mirrored file at http://SaturnianCosmology.Org/ 
For complete access to all the files of this collection
	see http://SaturnianCosmology.org/search.php 
==========================================================

THE CAPE GELIDONYA SHIPWRECK

Location

The wreck lies in ninety feet of water on a rocky bottom off the point
of a small island located just offshore from Cape Gelidonya, which
forms the western end of the Gulf of Finike, the major gulf on the
south coast of Asia Minor. The cape is known today, and was known in
antiquity, as a dangerous point for coastal shipping.

The Wreck

Very little of the ship itself was preserved because of the rocky
bottom on which it settled and the strong currents in the area which
prevented the wood of the ship from being covered in the marine silts
necessary for the preservation of ship timbers in submarine
environments. Most of the archaeological remains consist of the ship's
cargo, whose distribution on the bottom indicates that the ship
settled evenly rather than tipping over in the process of sinking. The
most striking portion of this cargo is a series of copper and bronze
ingots, mostly of the four-handled or so-called "oxhide" type weighing
ca. 20 kgs. (= 45 lbs.) apiece. The oxhide ingots were found stacked
in three major piles, although some of these stacks had slid apart
down the rocky slope of the bottom over the centuries. Traces of
matting on many of the ingots suggest that there were layers of
matting between the individual ingots in the stacks. Most of the
smaller "bun" and "slab" ingots were also found in stacks. The rest of
the metal cargo, consisting of both complete and fragmentary bronze
implements, was found scattered throughout the site, although often
patchily concentrated in the form of small clumps. These tools had
probably been stored originally in wicker baskets, one partially
preserved example of which was found. The distribution of the metal
finds suggests that the ship was some ten meters long. The small
amount of pottery found on the site had no meaningful distribution. A
concentration of artifacts which are best interpreted as personal
possessions (scarabs, ship's lamp, maceheads, a sheep {[24] astragal},
a cylinder seal, weights, and traces of food in the form of fish bones
and olive pits) was found in Area G and indicates that some kind of
cabin was located at this end of the boat, in all probability the
stern. Between some wood fragments interpreted as the inner lining of
the hull and the metal cargo was found a layer of sticks which
presumably protected the ship's hull from possible grinding action
caused by shifts in the heavy cargo on top of it. The ship was a small
merchant vessel, comparable to modern caïques/kaïkis, which was
carrying at least a ton of non-perishable cargo. It may also have been
carrying perishables, but these have not survived. There is no
evidence from the remains of the ship itself, in the form of preserved
portions of a distinctive method of ship construction, for the
nationality of the ship.

The Ingots

The Oxhide Type

Measuring on the average ca. 0.60 m. long by 0.45 m. wide by 0.04 m.
thick, at least thirty-four such ingots were part of the cargo. No
less than twenty-four of these had signs stamped into them while the
metal of the ingot was still soft. A few have had secondary, incised
signs scratched into them since the metal cooled. Similar oxhide
ingots have been found in Syro-Palestine (Tell Beit Mirsim, Ras
Shamra), Cyprus (Enkomi, Mathiati), the sea off the coast of Asia
Minor near Anatalya and Kas, Crete (Palaikastro, Zakro, Mochlos,
Knossos, Kommos, Ayia Triadha), Mainland Greece (Mycenae, the sea off
the coast of Euboea), Sicily, and Sardinia. Small models of this type
of ingot have also been found in Egyptian Thebes. All full-sized
ingots of this type which have been analysed are of pure copper, aside
from those of pure tin found more recently on the Ulu Burun wreck (see
below). Representations of such ingots occur quite commonly in
Egyptian art, mostly in tomb paintings from the reign of Thutmosis III
(1490-1436 B.C.) onwards. Particularly well-known are the paintings in
the tombs of Useramon, Rekhmire, and Meryra. The latest of these
representations, a relief of the reign of Ramesses III (1192-1160
B.C.) at Medinet Habu, is probably simply a copy of a representation
in the Ramesseum of Ramesses II (13th century B.C.) at Thebes. In
other words, no Egyptian representations portraying such objects still
in use date after ca. 1200 B.C. Oxhide ingots also appear to be
represented on several Linear B tablets from Knossos and also possibly
on a few Minoan and Cypriot seals of the Late Bronze Age. Ingots of
this kind are also represented on two major works of Cypriot 12th
century B.C. art, a bronze stand from Kourion and the famous "Dieu au
Lingot" (= god standing on an ingot) from Enkomi.

