Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: International Trade and the Late Bronze Age Aegean

George Washington University ^ | 1994 | Eric H. Cline

[SunkenCiv]

The traditional circular sea route by which merchants are thought to have sailed around the ancient Mediterranean runs counter-clockwise: from the Greek Mainland to Crete, south to Egypt, up to Syro-Palestine and Cyprus, west to the Aegean via the southern coast of Anatolia, then to Rhodes and the Cycladic Islands, and ending up again at Crete and Mainland Greece. Longer routes incorporated the Central and Western Mediterranean as well. Merchants may, of course, have started in on this route at any point, for instance in Italy or Syro-Palestine rather than Crete.

Recent evidence has demonstrated that a clockwise route around the Mediterranean was also possible, arguments for currents and winds to the contrary notwithstanding. Such a route would involve sailing from Egypt, probably via the Libyan coast and watering holes such as Marsa Matruh, up to Crete and thence to Italy, or, via the island of Kythera, directly to Mainland Greece. Continuation might then have been via the Cycladic islands, Rhodes, the southern coast of Anatolia, Cyprus, Syro-Palestine and on back to Egypt. Again, merchants may have started their journeys at any point along this route.

It is likely that direct, rather than circular, routes also existed, such as short journeys between Crete and Egypt or the Greek Mainland and Western Anatolia. Long, fairly direct, routes may also have been in place, such as between Italy and Cyprus, although intermediary stops would have been necessary.

[SunkenCiv]

A few years back an ancient wreck was found on the abyssal plain of the Mediterranean. Naturally, there are bound to be others down there (as suggested by Willard Bascom and Robert Ballard), but most wrecks happened in shallow water. Coastal sailing in ancient times was dreamed up by modern landlubbers. ;')

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[SunkenCiv]

Still not at home, will ping the list tomorrow, as well as update each of you.

Robert Ballard
interviewed by Elizabeth Farnsworth
1997

Well, when the ships sink in the high seas, it’s very different than in shallow water. In shallow water they commonly run aground; they hit a reef or rocks, and they are severely damaged and torn open. And then they fall in shallow water and then for centuries and in some cases millenniums, storms continue to pound on them, and they get rather obliterated by time, and then they’re commonly discovered by divers who loot them, or fishermen that loot them.

In the deep sea it’s a very different situation. These ships really just simply founder. They took on too much water. And they sank intact, and they sank pretty slowly. They fall down at a few miles an hour and settle into the soft mud thousands of feet below. And a portion of the ship is actually buried in the bottom, and then wood bores will eat the upper part of the ship, but it leaves everything, particularly the cargoes, in their imaginary hull. So when we came across them, we actually saw the cargo stacked inside the forward and after hulls of these ancient ships.

Mindell has role in ancient shipwreck discovery
by Denise Brehm
MIT News Office
1997

The wrecks included five ships from ancient Roman times; one Islamic ship, probably medieval; and two sailing ships from the 18th or 19th century. The oldest wreck, about 120 feet long, had two cargo holds containing bronze vessels, at least eight types of amphorae for carrying foodstuffs, an array of kitchen and other household wares and two large lead anchors. The largest amphora was about five feet tall. In order to confirm the estimated dates.

[SunkenCiv]

See my review ("HolyOlio").

The Ancient Mariners by Lionel Casson

[SunkenCiv]

The pristine deepwater wreck:

Deep-Sea Clues to an Ancient Culture Discovered
by William J. Broad
October 12, 1998

http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/101298sci-shipwreck.html

[SunkenCiv]

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[Destro]

The need for rare tin during the bronze age made discoveries even of the Americas possibble by bronze age mariners - but when the iron age came about the dicoveries were lost as the need for tin was reduced.

Sort of like how we quest for oil now at remote parts of the earth but if we no longer needed fossil fuels we would lose over time our geoknowledge of deep sea oil fields if records were lost - and in the bronze age most records were orally remembered and passed down from captain to captain. In time they remained as only legends in the memory.

[SunkenCiv]

The need for rare tin during the bronze age made discoveries even of the Americas possibble by bronze age mariners - but when the iron age came about the dicoveries were lost as the need for tin was reduced.

Hey, I think you're onto something, although I think it was the other way around -- as deposits were mined out, or access otherwise lost (for example, due to the climate cycle, or the fall of Carthage, or rising prices/barter rates) to the mines, or, as the energy costs fell (due to changes in the type or supply of fuel), iron superceded bronze (over a long period).

Also, the introduction of coined currency altered the nature of markets.

[Destro]

Carthage fell during the iron age so her fall would not have been a factor. The theory is not mine by the way but a Scandanavian archeologist - the guy found that famous viking long boat and restored it-his name escapes me.

[SunkenCiv]

Carthage fell during the iron age so her fall would not have been a factor.

As I said, there was no abrupt end to the bronze age.

[Destro]

Actually there was - a major disruption as entities based on bronze age wealth crumbled.

[SunkenCiv]

There was no such major disruption. The use of iron depended both on supply of ore and the supply of some energy to process it, just as the supply of bronze depended on raw materials. These came and went on different timetables for different societies (the use of bronze in America appears to have arrived only about 1000 years ago). The 19th century idea of English-pasture-like neat little steps from stone to copper to bronze to iron is d-e-a-d.

George W. Bush will be reelected by a margin of at least ten per cent

[Destro]

I am talking about the collapse of the Bronze age civilizations.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1511/is_n3_v19/ai_20324744

Empires in the dust - collapse of Bronze Age cultures in 2,200 A.D

[SunkenCiv]

Just updating the GGG information, not sending a general distribution.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[SunkenCiv]

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe ·
	Gods Graves Glyphs	Just updating the GGG info, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
·Dogpile · Archaeologica · ArchaeoBlog · Archaeology · Biblical Archaeology Society · · Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists ·

[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from 8/28/2004. This is a re-ping, should be of interest given the recent ancient wreck stories, and also of interest to Eric Cline fans.

[Pharmboy]

Lionel Casson was head of the Classics Dept at NYU and he taught the intro course. I was lucky enough to have him as my prof when I took the course (back then, even as a bio major and pre-med, I had to take a full slate of liberal arts courses and graduate with a BA). He was an extraordinary teacher.

[bert]

Folks here like to rant about globalism and consider trade on an international scale to be globalist

This post indicates international trade has been a fact of life literally since the beginning.

It is worth mentioning that the process was insured. Marine cargo insurance has been a part of the various trade venture for many thousande years

[ThanhPhero]

The end of the Bronze Age was coincidental and surely causative of the collapse of several civilizations.

[ThanhPhero]

The ancient and extensive copper mining activity in the Great Lakes area is indicative of European/Middle Eastern activity as the copper trinkets that have been found at Indian sites are far too sparse to account for the thousands of tons of copper that was removed from those mines.

[SunkenCiv]

I wholeheartedly agree.