Bronze Age Trade in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East Thursday, 6th April. 15:00h - 20:30h Coordinators: Peter M. Fischer and Ianir Milevski 15:00 - 15:20 Introduction: Aims and Methods in the Research of the Trade in the Mediterranean and the Ancient Near East Peter M. Fischer and Ianir Milevski, coordinators 15:20 - 15:40 Prestige Objects in the Ancient Near East: Typology, Exchange, Value, 4th-2nd Millennia B.C. Michèle Casanova (University of Rennes 2 - CNRS, France) Abstract The circulation of the materials used to manufacture objects of prestige plays an essential role in the networks of medium and long distance trade in the societies of the Near East, from the 4th through the 2nd millennia B.C. We will concentrate on the large number of prestige objects found in the Royal Cemetery at Ur (stone vessels, seals, weapons, jewellery, etc.) made of materials imported into Mesopotamia, generally stone (calcite, lapis lazuli, steatite), but also metals. Objects/materials originally coming from Eastern Iran or Central and Southern Asia reached southern Mesopotamia via land routes crossing Iran or by the maritime route passing via the Persian Gulf and thus Bahrain. The diffusion of these products in Mesopotamia and the neighbouring regions raises the problem of identifying the details of their circulation, locating the original sources and the processing centres as well as their social functions and their value. Thus, stone vessels and lapis lazuli are among the most important and best documented elements in this exchange network, simultaneously imbued with economic, political and symbolic value. We will employ comparisons with the material from Susa, Shahr-i Sokhta, and Jiroft in Iran, as well as Altyn-depe (Turkmenistan), Bahrain, Ur (Iraq) and Mari (Syria). 15:40 - 16:00 Some Thoughts on Early Bronze Age Relations between Syria and Anatolia Diederik J.W. Meijer (Leiden University, Netherlands) Abstract It is often said that complexity in a social group may be the result of increasing contacts with other groups, and one of the more frequent kinds of contact is “trade”. It is also said that an important impetus toward complexity emanated from Syria-Mesopotamia and influenced “peripheral” regions like Anatolia. This is an antiquated notion that needs amending. Autochthonous developments in Anatolia provided a firm basis on which influences from abroad are certainly visible but cannot be said to have been indispensable. The present paper treats a few principles of trade. It deals with the treatment of trade by archaeologists, and it will illustrate its points with examples from the Early, Middle and Late Bronze Ages, trying not to fall into its own trap. 16:00 - 16:20 Local Exchange in the Southern Levant during the Early Bronze Age. Methods and Practice Ianir Milevski (Israel Antiquities Authority) Abstract The trade and relations between the Southern Levant and other regions of the Near East (mainly Egypt) during the Early Bronze Age (ca. 3,500-2,200 B.C.) were the subjects of many recent studies. Research concerning the exchange of local commodities was almost disregarded or was discussed in parochial studies, focusing on specific archaeological finds. It is the intention of this lecture to present the results of a recent research that examined the exchange of commodities provided by the archaeological data from the excavations in the Southern Levant with regard to the economic theories on exchange-values of goods and exchange networks. Conclusions regarding the type of society and the forms of government in the Southern Levant during the Early Bronze Age are also presented, on the basis of the results of this research. 16:20 - 16:40 Tell Abu al-Kharaz, Jordan Valley: Evidence of Trade in the Early Bronze Age Peter M. Fischer (Gothenburg University, Sweden / SCIEM2000 Austrian Academy and Science Fund) Abstract The Early Bronze Age settlement of Tell Abu al-Kharaz in the Central Jordan Valley flourished during a limited period which, in relative terms, corresponds to the conventional Early Bronze Age IB and (part of) II of the Southern Levant, or between approximately 3,200 to 2,900 B.C. according to a set of 16 high-precision radiocarbon dates. The site was then abandoned and not re-occupied before the later part of the Middle Bronze Age, or approximately the Seventeenth Century B.C. The backbone of the Early Bronze Age economy of Tell Abu al-Kharaz was farming and cattle breeding which allowed the exchange of coveted goods such as copper and other raw materials. There is evidence of Egyptian pottery and vessels from Syria / Lebanon. Some theories about the rise and fall of the Early Bronze Age societies of Tell Abu al-Kharaz will be presented. 