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