Craftsmen and Traders at Thera: A View from Crete

The archaeological evidence for technical systems and craft organization will be first considered: lead weights (a recent discovery of an MM II lead weight in Crete at Mallia provides new information on the development of the Minoan system of weights in the Aegean), the local production of stone vases at Thera, and the connections between workshops and sanctuaries. We go on to examine the questions of trade patterns and possible movements of craftsmen from Crete to Thera in the framework of the Minoan palatial organization.

INTRODUCTION

That Thera played a major role in Cycladic trade as well as in Aegean foreign relations has been convincingly demonstrated in many recent studies. C. Doumas has recently reviewed the evidence, direct or indirect, and argued that the Cycladic islanders were the main traders and merchants in the Aegean from the Middle Bronze Age (Doumas 1986). At the last Thera congress, F. Schachermeyr even concluded that Thera should have been the first sea-trading republic and the main international harbour in the Mediterranean (Schachermeyr 1978).

Recent studies on local pottery, stone and metal vases have shown at the same time the importance of the Minoan influence in many aspects of the specialized crafts, as well as the existence of a local industry, sometimes exporting its products.

Much less is known, however, concerning the identity and organization of the craftsmen themselves or the exact nature of the exchange systems. Therefore the aim of this paper will be to discuss briefly some pieces of evidence and some hypotheses bearing on the question of the relations between Crete and Thera as regards craftsmen and traders.

I.   EXCHANGE AND PRODUCTION: THE THERAN EVIDENCE

1.     The lead weights: Near Eastern or Minoan tradition?

As in Kea, many lead weights have been found at Akrotiri, much more than in Crete (Petruso 1978), which seems to confirm the greater part played by the Cycladic craftsmen and merchants in Aegean trade. Two points are still under discussion. First, the direct origin of the ponderal system. Buchholz has stressed the fact that some Near Eastern lead weights are older than those from Thera and concluded that they were diffused from the East and were a foreign invention (Buchholz 1980). Secondly, the nature of the systems of weight in use in the Aegean. It has been demonstrated that many of the Aegean weights were related to a unit of about 60 gr, considered as the Minoan unit; some weights, however, do not fit into that system and indicate the existence at the same time of other units, the origins of which remain controversial.

A new Minoan lead weight, as yet unpublished, has been discovered during the excavations of Quartier Mu at Mallia and could be of interest for the solution of these problems. It is a small lead disc, weighing 14.400 gr. It bears on one face two impressed crescents. If we admit that this symbol, as in other instances, indicates 'halfness', then this weight must be a quarter of the unit of 60 gr. Two weights from Akrotiri have almost exactly the same weight-value (Petruso 1978, 549, nos. 3 - 4). Most important is the date of the Mallia weight (before the end of MM II), which seems to be the earliest example known at present in the Aegean; it shows that the so-called Minoan unit of 60 gr was already in use during the Protopalatial period, as well as the system of marks which could be a Minoan invention. Thus we can conclude that the lead weights in use at Kea and Thera are a purely Aegean development.

At Mallia, however, some other stone weights from the same context, with different marks (circle; 'arrow' with three lines) do not seem to be scaled on the same system (Poursat 1984, 86), as noted for some weights from Akrotiri too. The conclusion cannot be that these systems are not Minoan, but simply that different systems were in use at the same time according to different kinds of trade or exchange, as suggested by Parise (1986).

2.    Specialized crafts: the stone vases:

A complete and detailed study of the Theran stone vases by P. Warren (1979) allows us to compare the Theran assemblage of stone vases with the Cretan discoveries. Warren rightly stresses the great number of stone vases at Thera ('The total easily exceeds any site in Crete save Knossos') and the importance of the Minoan tradition, stronger than in any other Cycladic site. In fact the technique is very similar to the Minoan one, using tubular drills and abrasives like emery; the large, unfinished, red marble jar found near the House of the Ladies has been compared with another large unfinished jar from the palace at Mallia (Warren 1978).

In fact, the very high number of stone vases at Thera, compared with Minoan sites, is certainly due to the unique degree of preservation of the buildings and cannot be considered as exceptional; the excavation at Mallia of some well-preserved buildings in Quartier Mu has yielded more than 400 stone vases and fragments. In this respect, Thera looks exactly like a Minoan site. There is, however, a difference which does not seem to be fortuitous: the Theran assemblage comprises many imports - Minoan (about 60), and Syro-Palestinian (if we accept the conclusions of P. Warren), but no Egyptian (only one, which could have been imported from Crete). In Crete, the only imports are some Theran dacite mortars, in particular at Mallia and Gournia, and some Egyptian vases at Knossos. Could this indicate that (direct?) contacts with Egypt were a kind of Minoan prerogative?

