mycenaean trade - brown university · mycenaean trade overview: ¥ in lh i-ii not actively involved...
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Mycenaean Trade
The Evidence from Shipwrecks
Mycenaean trade with Egypt: the Amarna letters
Plan of Akenaten
(Tell el-Amarna)
Black and white aerial photograph of the ruins at Tell el-Amarna
The ruins at Tell el-Amarna
The Amarna letters:• 14th cen. BCE (1386-1312 BCE)
• during the reign of Amenhotep III
Mycenaean trade with the west: the coast of Italy
Mycenaean trade overview:
• in LH I-II not actively involved
(probably via Crete)
• in LH III, palaces benefited the
most and were probably in control
• intermediary role of emporia
(e.g. Ugarit, Miletos, etc.)
• diplomatic trade, role of warfare?
• in Late LH IIIB and LH IIIC,
system breaks down and places like
Macedonia, Cyrpus, and Syria-Palestine
are producing Mycenaean style pottery
Mycenaean trade overview:
• in LH I-II not actively involved
(probably via Crete)
• in LH III, palaces benefited the
most and were probably in control
• intermediary role of emporia
(e.g. Ugarit, Miletos, etc.)
• diplomatic trade, role of warfare?
• in Late LH IIIB and LH IIIC,
system breaks down and places like
Macedonia, Cyrpus, and Syria-Palestine
are producing Mycenaean style pottery
Bronze Age shipwrecks: Uluburun and Cape Gelidonya
Plan of the site (underwater) of the Cape Gelidonya shipwreck
Broken pottery from the
Gelidonya wreck is sorted
back in the work area
Scrap bronze tools from Cyrpus, intended to be melted down and reused
(Gelidonya)
Syrian cylinder seal with the name
of the merchant and the impression
(below)
(Gelidonya)
Copper oxhide ingots
from the shipwreck
at Cape Gelidonya
Scarabs and seals from the Cape Gelidonya shipwreck
These three scarabs and the scarab-shaped plaque (inscribed on both faces)
on the right from the wreck seem to have been manufactured on the
Syro- Palestinian coast rather than in Egypt.
SC1 showing the god Re beneath two sundisks,
the insignia of divinity, and holding a serpent,
the symbol of kingship.
SC4, with bottom divided into three vertical
columns, also shows meaningless hieroglyphic inscriptions
and probably dates to the Second Intermediate Period.
Bottom of SC3, the scarab-shaped plaque, showing
hieroglyphic inscriptions typical of the Hyksos
period but meaningless. Second Intermediate Peroid
Weights and measures from the Cape Gelidonya shipwreck
A domed weight and a sphendonoid weight.
Most of the stone weights were either domed or sphendonoid
(that is, shaped like an ancient sling bullet).
The weights strongly suggest that the merchant on the ship
hailed from the Near East, as merchants have always weighed items
in the standards with which they are most familiar.
Bronze Age
Shipwreck:
Point Iria
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