The term "oxhide" is almost certainly a misnomer in the sense that
such ingots were not intended to be copies of an actual dried oxhide
nor were they somehow equivalent to an ox in value. The four handles
were developed simply to make the ingots more easily portable. These
ingots were cast in open terracotta moulds, but were not always cast
in the same size and certainly did not always weight the same. They
therefore cannot be interpreted as units of currency. The stamped and
incised marks which they often bear are not signs of any particular
script and are probably best interpreted as miners' or smelters'
symbols, loosely comparable in significance to the marks found incised
or impressed quite frequently on pottery in the Bronze Age Aegean.
These marks thus may have identified the source of the copper in an
ingot. The distribution of such ingots, particularly those known from
underwater sites, suggests that they were produced to facilitate the
transportation of copper as a raw material. Because of the paintings
in the Egyptian tomb of Rekhmire where the carriers of such ingots are
labelled as "men of Keftiu", it has been assumed that the principal
carriers of such ingots were Minoans or possibly Mycenaeans. However,
there is considerable debate over the precise location of "Keftiu"
and, in any case, we have no firm basis for believing that the "men of
Keftiu" had a monopoly of the trade in oxhide ingots. George Bass
feels that the Levantines, whether Syrians or Canaanites, could
equally well have trafficked in such ingots. The balance of our
evidence suggests that the copper of the ingots themselves was mined
on Cyprus where, Bass feels, production of the ingots themselves was
managed at various times under Minoan and Syrian control. After ca.
1400 B.C. and the collapse of Minoan palatial civilization, Bass feels
that control of ingot manufacture passed into the hands of the
Syrians, but others feel that the Minoans may have been replaced in
this role, as they were in so many others, by the Mycenaeans. Vassos
Karageorghis, the director of the Cypriot Antiquities Service, feels
that the copper industry on Late Bronze Age Cyprus was entirely
contolled by the Cypriots. At the moment, we simply do not have
convincing evidence as to which, if any, national group dominated the
production of copper and its distribution throughout the eastern
Mediterranean in the 14th and 13th centuries B.C.

Samples from a substantial number of copper ingots of "oxhide" type
have been subjected to lead-isotope analysis with the aim of
establishing the source of the copper they contain. The ingots from
the Cape Gelidonya and Ulu Burun wrecks are (almost?) without
exception cast from Cypriote ores, as are all the LM III ingot
fragments from the Minoan harbor site of Kommos. But the LM I ingots
from Ayia Triadha have a lead isotope "signature" incompatible with a
Cypriot source and may be derived from Anatolian ores. Sardinian
ingots have been claimed to be products of Cypriot ores on the grounds
of their lead isotope ratios, although this makes little sense in view
of the frequency of copper ore sources on Sardinia itself; of course,
the Sardinian sources have not yet been shown to have been exploited
during the Bronze Age, so it is just conceivable that Cypriot metal
may have been transported to the island from the eastern Mediterranean
when the traffic in metal ingots was dominated by Cypriot and Aegean
(whether Minoan or Mycenaean) carriers.

The "Bun" or Plano-Convex Type

Measuring ca. 0.20 m. in diameter and 0.03-0.04 m. thick, twelve
complete ingots, eight almost complete, nine broken half-ingots, and
fragments of other miscellaneous ingots of this type were found in the
Gelidonya wreck. Of three such ingots analysed, one analysed by Bass
was of bronze (87% copper, 7% tin) while two others analysed in 1976
were of pure copper. It has now been suggested that all of these
ingots were actually of pure copper, Bass' bronze analysis having
somehow resulted from a confusion of samples in the laboratory. None
of the ingots of this type bear markings. Plano-convex ingots are
common throughout the eastern Mediterranean in the Late Bronze Age and
are normally of pure copper. Early examples of Middle Bronze Age date
are known from Acemhüyük and Alaca Hüyük in central Anatolia. Although
similar in terms of metallic composition to the oxhide ingots, bun
ingots are smaller, hence more portable, and were probably cast more
simply within the base of the smelting furnace rather than in moulds
located outside the furnace.

The "Slab" Type

Measuring ca. 0.20-0.30 m. long by 0.06-0.08 m. wide by 0.01-0.015 m.
thick, all nineteen of these ingots were found in Area G. The three
such ingots analysed had tin contents of 1.83%, 1.0%, and 5.27% but
are mostly of copper. The low tin content, too low for good bronze,
may indicate that they were produced from remelted scrap metal. There
are no markings on these slabs, but since they have a uniform weight
of ca. 1.0 kg. and were all found in the hypothetical cabin area of
the wreck, they may represent a primitive form of currency.