3.    Sanctuaries and workshops:

As in Crete, where many connections between workshops and sanctuaries have been recognized, it has been assumed that the same relationship existed in the main Cycladic towns. At Kea, room 7 in House A has been interpreted as a domestic sanctuary, with indications of a working area nearby and special offerings (ingot and crucible). Do we find the same organization at Thera? Although no complete workshops have so far been excavated at Akrotiri, some pieces of evidence could lead to the same conclusion. This point has been carefully studied by N. Marinatos (1984): the large, unfinished, stone bucket-jar was found in the House of the Ladies, and she postulates a lapidary's workshop nearby. In the West House, some evidence has been noted for the extraction of lead and silver. In Building Δ (Shrine of the Lilies), there is slight evidence (a bore core) that stone-vase manufacture took place there. Moreover, we could remark that the most precious objects, made either by local or by Minoan workshops and in that case imported, were concentrated, as in Crete, in rooms which can be interpreted as shrine storerooms or repositories.

The best example is room Δ 16, which has yielded stone vases, ostrich-egg rhyta, bronze vases, imported pottery, etc. As in Crete, the activity of specialized craftsmen (stone and metal vases, 'palatial' pottery) had to fulfil the needs of religious rituals, and the similarities of the assemblages in the palaces of Knossos or Zakros and at Akrotiri have been noted.

Thus, it could be said that the Theran craftsmen worked in the same general framework as the Minoan craftsmen, and probably in close relations with them. Could we go further and get a better definition of these relations? We must consider the problem of the nature of the relations between Thera and Crete.

II.      EXCHANGE OF GOODS, MOBILITY OF CRAFTSMEN

In most cases imports and exports have been securely recognized. Some dacite tripod mortars, considered at first as Syro-Palestinian imports in Crete, have been conclusively interpreted by P. Warren as Theran: they are part of the local production in volcanic stones (dacite, lava, tuff) and whole series of them have been fonud in Crete, chiefly at Mallia and Gournia. Minoan clay vases are also easily distinguishable from the local categories studied by M. Marthari (1987), and clay analyses have generally confirmed the stylistic distinctions. Problems however remain, concerning:

1. the possibility of movements of craftsmen, rather than imports of objects;
2. the exact nature of the exchange systems.

1.    Resident Minoan craftsmen at Thera?

The emigration of Minoan craftsmen to the Greek mainland or the Cyclades has often been assumed, but proof of this is difficult to obtain, except in some particular circumstances. In his study of the stone vessels from Akrotiri, P. Warren has mentioned the high probability that some of them were made by 'resident or visiting Minoan lapidaries' (Warren 1979, 103.) The argument is that bore cores of limestone/marble, which seems to be an imported stone, indicate a local manufacture in a Cretan material. Although Crete could have exported local stones (as we know from Egyptian texts), there is a strong probability that a Minoan lapidary came to Thera bringing with him tools and raw material. Moreover a very large pithos, 1.18 m in height, made in local lava and finely executed with hammer and punch, is an exact copy of a Minoan pithos, and could have been made by a Minoan craftsman (Warren 1979, 87).

If we accept these conclusions, we must ask some other questions: could some 'imported' stone vases have been locally made by Minoan craftsmen? What about some other precious objects, like metal vases? H. Matthäus, in his commentary on the bronze vases from Akrotiri (Matthäus 1980), considers the possibility of a Theran production, providing a link between Crete and the mainland.

How could these skilled and specialized craftsmen have come to Akrotiri? They were most probably dependants of the LM palatial administration, and, as we can infer from similar Near Eastern palatial organizations (Zaccagnini 1983), they could not have moved from Crete to Thera without an agreement of some kind between the administrations concerned; there must have been a precise purpose for their 'visit' (execution of prestige objects for high officials at Thera, or for the shrines?) and some sort of reciprocity (gift-exchange, or goods traded to Crete?). More evidence on the possible presence of Minoan craftsmen at Thera could provide us with significant information about the relationship between palatial Crete and Thera.

2.     Exchange patterns:

Different exchange systems must have been in use at the same time. The evidence of the Cretan stirrup jars found at Thera - more have been discovered there than in Crete itself - indicates, as stressed by Doumas, that the oil trade was in the hands of Theran merchants, who acted as intermediaries between Crete and other parts of the Aegean world: as stated above, there may have existed some kind of trading specialization, if not monopoly. But the imported clay, stone or metal vases, the ostrich-egg rhyta and other precious items found in shrine storerooms or repositories are quite obviously part of another kind of exchange, on the same level as the possible 'imports' of craftsmen mentioned above. Besides, one could hardly believe that the Theran tripod mortars were included in regular commercial relations: they may have been sent to Crete as part of specific exchanges; at Mallia, where three mortars have been found, two come from large LM I houses (Zb and Db), and one from the palace itself (magazines XII). Such attempts to define the exact patterns of exchange should lead us to a better understanding of Minoan control on Thera.

All the preceding remarks tend to confirm the existence of a 'special relationship' between Crete and Thera, as indicated in particular by stone or metal vases. They suggest also that the major role of Thera in the Aegean trade must be considered in the framework of Minoan palatial power. New evidence for the definition of trade patterns and the movements of craftsmen would certainly be very important for the study of the economic as well as the political relationships between Crete and Thera.

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