On a fresco in an 18th Dynasty tomb of an Egyptian vizier, “Chiefs of Retjenu” bring ivory, amphorae, and strangely shaped red mats as tribute to the Pharoah (Fig. 1). The tributaries carry the mats on their shoulders, indicating something heavy, and the mats’ color suggest copper, a critical ingredient for making bronze. Where did these sheets come from, and how did the chiefs of “Retjenu,” an Egyptian toponym for Canaan and Syria (Martin 233), obtain them? Turkish sponge diver Mehmet Çakir helped solve this mystery with his discovery of submerged “metal biscuits with ears” off the coast of Ulu Burun, Turkey in 1984 (Bass 708). Containing one of the oldest and largest caches of these copper “ox-hide” ingots ever found (Bass 708), the artifacts at this late Bronze Age shipwreck shed valuable light into that era’s trade, proving it to be well-organized, international, lucrative, and integral to the large-scale manufacturing industries of various Mediterranean civilizations.

To begin, the diverse finds on the shipwreck indicate the ship had a Syrian origin with multiethnic sailors. The cargo onboard the ship consists primarily of semi-processed raw materials: over 300 copper “ox-hide” ingots, 149 Canaanite amphorae mostly filled with terebinth resin, one ton of tin ingots, and 175 glass ingots (Kelly). The unique “ox-hide” cast matches a mold found in Ugarit (Kelly), and the glass mekku stone is known from the Amarna tablets to come from Phoenicia (Bass 718). Furthermore, hippopotamus and elephant ivory were recovered, likely from around Syria as well (Bass 726). This all suggests the cargo originated from around northern Canaan or north Syria, in the vicinity of modern Lebanon. Indeed, the ship consists of Lebanese cedar and contains plentiful Canaanite jewelry and wares, as well as a Canaanite sword (Kelly). With so many materials characteristic of the ancient Phoenicians (a Canaanite people), George Bass’s belief in a Canaanite identity for the ship seems very convincing. While well-worn Mycenaean tableware, a Mycenaean sword, and Baltic amber beads carved in Mycenaean style found onboard appear to counter this claim (Bass 722), the low quantity of these finds suggest that the ship’s Canaanite crew outnumbered any Mycenaean passengers. Moreover, the heavy usage of these Mycenaean wares imply they were personal belongings rather than trading commodities (Bass 714), making a recent stop in the Aegean unlikely. If there were Mycenaeans onboard, they probably worked for a Canaanite since the Mycenaean artifacts are modest in comparison to the plentiful Canaanite jewelry clustered in plot M-11 that may have belonged to a wealthy businessperson (Bass et al. 20), perhaps the ship’s captain. Given the circumstances, the Mycenaean wares probably were tableware of Greek sailors working under Canaanite leadership, much like how today’s cargo ship operators hire low-wage deckhands from various nations. In addition to Canaanite jewelry, plot M-11 and its nearby surroundings contained a scarab of Nefertiti, a Kassite rock-crystal seal, a hematite seal, and various other valuable Near Eastern paraphernalia (Bass et al. 12). The proximity of these valuables suggest they once lay together in a chest before it decomposed in the sea. This diminishes the possibility of Egyptian or eastern Mesopotamian sailors onboard because the owner of these items must have also owned the Canaanite jewelry. In this case, the owner of the treasure was likely a northern Canaanite, perhaps from Byblos, which lies at the perfect intersection of Egyptian, Babylonian, Assyrian, and Canaanite spheres of influence. Overall, the careful stereo-mapping and analyses of finds at the Ulu Burun shipwreck paint a picture of a multinational enterprise, with a crew of Mycenaean deckhands led by Canaanites.

While they may not have significant bearing on the crew’s ethnic identities, the Egyptian jewelry and Mycenaean pottery serve as excellent dating tools for the wreck. In particular, the scarab of Nefertiti means the ship could not have sailed prior to Akhenaten’s reign around 1350 B.C.E. (Bass et al. 27). Meanwhile, a Mycenaean kylix from the M-11 plot dates to the Late Helladic IIIA:2 or IIIB Periods, just a few decades after the scarab’s time of origin (Bass et al. 24). This also fits with the dating of the hematite seal, which has a griffin-demon characteristic to tablets from the reigns of 14th century Middle Assyrian kings (Bass et al. 16). Since both the scarab, the kylix, and the seal are well-worn (Bass et al. 16–18), the ship probably sank even later in the 14th century, showing that the economic prosperity described in the Amarna tablets continued through the post-Amarna Mediterranean. In summary, the various Near Eastern jewelry, especially the Nefertiti scarab, give a reliable dating of the shipwreck to the latter half of the 14th century, corroborating the idea that there was widespread prosperity in Egypt, Canaan, and the Aegean during and after the Amarna Period.