Tin

Under the copper ingots in Areas G and P were found three piles of
powdery, white tin oxide, seemingly all that remained of the tin which
the ship was also carrying as part of its cargo. The source of tin for
the Bronze Age cultures of the Aegean is a very hotly disputed
question. Although the ultimate source of the Gelidonya tin is
unknown, specialists are quite sure that it did not~come from Cyprus.
The tin from this wreck is significant in a larger sense as the
earliest known, purely industrial tin after that recently found in
much greater quantities and in the form of oxhide ingots of metallic
tin at the Ulu Burun wreck, which dates some 100-150 years earlier.

Bronze Scrap

This material includes a wide variety of objects useful in
agriculture, woodworking, metallurgy, warfare, and several purely
domestic activities: picks, hoes, shovel, mattock, pruning hooks,
sickle, double axes, adzes, axe-adzes, chisels, hammer, swage block,
awls, nails, punch, needle, knives, spearheads, razor, spatula, bronze
vessel fragments, tripod stand fragments, spit, bracelets/anklets,
rings, and hooks. Most of these were already fragmentary at the time
of the wreck and were presumably being transported for their scrap
value. The best parallels for most of these objects come from Cyprus,
and it is therefore theorized that the last port of call in the
merchantman's voyage west to the Aegean had been on Cyprus.

Pottery

Relatively little pottery was found, and what there was was poorly
preserved. The pottery may be characterized as "cosmopolitan" and
could have been readily obtained in Lebanese, Syrian, or Cypriot
ports. There is some Mycenaean pottery, but all of this is of types
current in the Levant. Both Cypriot and Syro-Palestinian ceramic types
have also been identified. Unfortunately, the pottery cannot be
closely dated; a fairly broad chronological range of ca. 1250-1150
B.C. has been suggested for it.

Weights

Weights would have been necessary for a merchant captain conducting
trade in any commodity but would have been especially needed by one
who dealt with metals which were normally alloyed, for the creation of
such alloys would have required reasonably precise measurements of the
constituent metals, tin and copper in the case of bronze. Of the sixty
weights found on the wreck site, all but two were found in the cabin
area. In view of the difficulties encountered in excavating at a depth
of ninety feet and because of the diminutive sizes of the weights
themselves, it is likely that the number of weights on the ship when
it sank was a good deal higher. In shape, the weights are sphendonoid
(shaped like sling-bullets), domed, truncated conical, spherical with
a flat base, cylindrical, and discoid. Eight are of metal, fifty-two
of stone. At least six "weight standards" were claimed by Bass to be
represented, namely:

(1) A standard based on a unit of 7.30 gms., identified as the
"Phoenician standard" of 7.32 gms. Multiples of 4, 5, 6, 8(?), 9, 15,
20, 28, 32, and 64 units were identified among the weights.

(2) A standard based on a unit of 9.32-9.33 gms., identified as the
Egyptian qedet. Multiples of 1, 3, 6, 7(?), 10, 19, 20(?), 25, 30, 49,
and 50(?) units were identified among the weights.

(3) A standard based on a unit of 9.50 gms, identified as the
Syro-Palestinian qedet. Multiples of 1, 5, 7, 8, 9(?), 30, and 4 1/2
(?) units were identified among the weights.

(4) A standard based on a unit of 10.30 gms., identified as the Syrian
nesef. Multiples of 1, 2, 5, 18, 3 1/2, and 4 2/3 units were
identified among the weights.

(5) A standard based on a unit of 10.50 gms, identified with some
hesitance as the Phoenician nesef. Multiples of 1, 1/3, 4 1/3, 2 1/2,
7 1/2, 3 2/3, 3 1/3, 4 2/3, and 6 2/3 units were identified among the
weights.

(6) A standard based on a unit of 11.50 gms, identified as the
Canaanite shekel. Multiples of 4, 5, 6, 8, 7 1/2, 6 2/3, and 8 2/3
units were identified among the weights.

(7) A standard based on a possible unit of 12.30 gms., the identity of
which remains unknown. Multiples of 1 and possibly of 4, 7, 4 1/2, and
5 1/2 units were identified among the weights.

These weights were viewed by Bass as allowing the merchant to trade
with Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Cyprus, the Hittite Empire, Crete,
possibly Troy, and probably the Greek Mainland. Unfortunately, the
wide geographical range of the identified weight standards, as well as
our relative ignorance of the prevalent weight systems in use in the
prehistoric Aegean, preclude any conclusions about the route of the
ship or its nationality.

Since the publication of the Gelidonya wreck, the large collection of
similar weights from the earlier Ulu Burun wreck have been analysed by
Pulak, while the Minoan weight system prevalent throughout the
southern Aegean in Neopalatial times has been treated in depth by
Petruso. Further analysis of the distribution and interpenetration of
different metrological systems during the Late Bronze Age in the
eastern Mediterranean will no doubt provide valuable insights into
socio-economic conditions within this region in the years to come.

