Some Observations Concerning Thera's Contacts Overseas During the Bronze Age

SHIPS AND ANCHORS

The island of Thera depended on traffic by ship. Besides warships, the vessels depicted on Theran wall paintings were strong enough for long voyages. They are the most perfect sea craft so far known from the Aegean Bronze Age. Several papers were read at the Second International Congress which dealt with ships ⁽¹⁾, therefore I need not stress this point ⁽²⁾, but I shall mention the stone anchors found at Akrotiri (fig. 1) ⁽³⁾. There were ships of different types allover the Eastern Mediterranean during the Bronze Age, but the stone anchors of the second millennium B.C. were similar everywhere. They make clear international connections in the seamanship of that time. Stone anchors like the Theran ones have been called the "potsherds of marine archaeology" ⁽⁴⁾, and their findspots indicate the main sea-routes of the Mediterranean.

Since not so many stone anchors have been found until now off the shores of Crete, and since concentrations of them have been observed in the Eastern Mediterranean - Cyprus, Ras Shamra, Byblos, off the Phoenician-Palestine coasts ⁽⁵⁾ - the evidence from Thera is clearly connected with that part of the Mediterranean.

More than that, the harbour of Thera must be considered as one of the main Aegean anchorages. Stone anchors, already mentioned, have been reported recently from the coast of Southern Bulgaria. The prolongation of Aegean sea-routes to the Black Sea during the Bronze Age cannot be doubted, therefore, any more. A Cretan copper ingot with two signs of the Minoan script has been found at Cherkovo, Bulgaria, not far away from the sea. It dates the opening of the trade routes in question not later than the middle of the second millennium B.C ⁽⁶⁾. This period marks the culmination of Theran seafaring before the great disaster, antedated by pottery evidence of Minoan or even Theran presence in Poliochni on Lemnos in the Northern Aegean⁽⁷⁾ . 

The conditions for sea-traffic depended on winds, and these must have been taken into account by sailors from and to Thera as well as everywhere else in the Aegean: what has changed since antiquity are the ships, not the currents in the Eastern Mediterranean, which are eastbound near the Libyan-Egyptian coast, northbound between Syria and Cyprus, westbound between Rhodes and Karpathos. There are also the constant winds to be taken into account, blowing mainly in a southeastern direction from the Aegean to the Eastern Mediterranean, and there are regular offshore breezes along the Syrian, southern Cypriote, and southern Anatolian coasts ⁽⁸⁾.

POTTERY

P. Åström has shown that there are three Tell-el-Yahudiyeh juglets in the Nomikos Collection at Thera, indicating contacts with the Near East during the Middle Bronze Age ⁽⁹⁾. This ware has been found in the Delta region of Egypt, from where it took its name, and on Cyprus as well, but it originated in Syria-Palestine ⁽¹⁰⁾.

A mended, incomplete bowl of Cypriote White Slip I ⁽¹¹⁾ was found in 1870 by H. Mamet and H. Gorceix on Thera, but it is not sure where it comes from exactly, either from Akrotiri ⁽¹²⁾or from the Balos Bay ⁽¹³⁾. This rare evidence for imports from Cyprus during the Late Cypriote I phase corresponds with similar rare finds of that date and provenance at Knossos, Phylakopi, Trianda and Ialysos on Rhodes ⁽¹⁴⁾, in Late Cypriote II, followed by some more White Slip II ware and Basering II ware examples from Rhodes again, and further, from Kommos, Katsamba, Khania-Kastelli, Aigina, Keos, Troy and Masat ⁽¹⁵⁾.

A typical kind of matt-painted technique, the polychrome vase painting style in Thera, which gives contours and borders of motives in dark colours, can hardly be explained as a development from local prototypes. It is thought that it depends on the polychrome wares of Syria-Palestine and Cyprus ⁽¹⁶⁾.

