industries of the palace workshops turned out other high-quality goods in
gold, silver, bronze, ivory, and precious stones fromfigurines to cups and
swords and even ostrich eggs decorated in faience. Among the most exquisite
products of Minoan manufacture were vases, bowls, jars, and lamps cut from
solid stone, initially soft stone such as chlorite and serpentine but, as tech-
niques evolved, craftsmen moved to alabaster, breccias, marble, andfinally
obsidian and rock crystal.
The island of Crete could not supply itself with the gold, silver, and
copper it used, leave aside the ivory, tin, and ostrich eggs. Clearly the
Minoans were a people who imported raw materials and exported manu-
factured goods. The Uluburun shipwreck accents the importance of trade in
bulk metals, which was the most important trade commodity in the Bronze
Age. As forfinished products, Babylonian seals have been found on Crete
along with the remains of Canaanite and Cypriot pottery although what was
contained therein remains a mystery. Egyptian stone vessels from the third
millenniumBCEreached Crete, where they remained in circulation for a long
time providing models for the Minoans’own stone industry. Other imports
from Egypt included linen, papyrus, alabaster, amethyst, carnelian, ostrich
eggs, andfinished goods such as scarabs, beads, jewelry, and even a Middle
Kingdom statuette. Crete also enjoyed an active trade with Ugarit, exporting
finished goods such as weapons, textiles, pottery, and sandals in exchange for
raw materials such as tin, gold, ivory, and precious stones. The Minoans may
have had a small colony in Ugarit.
In thefifteenth centuryBCEMinoan power began to wane in favor of a
people from the Greek mainland, the Mycenaeans. How this happened
remains uncertain although speculation sees trade as playing a central role.
One suggestion is that the Mycenaeans were essentially pirates who over a
long period bled the Minoan commercial system dry; however another pro-
poses that Minoan society self-destructed as a result of deterioration in the
relationship between the Minoans and their commercial partners.
The Mycenaeans lived in separate but powerful city states. Like the
Minoans, these were palace-centered with state bureaucracies controlling all
large-scale economic activities. Much of the foreign trade was probably car-
ried out in the form of gift exchange although private traders, particularly
those coming from the Levant and Cyprus, may have operated in some
capacity. This trend became more evident in the thirteenth centuryBCEwhen
government control over trade appears to have slipped. Nevertheless, it is
instructive that linguists have not been able to identify words for“buy,”
“sell,”“merchant,”or“money”(referring to a medium of exchange) in the
Greek Mycenaean vocabulary. The Mycenaeans imported and exported the
same products as their predecessors although on a larger scale, over a wider
geographical range, and for a shorter time, reflecting a general trend in the
increased growth of sea trade during the last centuries of the Bronze Age.
Mycenaean pottery, which is characterized by graceful,flowing, decorative
Into the Aegean and out of the Bronze Age 57