cyprus, the

Hittite Empire, Crete, possibly Troy, and probably the Greek Mainland. Unfortunately, the wide geographical

range of the identified weight standards, as well as our relative ignorance of the prevalent weight systems in use in

the prehistoric Aegean, preclude any conclusions about the route of the ship or its nationality.


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Since the publication of the Gelidonya wreck, the large collection of similar weights from the earlier Ulu Burun

wreck have been analysed by Pulak, while the Minoan weight system prevalent throughout the southern Aegean in

Neopalatial times has been treated in depth by Petruso. Further analysis of the distribution and interpenetration

of different metrological systems during the Late Bronze Age in the eastern Mediterranean will no doubt provide

valuable insights into socio-economic conditions within this region in the years to come.

Scarabs

Five scarabs found in the cabin area were probably used as charms or talismans, or perhaps as seals, and

presumably belonged to one or more members of the ships crew. In date they range from the Second

Intermediate Period (1785-1567 B.C.) through the late 18th or early 19th Dynasty (late 13th century B.C.). Some of

them were obviously several hundred years old by the time of the wreck, but the latest suggests a date for the

wreck in the late 13th century B.C.

Cylinder Seal

A single cylinder seal, arguably the property of the ships captain, was found in the cabin area. It is an heirloom of

the 18th century B.C., probably made in Syria.

Conclusions

The ship loaded with metal ingots and bronze scrap which was wrecked off Cape Gelidonya sank around 1200 B.C.

or a little later. It was nine or ten meters long and probably served both as a carrier of raw materials and as a sort

of itinerant smithy, the merchant-captain being both a supplier and a craftsman who dealt in finished goods to

order. The course of the ship has been argued to have been east to west, from Cyprus into the Aegean, but neither

this nor the beginning and end points of the ships voyage can be specified with any precision. Bass has argued

that the ship was Phoenician or Canaanite, but Muhly and others have argued that it was Mycenaean. Certainty on

this point is equally impossible in view of the available evidence. Indeed, one may question whether most cargoships of this period were considered to have any nationality at all in the sense of being part of a given political

entitys merchant marine. There is no literary evidence whatsoever for the identification of the nature, much less

the individual identity, of the authorities who owned or managed vessels of this sort during the Late Bronze Age in

the Aegean world. Before the discovery of the relatively nearby Ulu Burun wreck near Kas, now dated to ca. 1310

B.C., that at Gelidonya was the earliest ship ever to have been excavated. It remains an invaluable source of

evidence for the study of trade, metallurgy, and metrology in the Late Bronze Age of the cosmopolitan eastern

Mediterranean world.

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The Amber Trade

The source or sources of the amber found in the Aegean can be determined by means of infrared spectroscopy.

Most of the amber from Mycenaean Greece, as well as that from Italy and elsewhere in the Mediterranean, comes

from the Baltic Sea. In Mycenaean contexts, amber occurs almost exclusively in the form of beads and of multiply

perforated rectangular plaques known as {spacer plate}s.

The presence of amber, which is not an artifactpersebut rather a material, in areas where it does not naturally

occur is not necessarily an indicator of intercultural contact, but only of some sort of exchange system operating

between or through two or more cultures. In other words, the presence of Baltic amber in southern Greece is not

necessarily evidence that the Mycenaeans travelled north to the Baltic nor that northern Europeans visited

Mycenaean Greece. The amber in question could easily have passed through a multitude of hands in an exchange

network which brought the material by a series of relatively short hops over what in the end was a long distance.
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In any case, amber is light and a great deal of it can be carried by one man. Numerous finds of it need therefore

not imply that several trips were made to obtain it.

Amber was in antiquity, and still is, valuable. It is attractive for its color, is smooth and warm to the touch, and

possesses certain electrical properties which in ancient times may well have been considered magical. As an

organic substance, amber weathers badly and thus can easily have disappeared entirely from the archaeological

record. It can even decompose in a museum collection after its recovery, if not properly treated by conservators.

There is no evidence from Egypt for true amber, as opposed to other fossil resins, before the 18th Dynasty (ca.

1570 B.C. onwards). The earliest amber in the Near East may date from ca. 1800 B.C. at Assur and Hissar (level

IIIC), or it may date from as early as ca. 2400 B.C. in the finds from a grave at Tell Asmar. Further study of the

material described as amber in these contexts is needed to confirm such a high dating for the initial use of the

material in this part of the world. In Greece itself, there is no certain evidence for amber before the very end of the

Middle Helladic period, and there is no certainly earlier amber from any other area of the eastern Mediterranean.

