CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

SUMER, AKKAD, EBLA AND ANATOLIA



Christoph Bachhuber

INTRODUCTION

N

o other topic has attracted as much interest in the archaeology of the third
millennium in Anatolia as long-distance trade. This interest can be considered on
several levels. Trade networks across Anatolia fulfill specific expectations related to
Anatolia’s perceived role as a “bridge” between the (Classical) Aegean and the
(Mesopotamian) Near East (see Greaves 2007 ). Anatolia exists at a margin between
these two regions that have attracted greater academic interest in ancient world
research. During the third and early second millennia, the Anatolian bridge was crossed
by long-distance trade, while in later periods it was crossed by migrations (Phrygian,
Ionian) and empires (Hittite, Achaemenid, Romano-Byzantine, Ottoman).
The recent focus on trade in Anatolia also highlights a renewed determination to
synthesize large volumes of data into a coherent outline of social change during the
third millennium (see, for example, S ̧ahog ̆lu 2005 ; Rahmstorf 2006 ; Efe 2007 ;
Bobokhyan 2008 ; see Figure 26. 2 for a chronology chart). Similarly, it reveals the
separation of Bronze Age Anatolian archaeology from the mainstream approaches of
Anglo-American archaeology. For decades, Anglo-American archaeologists have either
prioritized local neo-evolutionary outlines of social change (by downplaying the role
of trade as a cause or catalyst), or have generally lost interest in questions related to
social change.
The philology of the Middle Bronze Age (MBA) text corpus of Assyrian language
archives from Kültepe-Kanisˇ, Alis ̧ar-Amkuwa, and Bog ̆azköy-Hattusˇ on the Anatolian
Plateau (Figure 26. 1 ) have also exerted a profound influence on Early Bronze Age
(EBA) research in Anatolia. The contents of these archives, particularly at Kültepe-
Kanisˇ, provide precise details of Assyrian merchant enterprise on the Anatolian plateau.
Thus reconstructions of long-distance exchange networks during the EBA (c. 3000 –
2200 BC) offer both a parallel and a precursor to these later well-documented networks.
In this chapter, I ask to what extent the Assyrian archives and other textual traditions
reveal or obscure the nature and meaning of long-distance communication between the
regions of Iraq, Syria, and Anatolia during the third millennium.
Particular categories of material culture, like depas cups (Figure 26. 3 ), Syrian-
inspired bottles (Figure 26. 4 ), or pan balance weightsused to weigh metal, are also
regularly drawn on to reconstruct dynamics of long-distance trade. I address the most
frequently discussed archaeology in turn, again with the concern that archaeologists