Of the greatest importance as evidence for foreign trade is the occurrence of a 'Canaanite jar' in Akrotiri Delta 9, 1, in a house with exotic features among its furnishings ⁽¹⁷⁾. There are more such Near Eastern pithoi from Greek sites - from Athens, Menidi, Mycenae, Argos, Asine, Tsaritsane and Pylos ⁽¹⁸⁾ - but the one from Thera is by far the earliest typologically of the series ⁽¹⁹⁾; this is indicated by the oval body, narrow round base, and placing of the handles in its vertical centre. Parallels to the Theran jar, have also been found in Egypt. They can be dated to the reign of Thutmosis II and Queen Hatshepsut (1520 - 1457 B.C.) ⁽²⁰⁾.

TRIPOD STONE MORTARS

When I once discussed tripod-mortars of trachyte from Aegean countries, items of this kind from Thera were unknown ⁽²¹⁾. But meanwhile the late excavator, Sp. Marinatos, has published some of them (fig. 2 a.c) ⁽²²⁾. They are most probably Syro-Palestinian imports. Even the spouted variety without legs was found in Akrotiri (fig. 3 a.b) ⁽²³⁾, like the ones with and without feet in later contexts from the 'House of the Sphinxes' in Mycenae and from the Cape Gelidonya shipwreck ⁽²⁴⁾. Again, all these types demonstrate connections between the Aegean and the Near East, Thera and Cyprus included. But, only on Thera alone has there been found a stone tripod, following foreign models, but bearing spiral decorations in relief (fig. 2 b.d) ⁽²⁵⁾. Some of them may have been used for grinding pigments; if so, this points to the Near East from where mortars are known with paint still preserved in them. For the problem of imported pigments used on Thera see later on.

IYORY

There are no tusks from Thera like those from the Zakro palace and Mycenae, and few ivory objects have so far been published from Akrotiri. Sp. Marinatos believed that the population of the Bronze Age settlement managed to escape the disaster and to evacuate all their treasures. One little rosette of ivory ⁽²⁶⁾ could be understood as imported, or as a local product made from raw material which came from abroad. The lack of evidence from archaeological excavations does not automatically mean lack of trade with ivory from the Near East to Thera during the Bronze Age.

Sometimes positive as well as negative evidence may puzzle archaeologists. So, for the first time in 1978, just a single bone of a lion was excavated in Tiryns. What does it mean? The existence of lions in Greece during the Bronze Age? The importation of living beasts? Or the importation of a single bone, let us say, as a trophy or an apotropaeum?

OSTRICH EGGS

Sp. Marinatos published two rhyta made of ostrich eggs with fayence additions, i.e. neck and bottom, found in Room Delta 16 during his excavations at Akrotiri. This store-room belonged to the 'Polythyron Quarters' (Delta 1 - 16), where many precious things were deposited ⁽²⁷⁾. The two rhyta are of different sizes. Such eggs, used as vases, have been found in Crete, and again in the shaft-graves at Mycenae  ⁽²⁸⁾ and in one of the tombs at Dendra  ⁽²⁹⁾. They have also been imitated in clay ⁽³⁰⁾. The original ones were of Eastern origin, without exception. They were used for the same purpose already in Prehistoric Egypt and during the Middle Kingdom at Abydos ⁽³¹⁾, and later on in the Late Cypriot II tombs at Enkomi, Sinda, Hala Sultan Tekke, Kition and Hagia Irini ⁽³²⁾. There are three ostrich eggs at Toumba tou Skourou near Morphou; one of the specimens was painted with a purple linear pattern and given as a funeral gift ⁽³³⁾.

Ostrich eggs clearly indicate contacts with Syria and Egypt via Cyprus. In the Aegean they indicate contacts with Cyprus, Syria and Egypt. Not only did Egypt have ostriches, but there were ostriches during Antiquity in the deserts of Syria, Jordania and Palestine as well ⁽³⁴⁾.

LEAD DISK WEIGHTS

Lead is of interest for two reasons: first, because of its abundance, while bronze and precious metals are rare, and almost completely lacking among the finds from the Akrotiri excavations. This means that valuable materials were evacuated and that materials which were considered to be less valuable, like lead, were left on the spot. Secondly, lead, which must have been imported, links the island's economy with one or more sources abroad. This is true for the metal itself, although the sources may have been nearby, for instance in Attica or on one of the Cycladic islands ⁽³⁵⁾, but the system of lead disc weights was without any doubt an Eastern invention, as I have already shown by collecting the evidence for their distribution and dating ⁽³⁶⁾.