16:40 - 17:00 Shell Artefacts in the Bronze Age of the Levant: Their Contribution to the Reconstruction of Trade and Exchange Daniella E. Bar-Yosef Mayer (University of Haifa, Israel) Abstract During the Bronze Age of the Levant shells were often made into artefacts. Some are simple beads (perforated bivalves and gastropods) but others are more distinct artefacts. Many Early Bronze Age I sites contain bangles made of the large Red Sea gastropods, Lambis truncata. Chambardia rubens from the Nile is found as a serrated artefact. Both testify to contacts with Egypt. Several Early Bronze Age II sites contain Conus apex beads that are almost always found in burial contexts. At the height of the urbanization period of Early Bronze Age III, Cerastoderma valves were perforated, and apparently used as “counters” associated with olive oil production. The intermediate Bronze Age sees again exploitation of Lambis, this time to be made into inlays associated with wooden furniture, testifying to contacts ranging from the Negev to Mesopotamia. A lacuna exists in our knowledge of shell exploitation during the Middle Bronze Age, but during the Late Bronze Age a new type of square Conus beads emerges with a broad geographic distribution. At the same time Glycymeris valves from the Mediterranean are used as construction material. These artefacts usually represent a well-defined cultural stage and provide information on local traditions (burial customs, decoration, economic practices and construction) as well as short and long-range trade and exchange systems. 17:00 - 17:30 Coffee break 17:30 - 17:50 Bronze Age Trade and Writing System of Meluhha (Mleccha) Evidenced by Tin Ingots from the Vicinity of Haifa Srinivasan Kalyanaraman (Sarasvati Research Centre, India) Abstract The discovery of two pure tin ingots in a ship-wreck near Haifa has produced two “Rosetta” stones to decode the “Indus script”. The epigraphs on the tin ingots have been deciphered as related to ranku “antelope”, “liquid measure”; read rebus: ranku 'tin'. As J.D. Muhly noted, the emergence of Bronze Age trade and writing system may be two related initiatives which started approximately in the Third Millennium B.C. It is surmised that the maritime-trade links between Ugarit and Meluhha might have extended from Crete to Haifa. Linking archaeology and philology is a challenging task. What language could the writings on Haifa tin ingots be? The breakthrough invention of alloying may have orthographic parallels of ligatured signs and ligatured pictorial motifs (such as a bovine body with multiple animal heads, combination of animal heads, combination of lathe and furnace on a standard device, ligaturing on a heifer, damr.a -- unicorn -- with one curved horn, pannier, kammarsala). A ligature of a tiger's face to the upper body of a woman is also presented in the round. The hieroglyphic code has been deciphered as words of Mleccha. Mleccha (Meluhha) was the language in which Yudhishthira and Vidura converse in the Mahabharata about the non-metallic killer devices of a fortification that was made of shellac. There is a depiction of a Meluhha trader accompanied by a woman carrying a kamandalu. There are, however, substratum words in Sumerian such as tibira “merchant” and sanga “priest” which are cognate with tam(b)ra “copper” (Santali) and sanghvi “priest” (Gujarati). 17:50 - 18:10 Two Pharaonic Trading Outposts in the Egyptian Western Desert John Coleman Darnell (Yale University, USA) Abstract Following the collapse of the Middle Kingdom and Hyksos takeover of the Delta, the Egyptian Seventeenth Dynasty, ruling from Thebes, was mostly severed from direct Nilotic trade with the Mediterranean world. Consequently, the Seventeenth Dynasty has been characterized as an isolated enclave dependent on the Hyksos as middlemen in Mediterranean trade. The Theban Desert Road Survey in the Egyptian Western Desert has discovered exciting new evidence which contradicts this view. At a site midway between the Nile Valley and Kharga Oasis and another site within Kharga Oasis itself, the Theban Seventeenth Dynasty established military and trading outposts. The ceramic material includes a number of foreign imports, including Canaanite amphorae, suggesting that the Thebans used routes in the eastern Sahara to pursue extensive trade with the Mediterranean world, thereby bypassing the Hyksos. The strong connections with the Mediterranean littoral suggested by these archaeological discoveries are reinforced by textual evidence and royal epithets of the Seventeenth Dynasty. Far from a weak, parochial state, the Seventeenth Dynasty drew economic strength from its powerful desert network. 