Greeces earliest amber comes from Shaft Grave O in Grave Circle B at Mycenae and from an early tholos at Pylos

in Messenia, both of which contexts are dated to the latest phase of the MH period (ca. 1725-1675 B.C., on the high

Aegean chronology). Other finds of this substance, from Peristeria Tholos 3, from Pylos Tholos IV, and from the

Shaft Graves at Mycenae, date from the immediately following Late Helladic I period. A total of over 1560 pieces,

1290 of these from Shaft Grave IV in Circle A alone, is known from latest MH and LH I contexts.

In LH II, amber finds amounting to some 820 pieces in all are confined to the Argolid and the Pylos area within

Messenia, with the exception of a few pieces from Thebes in Boeotia. The grand total of 2380 pieces of LH I-II

amber easily outnumbers the total of all other pieces of Aegean amber from all prehistoric contexts postdating the

end of LH/LM/LC II. But the early Mycenaean amber, though abundant in terms of total pieces, comes from just

twelve different Aegean sites.

In LH/LM IIIA, amber is found in the Peloponnese, central Greece, and Cycladic islands, as well as at other sites

to the south and east (Kos, Crete, Cyprus, Syria) and also in islands to the west (Zakynthos, Sicily, Aeolian

islands). The finds come from fewer individual contexts of discovery, but from a larger number of distinct sites

(17). The number of pieces known shrinks to 182, 160 of which are dated to LH/LM IIIA1 alone, while only 22 date

to LH/LM IIIA2. The appearance for the first time of amber at Knossos in this period has been taken as further

evidence for the presence of Mycenaean Mainlanders at that site during LM/LH IIIA1. the later part of the

Warrior Grave horizon at that site.

Only about forty pieces from eight sites are dated to LH IIIB. Within the Peloponnese in this period, amber is

found only in the Argolid. Amber now appears for the first time in northwest Greece, in Aetolia and in Epirus.

During the LH IIIC period, there appears to have been a minor revival in the popularity of amber, with more than

sixty pieces known from a total of fourteen sites. The distribution is now broad, including Rhodes, Alalakh in

Syria, Crete, Egypt, and the western island of Kephallenia. From late LH IIIC and in Submycenaean contexts,

only nine pieces are known from just three sites on Salamis, in Elis, and in southern Italy.

The quantity and concentration of amber at just a few sites in the LH I and II periods is striking. Renfrew has

suggested that amber reached the Mycenaean kings by means of a prestige chain of royal gift-exchanges

stretching across Europe in which the Mycenaeans formed the southernmost link, but the reason for the creation

of such a chain is at present a puzzle. In LH IIIA, less amber is spread over a wider area. Single beads now appear

in tombs, in contrast with the whole necklaces of LH I-II times, and were perhaps considered to have had amuletic

powers. The source of LH IIIA amber may simply have been the residues of LH I-II amber rather than new

imports. Indeed, a system of gift-exchange in this commodity may now have operated withinthe Mycenaean


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world, the old one across Europe having broken down for some reason. While amber excahange in the LH IIIB

period suffers a still further decline, the evidence for this material increases in LH IIIC times and this fact may

indicate renewed contact with Balkan suppliers at this time.

The first Baltic amber arrived in Greece ca. 1725-1675 B.C., possibly in only three consignments (one each for

Mycenae, Pylos, and Kakovatos [Messenia]). The next consignment need not have arrived until the transition

from LH IIIB to LH IIIC ca. 1200 B.C., this time possibly through middlemen in northwest Greece, as suggested

by finds of the material in Aetolia and Epirus. The early consignments, it has been argued, probably came to thePeloponnese by sea, possibly from as far away as Britain on the basis of remarkable similarities between

Mycenaean and British spacer plates. The later consignment, much smaller in size, is more likely to have come

overland to the head of the Adriatic, then down the west coasts of what are now Yugoslavia, Albania, and Greece,

and hence finally into the Aegean.

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General Remarks on Trade in the Aegean Late Bronze Age

Other items that were clearly exchanged during the Late Bronze Age, many of them in the context of genuinecommerce or trade, include:

Raw Materials

Precious metals such as gold, silver, and electrum; ivory from both elephants and hippopotami; ostrich eggs;

stones for use in architecture (e.g. gypsum), jewelry (e.g. lapis lazuli), and stone vases and seals (e.g. lapis

Lacedaemonius, carnelian), and tools (andesite, obsidian); spices utilized in the production of perfumed oils and

unguents (e.g. coriander, frankincense, myrrh).

Manufactured Goods

Pottery; seals; carved ivories; textiles; furniture; stone and metal vessels; weaponry.

Agricultural Produce

Wine; olive oil; flax; hides; wool.

Many of the above items, just as the two explored in greater detail above (bronze; amber), were probably

exchanged through distinct and largely independent distribution networks.

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Aegean Prehistoric Archaeology by Jeremy B. Rutter & Dartmouth Collegeis licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported

License.

Based on a work atwww.dartmouth.edu.
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Lesson 22_ Narrative _ Aegean Prehistoric Archaeology