It is true, there is no reason not to call the Theran ones Aegean - allowing that they adopted a foreign weight system - since there are complete sets of lead discs (fig. 4 a.b) ⁽³⁷⁾, some of them bearing triangular and other signs (fig. 4 c) ⁽³⁸⁾ which could be compared with signs of measurement in the linear writing systems of Greece, for instance on the famous stirrup jar from Orchomenos ⁽³⁹⁾. But what about the origin of the mode of using lead discs for commercial purposes?

X.F. Parise thought that weight units were developed in the Aegean, and were then transmitted to the Near East at the end of the Bronze Age. The evidence for this he finds in the ship from Cape Gelidonya ⁽⁴⁰⁾, but the direction may have been just the other way around: there are many lead disc-weights from Ras Shamra ⁽⁴¹⁾, Enkomi, Idalion, Phlamoudi, Hala Sultan Tekke ⁽⁴²⁾ and Boğazköy ⁽⁴³⁾ and some of them are much older than those found in the shipwreck at Cape Gelidonya ⁽⁴⁴⁾, and even older than those from Thera.

Quite heavy weights of bronze were equipped with handles in Akrotiri on Thera as well as in Enkomi, Cyprus. This again was a technical improvement linking the Aegean island of Santorini with the East ⁽⁴⁵⁾.

From there commercial methods were diffused, of which the systems of weight under discussion were one part. Only lead allowed the exact weight of metal pieces used on balances to be fixed accurately and easily. For that reason, the metal was considered as the property of divinities. Ishtar was sometimes called "Mistress of Lead" ⁽⁴⁶⁾, and the Hittites used lead weights in their religious cult; there is a text from Boğazköy that mentions the following: "... the priest takes the balance and comes near the king. He gives lead (weights) to the king... and the king puts the lead on the balance. The priest lifts the balance up to the sungod... " ⁽⁴⁷⁾. Nothing comparable is known from Aegean sources ⁽⁴⁸⁾, but the famous crater of Mycenaean manufacture from Enkomi in the Cyprus Museum with a male figure, sometimes called 'Zeus', holding a balance seems to demonstrate a similar idea ⁽⁴⁹⁾. P. Dikaios has reinvestigated the motives on the crater from Enkomi and shown that the balance contains not disc-like weights but small versions of 'oxhide ingots' ('talanta'), another strong connection between Cyprus and the Aegean ⁽⁵⁰⁾. Evidence for copper-smelting in Akrotiri corresponds with Cypriote smelting installations ⁽⁵¹⁾.

K.M. Petruso has offered a paper to this Congress concerning the "Lead Weights from Akrotiri, Preliminary Observations" (Thera I, 547ff.). This is extremely useful, since it makes many more details available than published by Sp. Marinatos. That the lead discs were a foreign invention is not taken into account, but that well-preserved weights from this site do not fit into the Minoan system is one of the results of his study ⁽⁵²⁾.

WOOD

Until now, no investigation has been made of the wood used in Thera, Akrotiri. But many structural details of the living quarters, like staircases, doors, windows and the framework and subdivisions of the facades, were made of wood, as is shown in the frescoes and seen at the excavated site. Horizontal beams were used to strenghten the walls, and they remind me of similar structures at Ugarit (Ras Shamra, Northern Syria). A combined technique of wood and stone was very typical for the Akrotiri houses as well as for many houses of the 'Aegean Quarter' at Ugarit. Anyhow, enormous amounts of wood of different kinds were needed for building activities, furniture, working utensils, industrial purposes and above all for ship building, for the fleets of that small but crowded island. This meant without doubt the importation of wood, since Thera was not big enough to bear a thick concentration of urbanism, agricultural areas and forests of much importance, even before the great eruption, when the island was bigger than now. The wood which was needed came from where? From Crete, Anatolia, Cyprus or Syria?