In addition to revealing information about the crew’s demographics and the shipwreck’s date, the cargo onboard gives a snapshot of how the Bronze Age’s main economies functioned. For instance, the loads of copper and tin are in a near-perfect ten-to-one ratio for making quality bronze (Bass 719). This implies the ingots would have been melted down to make bronze at their destination, showing that nations practiced economic specialization, with eastern Mediterranean mining providing materials for Aegean bronze manufacturing rather than each civilization making its own bronze from start to finish. Indeed, the ship must have been sailing from the Levant to the Aegean because the large quantity of Canaanite shipments onboard as well as the circular nature of Mediterranean winds suggest the ship was traveling from east to west (Kelly). The ship must have also stopped at Cyprus before running aground due to the pithoi full of brand-new Cypriot pottery and the chemical tracing of the copper to a Cypriot source such as Kalavasos or Apliki (Kelly). This does not contradict the ship’s Canaanite origin, however, since all Cypriot items onboard were evidently merchandise, not personal possessions. Meanwhile, the African blackwood and ostrich eggs onboard could easily have been purchased at a port city in the Levant (Bass et al. 26), making a supposed stop in North Africa unnecessary. Thus, unless pollen analysis proves otherwise (Kelly), the only conclusive regions the ship had picked up cargo from were north Syria and Cyprus. Likely, the ship was headed to the Mycenaean port of Rhodes, the next major stop along the counterclockwise trade route a wind-powered ship like this one must have followed (Bass 698). Given that there were enough ingots to make bronze armor and weapons for an army of over 300 (Bass 719), the ship represents a major payload and may have been a tribute-ship sent between kingdoms. Such an explanation fits with descriptions of vast shipments of copper made by Cypriot kings to Pharoah recorded in the Amarna Tablets (Bass 709). In addition to the copper and tin, the African blackwood and scores of Canaanite amphorae filled with terebinth resin and glass beads further suggest the ship was a royal envoy, as such items were luxury goods affordable only to elites at the time (Kelly). Indeed, prior excavations show that Pharaohs used both African blackwood and terebinth resin in their tombs (Bass 729). Therefore, this ship was no ordinary cargo ship, but rather one designed to sell to upper-class markets, which implies the various economies of different Mediterranean civilizations traded heavily in luxury goods.

While excavated cargo and jewelry shed light onto what was commonly traded in the late Bronze Age and by whom, tools found with the shipwreck reveal the sophisticated techniques of how such mercantile ships operated day-to-day. For instance, hidden under the amphorae and pilgrim flasks, sailors appear to have deliberately placed thorny burnet as dunnage, just like at the Cape Gelidonya site (Bass et al. 8). Identification of the dunnage as a common weed shows how late Bronze Age traders kept packaging costs low to maximize profit margins. Similarly, ballast stones reveal that Bronze Age merchants optimized weight capacities for their ships by interchanging goods with stones, maintaining balance (Bass 696). However, the most insightful find regarding the operations of Bronze Age maritime trade is the diptych (Fig. 2). The diptych is my favorite artifact because it may be rare evidence of Linear B used outside a palace setting. This would suggest literacy in Linear B was commoner than previously thought or that a royal Mycenaean bureaucrat was aboard the ship. While Linear B would have been possible with Greeks onboard, the diptych could have also held Proto-Canaanite script, a discovery just as significant for it would be one of the only examples of Proto-Canaanite’s use outside Egypt or Canaan. Even if the inscriptions were cuneiform, at the very least, the diptych proves Homer’s description of “folding wooden tablets” was not anachronistic for the Bronze Age (qtd. in Bass 730). Moreover, the stylus-to-wax writing system can offer physical explanations of the curvature of certain signs and how they morphed in descendant languages as writing media changed. In short, beyond the cargo itself, seafaring tools discovered in the shipwreck give a clearer picture of how maritime operations successfully scaled up in the late Bronze Age.

Through analyzing the composition and placement of the cargo, jewelry, organic materials, and seafaring tools preserved at the Ulu Burun shipwreck, one can picture bustling, globalized trade in the late Bronze Age. Luxury goods from the Levant suggest robust eastern Mediterranean economies that had a noble or royal class capable of affording such treasures. Meanwhile, semi-processed copper and tin ingots give a snapshot into how a regionally differentiated process of bronze manufacturing fueled the vast military and agricultural systems of Mycenaean civilizations in ways not possible through mere local production. The sophisticated seafaring technologies imply this trading system was well-established and efficient, verifying depictions of massive wealth during and after the Amarna Period and attributing some of it, at least, to the shipping of Canaanite merchants. The Ulu Burun shipwreck shows how much our modern systems of globalized exchange, despite their ostensible differences in technology, mirror those of the past, with differentiated economies specializing in manufacturing or raw materials in order to create economies of scale. In this way, the finds of underwater archaeology eerily mirror our modern economy, allowing us to look to the past to predict how globalization will affect our world today.

Works Cited

• Bass, George F. “Oldest Known Shipwreck Reveals the Splendors of the Bronze Age.” National Geographic, Dec. 1987, pp. 692–734.

• Bass, George F., et al. “The Bronze Age Shipwreck at Ulu Burun: 1986 Campaign.” American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 93, no. 1, Jan. 1989, pp. 1–29., https://doi.org/10.2307/505396.

• Kelly, Jack W. Ancient Treasures From The Deep. YouTube, NOVA, 8 Sept. 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj8-frg5d7c. Accessed 3 Nov. 2022.

• Martin, Geoffrey T. “The Toponym Retjenu on a Scarab from Tell El-Dabʿa.” Ägypten Und Levante / Egypt and the Levant, vol. 8, 1998, pp. 109–12. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23786957. Accessed 3 Nov. 2022.

Plates

Figure 1. “Chiefs of Retjenu,” circa 1450 B.C.E., 18th Dynasty Egyptian. Fresco. Tomb of Rekhmire, West Wall, Fourth Register, TT100.

Figure 2. Diptych, middle 14th century B.C.E. Wooden leaves with ivory hinges, 9.5 cm by 6.2 cm. Ulu Burun shipwreck, KW 737.