18:10 - 18:30 The Mediterranean Stone Anchors and their Value for the Understanding Late Bronze Age Trade Systems: A Proposal for a Discussion David A. Warburton (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) Abstract The value of the stone anchors of the Second Millennium Mediterranean for the understanding of Bronze Age trade has not been entirely exhausted. These anchors have been found from the Gulf to the English Channel and have been assigned to specific identities, including Cypriot and Egyptian. Some have been found in wrecks and some were incorporated into “religious” contexts without ever having been used. This presentation will begin by simply trying to sketch a map of their distribution in the Mediterranean and beyond as a means of delimiting the general geographical scope of the trade system. The next subject would be a quick review of the typology leading into the specific findspots of the known anchors. The questions of their social identity and practical purpose have been frequently discussed, yet there is still no agreement about the most suitable way of integrating them into analytical models. This will allow an opening for the discussion of identity and usage where the author really would like to pose questions about the opinions of the workshop participants concerning their symbolic roles in antiquity and their analytical value for us. 18:30 - 18:50 The Trade in Black Lustrous Wheel Made Juglets from Cyprus, the Coast of Lebanon and the Land of Israel Eli Yannai (Israel Antiquities Authority) Abstract Black Lustrous juglets were first found in the excavations at Tell el-cAjjul on the Gaza coast and in Egypt. Since they were first studied they have been considered foreign to the ceramic repertoire of the Land of Israel and many scholars believe they have their origins on the Syrian coast. Petrographic analysis has demonstrated that most of the juglets originated in Cyprus. Other studies have shown that the early juglets from this group were made in Cyprus during the Middle Cypriot period and that these juglets were also produced during the Late Bronze Age in Israel and on the coast of Lebanon. The trade in imported juglets and the production of similar juglets raises several questions: What was the reason for trading these juglets? What was the motivation behind the production of similar juglets on the coast of the Land of Israel and Lebanon? What were the dynamics and how did the Cypriot potters know to select the juglets that were traded with the Land of Israel? What was the reason that the population in the Land of Israel preferred Black Lustrous juglets? What are the similarity and relationship between preferring Black Lustrous juglets and the Base-ring juglets from Cyprus? 18:50 - 19:10 Break 19:10 - 19:30 Warehouses and the Economic System of Ugarit Caroline Sauvage (Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée, France) Abstract Maritime relations among cities and states in the Eastern Mediterranean increased significantly during the Second Millennium B.C. and peaked during the Late Bronze Age. At that time, the region experienced general prosperity thanks to international political harmony among all Near-Eastern lands, including Cyprus and Egypt. The city of Ugarit became an important maritime trade centre because of the auspicious location of its harbour, Minet el-Beida. During the Late Bronze Age, the Kingdom prospered and was a leader of international exchange. After 75 years of excavations at Ugarit, the physical and cultural city is better understood, however, the nature of its economic system is still unclear. Archaeological research and textual evidence have revealed the existence of many trade agreements. This paper re-examines trade-related finds in Minet el-Beida and on the tell itself, and compares them with trade clauses from textual sources. Cross-referencing archaeological data on international trade allows a better understanding of mechanisms of the city’s economic system. 19:30 - 19:50 Trade in Mercenaries at the End of the Bronze Age Colleen Manassa (Yale University, USA) Abstract Among the countless goods that were traded among the Mediterranean civilizations towards the end of the Bronze Age, one stands out because of its role in the catastrophe of the Twelfth Century B.C. As early as the Battle of Kadesh, the Hittite king employed the fierce Sea Peoples as mercenaries against the army of Ramesses II. During the fifth year of the reign of Merneptah, ca. 1,208 B.C., the Libyans similarly employed Sea Peoples in a multipronged attack against Egypt. Historical texts from the reign of Merneptah combined with archaeological evidence at Bates’ Island and rock inscriptions from Libya all provide information about the economic conditions and participation in trade throughout the Mediterranean that enabled the Libyans to mount such a daring attack. Trade in mercenary forces, particularly heavily armoured infantry troops, at the end of the Bronze Age enabled the Sea Peoples and similar groups to learn the strategy necessary to overcome the chariot forces of the great Mediterranean powers and help usher in the end of the Bronze Age. 19:50 - 20:30 General Discussion, Conclusions and Perspectives