EXOTICA ON THE WALLPAINTINGS; PIGMENTS

Papyrus plants could have been just an iconographic motive borrowed from abroad by the Aegean, and this means: by artists working on Thera and elsewhere. This was questioned by P. Warren recently ⁽⁵³⁾, while N. Lewis has stated "the papyrus plant does not and did not grow in the Aegean area" ⁽⁵⁴⁾. The 'Fresco of the Papyri' in the 'Room of the Ladies' at Akrotiri is "not just a representation of papyrus, but easily the finest and most naturalistic instance in the whole of Aegean art" ⁽⁵⁵⁾. In any case this motive in art shows external influence.

Other exotic items like palmtrees, blue apes (Cercopithecus callitricus) ⁽⁵⁶⁾, apes adoring in a religious context, antelopes - some kind of Oryx beissa with the horns of the Gazella granti or Gazella thompsoni  ⁽⁵⁷⁾- and people called by Sp. Marinatos 'Africans' ⁽⁵⁸⁾, are evidence of Theran knowledge of countries overseas. I mention in this respect Professor Marinatos' Libyan theory ⁽⁵⁹⁾. Concerning the plants depicted on the 'Libya fresco' O. Negbi has pointed to the fact that they "are extant and found in aquatic habitats of the Mediterranean arid and semi-arid zones"; in other words, they are typical for more than only one area ⁽⁶⁰⁾.

It is of great importance that the wall-paintings could not have been executed without pigments from abroad: one of the red colours contains Jarosite, which is well known from Cypriote mining areas. This pigment was used on that island in antiquity ⁽⁶¹⁾. I found Jarosite in my excavation at Tamassos ⁽⁶²⁾. Cyprus seems to have been in trading contact with Thera, as is also shown by pottery finds on that island ⁽⁶³⁾.

Egyptian Blue - a Copper-Calcium-Silicate - was a pigment artificially developed and produced in Egypt. It was imported from that country to Thera and Crete as well. It must have been, therefore, rare and expensive. This may have been the reason for using another blue pigment, a Glaucophane ('Hornblende'), which was available in quantities from nearby, being but a poor equivalent for imported pigments.

For instance, W. Noll analysed Glaucophane from Syros, which corresponds to that used in Theran wall-paintings ⁽⁶⁴⁾. In some cases Glaucophane and Egyptian Blue were mixed for use in Theran frescoes, as S.E. Philippakis in his paper has pointed out ⁽⁶⁵⁾; this again explains how much the local craftsmen depended on external sources.

SUMMARY

There is nothing known from the Eastern Mediterranean that could be called 'Theran' ⁽⁶⁶⁾. But there are objects from that part of the ancient world found on Thera.

They indicate connections which are named 'trade': some foreign pots, many tripod stone mortars useful for grinding pigments, some very rare foreign pigments, two ostrich eggs, perhaps a few more examples of ivory than the one rosette published.

These objects came to Akrotiri either as raw materials (pigments and ivory) or as final products. The 'Canaanite jar' contained either oil or wine from a Levantine trading source.

Anchors and lead weights may be locally made, as far as we know, but they show that Theran trading and seagoing were closely connected internationally with the highy developed Eastern Mediterranean during the middle of the second millennium B.C.

Some of the objects help us to check the chronology developed by archaeologists: the 'Canaanite jar' from Akrotiri is dateable to the last decades of the 16th Century or the first quarter of the 15th Century B.C.

The finds under consideration do not indicate other aspects than those of Cretan contacts with the Near East. Since Egyptian products and materials may have found their way to Thera - and to Crete as well - on Levantine trading routes ⁽⁶⁷⁾, most of what has been discussed in this paper is in favour of Syria and Cyprus. What is known about the pottery of Akrotiri, lead disc weights, certain pigments, and above all, wood excludes an Egyptian source, since Egypt herself was extremely short of wood ⁽⁶⁸⁾. The countries previously mentioned seem to have been the main trading partners of both Aegean islands, Crete and Thera, in the 16th - 15th centuries B.C. The wall-paintings in Akrotiri show a rich local nobility, Mycenaean soldiers, signs of a well functioning thalassocracy, but no Semitic elements ⁽⁶⁹⁾. There is no strong evidence in favour of North African trading contacts among the Theran finds ⁽⁷⁰⁾. Thera could not have become wealthy from its own resources, but only as a trading centre. This must be taken into consideration when the question is raised whether the island was 'Atlantis' or not ⁽⁷¹⁾.

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