external routes were a major factor leading to the unification of Egypt. From
the beginning of the pharaonic period, long-distance trade, like the rest of
the Egyptian economy, was under strict state management and remained so
for the next several thousand years. During this time foreign trade always
existed but had less impact on the overall economy than in most other
complex societies. Foreign goods entered Egypt through large-scale expedi-
tions organized and directed by royal officials to obtain specific items. Some
observers have concluded that expeditions could not have satisfied all the
country’s needs; therefore, something like ongoing trade, entrepreneurial or
not, must have existed. If so, this remains a well-kept secret. In all the offi-
cial documentation left by the Egyptians, virtually nothing refers to trading
practices outside of expeditions. Imports were consumed directly by the
court in its enormous building projects or redistributed to the country’s elite
in the form of luxury goods. Egypt provides a classic example of a general
rule among powerful states in the ancient world: trade with the outside was
designed to secure desirable imports, not to create export markets.
Sometime in the late fourth to the early third millenniumBCE, overland
trade with Palestine began to taper off in favor of sea contact between Egypt
and the Levantine littoral, the eastern shore of the Mediterranean extending
north of Palestine to the border of Anatolia (today comprising Lebanon and
northwestern Syria). This shift may have been due in part to the construction
of larger, faster, more seaworthy ships; which side, the Egyptian or the
Levantine, initiated the contact is not certain. Lebanon–Syria offered a much
wider range of products than Palestine, foremost of which was high-quality
timber strong enough for heavy construction. Timber in large quantities was
a difficult product to pass along through trickle trade; fetching wood meant
sending out expeditions.
The new tie with Lebanon and Syria plugged Egypt more directly into the
main trunk line of the long-distance commercial network that ran from
Anatolia to Afghanistan. The cities of the Levantine coast became emporia
for products bound for Egypt, ranging from silver and precious stones to
perfumes and oils. Egypt, in return, had a product the rest of the word was
eager to get: gold. And Syria was directly connected to Sumer, a relationship
facilitated by inland cities such as Elba, Mari, and the Sumerian colonies on
the upper Euphrates. A direct route from Sumer to Palestine, although
shorter than from Sumer to Syria, was not operational due to desert in
between since camels were not yet used as pack animals. Palestine became a
commercial cul-de-sac. The earliest Sumerian objects recovered in Egypt are
from the late fourth to the early third millenniumBCEand consist of stone
cylinder seals. Some Mesopotamian ceramics in the form of small liquid
containers also reached Egypt, but no object of Egyptian manufacture has
been found in Mesopotamia from this period. Considerable speculation has
been made about a Persian Gulf to Red Sea maritime connection tying
Sumer and Upper Egypt. Curiously, for a brief period, some indications of
Land of gold 41