MINOANS trade | Trade and the Bronze Age Collapse | Dr. Louise Hitchcock | (2024 update) Minoan Ingots Are Evidence
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| Lead ingots with what archaeologists say are Cypro-Minoan markings were just discovered off the coast of Cesarea in Israel. They show that there was trade between Sardinia and Cyprus in Minoan times. Credit: Ehud Galili/University of Haifa Institute of Maritime Studies |
SPECTACULAR UPDATE
Scans
of the Sardinian lead ingots showing Cypro-Minoan markings. Credit: Avshalom
Karasik/Israel Antiquities Authority
Bronze Age Minoan Ingots Are Evidence of Ancient Trade Links
greekreporter.com
/2024/12/28/bronze-age-minoan-ingots-cyprus/
By Patricia Claus| December 28, 2024
Bronze Age Minoan ingots with unique markings that were recently discovered off the Israeli coast show vast trading links between Cyprus and Sardinia, archaeologists say.
Dating back to the late Bronze age, approximately the 13th to the early 12th century BC, the ingots, with lead that had been mined in Sardinia, 2,500 km (1,550 miles) away from Cyprus, show that trade was already robust in those times.
The entire Mediterranean Sea basin was characterized by complex supra-regional relations and diplomacy, with trade that flourished between the great sea-going civilizations of the Minoans and the Phoenicians among many others.
The ingots were found as part of the cargo in a ship that had been wrecked off Caesarea, the ancient Mediterranean city that figured in so much ancient history, and one that was mentioned in the Bible multiple times.
Haaretz reports that they have markings that consist of only one syllable — but that is enough to be identified as Cypro-Minoan script, according to Yasur-Landau, who adds that such marked Cypriot ingots have previously been found off the Israeli shore, and even at the foot of the Carmel mountain range, north of Caesarea.
The ingots, found along with anchors, reveal previously unknown trading links among very distant cultures, shedding light on commercial ventures in the area as far back as 3,200 years ago, as reported by the Israel National News and the Archaeology News Network.
The archaeologists believe that Cypriots clearly imported vast amounts of lead, while the Sardinians were known to use Cypriot copper.
It is unknown if Cypriots imported the raw ore or metal that had already been smelted; either way, the lead would be processed once more in Cyprus and marked, or “rebranded,” as Yasur-Landau says, adding that the distinctive marks were in any case made in molten lead.
Naama Yahalom-Mack, from Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Institute of Archaeology, collaborated with Professor Yigal Erel at the University’s Institute of Earth Sciences to pin down the source of the four lead ingots.
By comparing their findings to other artifacts found in and around the Mediterranean, they determined that the source of the lead was from the central Mediterranean island of Sardinia, which is west of Italy.
In an amazing discovery that links the two islands, the researchers found that the four ingots are incised with Cypro-Minoan markings which, although they remain undeciphered, are known to have been used on Cyprus during the Late Bronze Age.
The archaeologists say that these two facts are evidence of wide-ranging commercial ties between the two cultures in which raw materials were routinely transported through the Mediterranean.
Yahalom-Mack states that this is also conclusive evidence that Cyprus played such an active role in trade that its merchants were willing to travel to, or had established multiple trading links with, Sardinia, which is located more than 2,500 km (1,550 miles) away. Cyprus imported the lead to be used in the creation of luxury goods in the late Bronze Age.
Another important finding made by the researchers was that tin, a necessary ingredient in bronze itself, was likely also another trade good that was imported by Cypriot merchants.
“We think that along with lead, they also imported tin — a sought-after metal in Cyprus and the surrounding area for making bronze. These three metals — copper, lead, and tin — were sold to port cities along the coastlines, including the shores of today’s Israel,” Yahalom-Mack noted.
The spectacular findings, which were published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, came about as a result of Yahalom-Mack’s collaboration with Professor Assaf Yasur-Landau and Dr. Ehud Galili at the University of Haifa’s Institute for Maritime Studies.
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Minoans’ Sophisticated Diet Included Imported Spices From Asia
10/4/2023
The Minoans were a remarkable people with a civilization far advanced for its time in many ways with artwork and palaces replete with riches beyond description; now, we know that their diet was as rich and varied as their physical culture, much of which survives to this day.
Evgenia Tsafou of the Aegean Interdisciplinary Studies Group of UC Louvain and Juan José García-Granero of Oxford and of the Human Ecology and Archaeology Research Group of Barcelona have recently published a paper on this fascinating subject.
Appearing in the Journal of Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, the study builds on previous investigations into the diet of the Minoans by analyzing grains found in vessels at two Minoan sites on Crete, Sissi, and Malia.
The cooking and storage pots in question were from the Minoans’ “neopalatial,” “final palatial” and “post-palatial” periods, representing the time from 1700 to 1100 BC.
There is much that had been unknown until recently about the Minoans and their Greek-mainland counterparts, the Mycenaeans, including their very origins. A paper published in the journal Nature in 2017 put much of these uncertainties to rest, showing that, in fact, their ancestors had been people from Neolithic western Anatolia and Greece, and modern Greeks are indeed descended from them.
The Minoan civilization, including Mycenaeans who lived on the Greek mainland, were the first literate societies of Europe. They are considered to be cultural ancestors of later Classical Greece.
Scholars now believe that the cataclysmic eruption of the volcano of Thera (the modern-day Greek island of Santorini) destroyed much of Minoan civilization and hastened its downfall.
The scientists’ new findings shed light on just how advanced the Minoans were in every aspect of life when their civilization was at its peak. This is also obvious in their use of imported spices that had originated from Western Asia and “tiger nuts,” which are roots cultivated in Egypt and elsewhere in Africa.