Scarabs

Five scarabs found in the cabin area were probably used as charms or
talismans, or perhaps as seals, and presumably belonged to one or more
members of the ship's crew. In date they range from the Second
Intermediate Period (1785-1567 B.C.) through the late 18th or early
19th Dynasty (late 13th century B.C.). Some of them were obviously
several hundred years old by the time of the wreck, but the latest
suggests a date for the wreck in the late 13th century B.C.

Cylinder Seal

A single cylinder seal, arguably the property of the ship's captain,
was found in the cabin area. It is an heirloom of the 18th century
B.C., probably made in Syria.

Conclusions

The ship loaded with metal ingots and bronze scrap which was wrecked
off Cape Gelidonya sank around 1200 B.C. or a little later. It was
nine or ten meters long and probably served both as a carrier of raw
materials and as a sort of itinerant smithy, the merchant-captain
being both a supplier and a craftsman who dealt in finished goods to
order. The course of the ship has been argued to have been east to
west, from Cyprus into the Aegean, but neither this nor the beginning
and end points of the ship's voyage can be specified with any
precision. Bass has argued that the ship was Phoenician or Canaanite,
but Muhly and others have argued that it was Mycenaean. Certainty on
this point is equally impossible in view of the available evidence.
Indeed, one may question whether most cargo ships of this period were
considered to have any "nationality" at all in the sense of being part
of a given political entity's "merchant marine". There is no literary
evidence whatsoever for the identification of the nature, much less
the individual identity, of the authorities who owned or managed
vessels of this sort during the Late Bronze Age in the Aegean world.
Before the discovery of the relatively nearby Ulu Burun wreck near
Kas, now dated to ca. 1310 B.C., that at Gelidonya was the earliest
ship ever to have been excavated. It remains an invaluable source of
evidence for the study of trade, metallurgy, and metrology in the Late
Bronze Age of the cosmopolitan eastern Mediterranean world.

THE AMBER TRADE

The source or sources of the amber found in the Aegean can be
determined by means of infrared spectroscopy. Most of the amber from
Mycenaean Greece, as well as that from Italy and elsewhere in the
Mediterranean, comes from the Baltic Sea. In Mycenaean contexts, amber
occurs almost exclusively in the form of beads and of multiply
perforated rectangular plaques known as {spacer plate}s.

The presence of amber, which is not an artifact per se but rather a
material, in areas where it does not naturally occur is not
necessarily an indicator of intercultural contact, but only of some
sort of exchange system operating between or through two or more
cultures. In other words, the presence of Baltic amber in southern
Greece is not necessarily evidence that the Mycenaeans travelled north
to the Baltic nor that northern Europeans visited Mycenaean Greece.
The amber in question could easily have passed through a multitude of
hands in an exchange network which brought the material by a series of
relatively short hops over what in the end was a long distance. In any
case, amber is light and a great deal of it can be carried by one man.
Numerous finds of it need therefore not imply that several trips were
made to obtain it.

Amber was in antiquity, and still is, valuable. It is attractive for
its color, is smooth and warm to the touch, and possesses certain
electrical properties which in ancient times may well have been
considered magical. As an organic substance, amber weathers badly and
thus can easily have disappeared entirely from the archaeological
record. It can even decompose in a museum collection after its
recovery, if not properly treated by conservators.

There is no evidence from Egypt for true amber, as opposed to other
fossil resins, before the 18th Dynasty (ca. 1570 B.C. onwards). The
earliest amber in the Near East may date from ca. 1800 B.C. at Assur
and Hissar (level IIIC), or it may date from as early as ca. 2400 B.C.
in the finds from a grave at Tell Asmar. Further study of the material
described as "amber" in these contexts is needed to confirm such a
high dating for the initial use of the material in this part of the
world. In Greece itself, there is no certain evidence for amber before
the very end of the Middle Helladic period, and there is no certainly
earlier amber from any other area of the eastern Mediterranean.

Greece's earliest amber comes from Shaft Grave O in Grave Circle B at
Mycenae and from an early tholos at Pylos in Messenia, both of which
contexts are dated to the latest phase of the MH period (ca. 1725-1675
B.C., on the high Aegean chronology). Other finds of this substance,
from Peristeria Tholos 3, from Pylos Tholos IV, and from the Shaft
Graves at Mycenae, date from the immediately following Late Helladic I
period. A total of over 1560 pieces, 1290 of these from Shaft Grave IV
in Circle A alone, is known from latest MH and LH I contexts.

