toward trade was decidedly negative: it was something that unheroic people
like the Phoenicians did. But theIliadand indeed the war itself, like the
Troy VI–Troy VIIa conundrum, should not distract historians from the basic
issue of trade. In the standard interpretation, Troy VI was a wealthy and
prominent city that played a significant role as a regional power and was of
strategic economic importance. As the trade of Crete and Mycenaean Greece
expanded from the sixteenth centuryBCEon, so did that of Troy, which
anchored the northern end of the Aegean system. Whereas no treasure trove
similar to Troy II has been recovered, Troy VI was a great emporium with
exotics such as ostrich eggs, hippopotamus ivory, and glass and faience beads
coming from the south and amber, raw metals, and slaves from the north.
The Trojans themselves produced and exported woolen textiles and probably
horses (throughout theIliadthe Trojans are referred to as“horse tamers”).
Trojan pottery, known as Trojan gray ware, a functional, if not aesthetically
pleasing product, was reaching the Levant and Cyprus in modest amounts by
the thirteenth centuryBCE.
The key to Troy’s happy condition rested on its pivotal position at the
gateway to the northern periphery of the world. Directly north were the
untapped riches of the Black Sea; to the east, the mineral-rich Caucasus
Mountains; and to the west, the Danubian River valley, which accessed the
heartland of Europe. Beyond the Black Sea on what was thought to be the
very edge of the earth were the steppe lands that reached from the Carpathian
to the Ural Mountains. Troy represented the zone of transition between
advanced economies that could produce mass quantities of manufactured
goods and more primitive economies that could supply them with the raw
materials needed for such production.
The process whereby commoditiesflowed from the Aegean to the Black
Sea is not known. Did ships actually sail through the Hellespont, the Sea of
Marmara, and the second strait, the Bosporus, into the Black Sea? Perhaps
smaller ships could have managed this although, given the maritime tech-
nology and navigation techniques of the time, it is doubtful a vessel even the
size of the Uluburun wreck could have made it. The alternative was to off-
load goods at Troy and ship them overland to a Black Sea port, avoiding the
unpleasantries of the straits passage. In any case, Troy would benefit from
the tolls it levied, or by providing pilots to guide ships, or by carrying the
merchandise overland. At least according to the standard interpretation.
A second school of historians and archaeologists using the same data as
those who support the standard interpretation have come to a diametrically
opposite conclusion, prompting a new Trojan War, this one spilling as much
ink as thefirst spilled blood. To this second school, who have been labeled as
the “Minimalists” by those supporting the standard view, Troy was an
insignificant place at the far end of a maritime branch route, hardly grand
enough even to be considered a city. Troy had no port (it was actually several
miles inland), no traces of a marketplace, no merchant fleet, and didn’t
Into the Aegean and out of the Bronze Age 61