Tsafou and García-Granero found traces of these nuts—actually considered to be tubers and also known as nutsedge (Cyperus esculentus). The Minoans used them in making a nut bread.
These nuts were apparently cultivated as a staple in ancient Egypt and are still eaten raw or cooked even today throughout parts of Africa and the Mediterranean region.
The remains were from the towns of Sissi and Malia, which were both continuously occupied from about 2,600 to 1,200 BC, and both also had some palatial buildings along with those occupied by ordinary people. Scientists state that the food samples collected show a full representation of the material culture of Minoan society at that time.
Naturally, the archaeologists also found traces of basic cereals, such as wheat and barley, which were widely cultivated then, as well.
Minoans ate locally-produced crops, such as acorns, almond, elderberry, fig, grape, Mediterranean hackberry, olive, pear, pomegranate and terebinth, according to Tsafou.
Of course, the starch analysis undertaken by Tsafou doesn’t include evidence of meats that Minoans are already known to have consumed, such as sheep, goats, and some pork. In addition, she says, they would have hunted wild animals.
Minoan Linear B tablets have occasional references to herbs and condiments, but the only macro-botanical evidence of these until very recently has been exactly two coriander seeds, according to a report from Haaretz. However, Tsafou and García-Granero’s new analysis also detected cumin in the Minoans’ pots.
There has been little archaeological evidence found for using cumin in the prehistoric Aegean, but records do reference its use there for cooking during the Bronze Age. In addition, its oil was utilized in various traditional treatments that are purportedly medicinal in nature.
Tsafou and her colleagues found just a dash of cumin in the Minoan pots in the two towns. Finding these traces of the exotic spice—grown in what are now India and Iran—came as a surprise because its presence had not previously been documented in any previous archaeobotanical materials from the Minoan civilization.
If there had in fact been any of the spice detected before, the archaeologist says they would have been found as burned seeds.
The archaeological preservation of cumin seeds is difficult because the seeds are so tiny, but the recent study detected their presence. Furthermore, Tsafou and her colleagues determined that the precious spice, which must have been exceedingly expensive, had been used in recipes.
The cumin used by Minoans may have been imported from the Eastern Mediterranean from Mycenae, on the Greek mainland, although it may have been directly imported to Crete itself. Archaeological records of human history have repeatedly proven that long-distance trading preceded recorded history, so the use spices from faraway lands is absolutely not beyond the pale with the Minoans.
Cumin, according to a scholarly paper published by Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, was likely brought to the southern Levant by the Philistines, who, as seen in recent research, may have been of Greek origin themselves.
Additionally, as other researchers have found, the Phoenicians, a group that was an ancient maritime powerhouse, were most likely responsible for importing cinnamon from Southeast Asia to the Levant. Clearly, international spice trading was possible far back into antiquity; the presence of cumin in Minoan Crete now appears to be part of that ancient trade.
Rich and Varied Cuisine Part of Minoans’ Luxurious Lifestyle
Linear B tablets found on Crete have mentioned coriander, sesame seeds, fennel bulb, mint, and parsley; clearly, the Minoans ate well and sumptuously. Anyone who has seen Minoan frescoes at the palace of Knossos has seen the striking figure of women gathering saffron from crocuses, which are still widely cultivated in Greece.
Asked just how much credence we can give the information on these tablets, Tsafou says “It is very secure and accepted in the research community that the interpretation is correct and that Linear B is the ancestor of the Greek language used by the Mycenaeans.”
Linear B was the writing system used on the mainland of Greece and Crete during the Bronze Age. It was first deciphered in 1953 by cryptographer Michael Ventris after groundwork laid down by Brooklyn College classicist Alice Kober.
Ventris declared Linear B was indeed the written form of an early permutation of the Greek language. Now, linguist Dr. Esther Salgarella has made the link between Linear A and Linear B as a result of her new analysis.
Linear A script carried over into Linear B
Minoans used a crude syllabic system known as Linear A from about 1800 to 1450 BC. Over one thousand tablets written in Linear A have been found.
Around 1,600 BC, Linear A was borrowed from the Minoans by the Mycenaean Greeks and Linear B is the Greek Mycenaean dialect used in administration of not only the Mycenaean palaces of Crete but also in Thebes, Myceanae, Pylos, and Tiryns on the Greek mainland.
Parallels between signs in Linear A and B have indeed previously been identified, but Dr. Salgarella has now shown that a great many graphic variants of signs in the Minoan script were carried over into Linear B.
Tragically, in approximately 1200 BC, the great civilizations around the Mediterranean became nearly extinct—perhaps as a result of the eruption of the volcano, Thera, which had cataclysmic effects on their population and cultural systems. Both systems of writing had become extinct by approximately 1100 BC.
Heinrich Schliemann, Arthur Evans Initiated Modern Research into Minoans
We have two archaeologists to thank for much of what we know about the Minoans today. Amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, who discovered Troy, was certain that a major Minoan palace lay hidden in the vicinity of Heraklion, but the Ottoman authorities who still ruled Crete at the time did not grant permission to dig there.
Years afterwards, the British archaeologist Arthur Evans, inspired by Schliemann’s ideas, reached Crete to negotiate the purchase of a portion of land in Knossos.
He began excavations in 1900, and in a matter of days, found enough clear evidence to indicate the presence of a huge palatial complex.
Controversial restoration projects have taken place thanks to Evans’ personal ownership of the site. He was the one responsible for naming the civilization “Minoan” after the legendary king Minos of Greek mythology.
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