Episode 018 The Beginning of the End We finished up last time looking at some theories regarding the historicity of the Trojan War, but we also looked at the broad trend of the Bronze Age powers around the Mediterranean. That trend was on a decidedly downward slope, and today, we’ll being to see the angle of that slope steepen even further. Seeing as how we’re on Episode 018, if we go by our canonically numbered episodes, anyway, I thought it might be worthwhile to try and end our look at the Bronze Age by episode 020, at which point we can perhaps take a whirlwind tour review episode through everything thus far. I’d like to try organizing the different major periods and topics of focus into what we could call ‘seasons,’ so for example, our first 20 episodes about maritime history in the Bronze Age can be season 1, then we’ll take season 2 to look at the start of the Iron Age, things like the emergence of the Phoenicians, the rise of Greek sea power, and some of the interesting battles and other topics, the Delian League, the Peloponnesian War, et cetera. I think season 2 will really be our season of examining the first true thalassocracies, so who knows how many episodes will emerge in the end. Let me know any thoughts on that game plan moving forward, but for now let’s open the book on today’s episode. I think an appropriate page on which to start today is on that concerning the city of Ugarit. This city will be somewhat central to our story today, and it’s a city that doesn’t get a whole lot of attention when it comes to talk of Bronze Age history, at least not outside academic circles it doesn’t. Ugarit is among the oldest of cities on earth. It was occupied in neolithic times, and archaeologists have dated it’s oldest fortified wall to around 6000 BCE. The city reached its pinnacle period beginning in 1800 BCE and as for its end, we’ll get to that briefly. Ugarit was situated on a headland or cape in northern Syria, putting it in prime location to be a trade center for the region. What’s more, this port city also sat at the perfect location to serve as an entrepôt for the overland trade route to the Tigris and Euphrates. All in all, Ugarit was a trade center utilized by almost every Bronze Age civilization. It’s been called the “premier international port of its time,” “the Hamburg or Rotterdam of the Late Bronze Age.” Episode 018 1 There’s a remarkable letter found in Ugarit that introduces us by name to a wealthy merchant from the city. His name was Sinaranu and right around the year 1260 BCE we know that he sent a ship to Crete. This trade connection between a Levantine city and an Aegean island is something we’ve seen multiple times now, so no surprise here. The intriguing aspect of this letter is that it’s an official letter, a declaration that upon returning to Ugarit, Sinaranu’s ship full of grain, beer, and olive oil is exempt from the standard royal tax. I suppose this could be some Bronze Age tax incentive at work, a palace official or king seeking to incentivize trade. This seems to have been a common practice in Ugarit, at least, for there are other texts exempting other merchants from any tax on trade with Egypt, the Hittites, and another smudged out land. This trade with the Hittites makes sense, as the royal house of Ugarit was a vassal state of the Hittites, allied by marriage but still documented as sending lavish amounts of tribute to the Hittite capital of Hattusa. Sinaranu’s ship sailed around 1260, so trade was still alive and well. On a broad level, the state of affairs around the Mediterranean at this time was as we have discussed. Egypt and the Hittites had clashed at Qadesh in 1275 BCE but had subsequently hashed out a treaty. Meanwhile, the Mycenaeans honed their raiding skills along the western coasts of Anatolia, possibly fighting the Trojan War, but assuredly stirring up trouble to their east. We’ve speculated that the Mycenaean meddling in Anatolia can be seen as coinciding with the emergence of cyclopean architecture at the Mycenaean palace cities around the Aegean. This was the addition of great walls around their previously unfortified palaces, the stones used for these walls so large that later peoples thought the walls must have been constructed by the mythical Cyclopes. One possible interpretation for the emergence of these Mycenaean fortifications is that they palaces had become vulnerable like they’d not been before. As has been our theme of late, we really don’t know the causes behind these occurrences, we simply see the symptoms of something still hidden beneath the surface of the past. We’ve now visited Ugarit, and reestablished our bearings in the Late Bronze Age. Where to from here? This time period is perhaps our most difficult yet, so in my mind, I think we’ll be better off if we get the birds-eye view of what is about to happen, sketch in the lines if you will. After we know some of what’s to come, the details will make much more sense and won’t seem like a fixation on one tree to the detriment of the forest. Lastly, keep in mind that this series of events is simply the best way that current archaeology can reconstruct the timeline based on what we’ve found so far in academic study. The dates are useful in giving us a theory about how the Late Bronze Age Collapse may have played out and they’re relatively accurate based on most chronologies, but we really can’t know for sure how accurate these theories are. Episode 018 2 Despite that caveat, here’s a bullet-point summary of current theory, after which we’ll zoom in on some fascinating details: • Our looks at the Bronze Age world have shown us that from at least 1500 BCE, the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean were heavily involved in a complex international trade of raw materials and finished goods, trade that only grew in complexity as the societies that engaged in the trade prospered and grew. • We call this entire period the Bronze Age because bronze weaponry and instruments were the central pillar of the trade networks and societal growth. Bronze is a composite of copper and tin, and as we saw from the evidence of shipwrecks at Uluburun and Cape Gelidonya, copper and tin were traded in their raw and finished forms. • I’m not sure how much stock to place in this statement, but Carol Bell, a scientist and archaeologist focusing on the Bronze Age collapse, has an interesting take on the economics of the Bronze Age and what drove the collapse. In here view, tin in the Bronze Age held a similar strategic importance to crude oil in today’s economies, a pillar of exchange and the key piece in maintaining stability across our global economy(s). This is worth mentioning here, though it will also come into play later in the story. • The Ulubrurun wreck has been dated to 1300 BCE and Gelidonya closer to 1200. The Uluburun wreck proved a much wealthier wreck, so we know that high level trade continued in the year 1300 and beyond and that Levantine merchants were quite active. • In our look at the basis for the Trojan War myth, we saw that Mycenaean raiders were active in Anatolia for much of the Bronze Age, though things seem to have picked up after the year 1300 BCE with more signs of fighting and destruction in Anatolia. This can’t be looked at in relation to two main points: after 1300 BCE the Hittite empire had begun to decline in power. At this same time, the Mycenaean palace centers, city-states essentially, also seems to have seen trouble. Earthquake damage is evident and signs of economic stress begin to emerge. • It’s in 1280 BCE that we have our first mention of a group that was part of what came to be known as the Sea Peoples. The Shardana are mentioned by name on a stele from Tanis, a location in the Nile delta where Ramesses II claimed to have defeated the “rebellious Shardana in a sea battle.” • The assumption is that Ramesses must have taken some of the Shardana captive after defeating them, because in his inscriptions regarding the Battle of Qadesh in 1275, he mentions them again, saying that they fought for him as part of his personal bodyguard. Episode 018 3 • Skip ahead to 1250 BCE, the point at which some place the historical basis for the Trojan War. Mycenaean palaces and Troy itself show signs of destruction by earthquake. We’ve talked about this in detail already, so the main point is to re- emphasize that the centralized, palace-controlled Mycenaean economies were beginning to weaken. This can explain at least part of their forays into Anatolia to capture slaves and goods. Such raiding would only provide a temporary solution, however. • In 1230 BCE, the Hittite army was defeated by the Assyrians at the Battle of Nihriya. The Hittite defeat didn’t destroy their empire immediately, but it certainly consigned the empire to ultimate collapse and signaled a shift of power away from the Hittites. They would be completely gone within 30 years.