In LH II, amber finds amounting to some 820 pieces in all are confined
to the Argolid and the Pylos area within Messenia, with the exception
of a few pieces from Thebes in Boeotia. The grand total of 2380 pieces
of LH I-II amber easily outnumbers the total of all other pieces of
Aegean amber from all prehistoric contexts postdating the end of
LH/LM/LC II. But the early Mycenaean amber, though abundant in terms
of total pieces, comes from just twelve different Aegean sites.

In LH/LM IIIA, amber is found in the Peloponnese, central Greece, and
Cycladic islands, as well as at other sites to the south and east
(Kos, Crete, Cyprus, Syria) and also in islands to the west
(Zakynthos, Sicily, Aeolian islands). The finds come from fewer
individual contexts of discovery, but from a larger number of distinct
sites (17). The number of pieces known shrinks to 182, 160 of which
are dated to LH/LM IIIA1 alone, while only 22 date to LH/LM IIIA2. The
appearance for the first time of amber at Knossos in this period has
been taken as further evidence for the presence of Mycenaean
Mainlanders at that site during LM/LH IIIA1. the later part of the
Warrior Grave horizon at that site.

Only about forty pieces from eight sites are dated to LH IIIB. Within
the Peloponnese in this period, amber is found only in the Argolid.
Amber now appears for the first time in northwest Greece, in Aetolia
and in Epirus.

During the LH IIIC period, there appears to have been a minor revival
in the popularity of amber, with more than sixty pieces known from a
total of fourteen sites. The distribution is now broad, including
Rhodes, Alalakh in Syria, Crete, Egypt, and the western island of
Kephallenia. From late LH IIIC and in "Submycenaean" contexts, only
nine pieces are known from just three sites on Salamis, in Elis, and
in southern Italy.

The quantity and concentration of amber at just a few sites in the LH
I and II periods is striking. Renfrew has suggested that amber reached
the Mycenaean kings by means of a "prestige chain" of royal
gift-exchanges stretching across Europe in which the Mycenaeans formed
the southernmost link, but the reason for the creation of such a chain
is at present a puzzle. In LH IIIA, less amber is spread over a wider
area. Single beads now appear in tombs, in contrast with the whole
necklaces of LH I-II times, and were perhaps considered to have had
amuletic powers. The source of LH IIIA amber may simply have been the
residues of LH I-II amber rather than new imports. Indeed, a system of
gift-exchange in this commodity may now have operated within the
Mycenaean world, the old one across Europe having broken down for some
reason. While amber excahange in the LH IIIB period suffers a still
further decline, the evidence for this material increases in LH IIIC
times and this fact may indicate renewed contact with Balkan suppliers
at this time.

The first Baltic amber arrived in Greece ca. 1725-1675 B.C., possibly
in only three consignments (one each for Mycenae, Pylos, and Kakovatos
[Messenia]). The next consignment need not have arrived until the
transition from LH IIIB to LH IIIC ca. 1200 B.C., this time possibly
through middlemen in northwest Greece, as suggested by finds of the
material in Aetolia and Epirus. The early consignments, it has been
argued, probably came to the Peloponnese by sea, possibly from as far
away as Britain on the basis of remarkable similarities between
Mycenaean and British spacer plates. The later consignment, much
smaller in size, is more likely to have come overland to the head of
the Adriatic, then down the west coasts of what are now Yugoslavia,
Albania, and Greece, and hence finally into the Aegean.

GENERAL REMARKS ON TRADE IN THE AEGEAN LATE BRONZE AGE

Other items that were clearly exchanged during the Late Bronze Age,
many of them in the context of genuine commerce or trade, include:

Raw Materials

Precious metals such as gold, silver, and electrum; ivory from both
elephants and hippopotami; ostrich eggs; stones for use in
architecture (e.g. gypsum), jewelry (e.g. lapis lazuli), and stone
vases and seals (e.g. lapis Lacedaemonius, carnelian), and tools
(andesite, obsidian); spices utilized in the production of perfumed
oils and unguents (e.g. coriander, frankincense, myrrh).

Manufactured Goods

Pottery; seals; carved ivories; textiles; furniture; stone and metal
vessels; weaponry.

Agricultural Produce

Wine; olive oil; flax; hides; wool.

Many of the above items, just as the two explored in greater detail
above (bronze; amber), were probably exchanged through distinct and
largely independent distribution networks.
_________________________________________________________________

[25]Logo    [26]Contents Page
[27]Top of Page

© Copyright 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Trustees of Dartmouth College
Revised: Friday, March 18, 2000

References

http://projectsx.dartmouth.edu/classics/history/bronze_age/index.html