Sailing the Wine-dark Sea: International Trade and the Late Bronze Age Aegean

Areissue of Eric H. Cline's highly regarded study of trade in the Late BronzeAge Aegean, first published in 1994 and out-of-print since 2000. The monographis composed of three principal parts: 1) an analytical section discussing thetrade and contacts which occurred between the Aegean, Italy, Egypt, and theNear East during the latter half of the second millennium BC, and the social,economic and cultural implications of such contacts; 2) first, a catalogue ofliterary and pictorial references to the LBA Aegean found in outside areas -primarily Egypt and the Near East - with transliterations and translations ofthe appropriate texts, and second, a compilation of the references to, andloanwords from, other areas of the Mediterranean found in the Linear B texts inthe Aegean; and 3) a catalogue, by object type, of all the Orientalia andOccidentalia found in LBA contexts within the Aegean area. The monographutilizes the catalogues in combination with previously published works by avariety of scholars to provide a detailed analysis of the trade and contactsbetween the LBA Aegean, Italy, Egypt and the Near East. The work is dividedinto six sections, each consisting of a series of interlinked essays. Section One provides an introduction to thetopic, a brief overview of the previous scholarship in this area, and adiscussion of the chronological problems involved. Section Two consists of an initial chapterdiscussing LBA trade and contact between the Aegean, Italy, Egypt and the NearEast by centuries, followed by chapters discussing trade between the LBA Aegeanand individual Mediterranean countries. Section Three contains discussions of the trade mechanisms involved, thetrade routes, merchant nationalities, goods, motivations, and partnerships,plus a brief look at the Ulu Burun (Kas) and Cape Gelidonya shipwrecks. Section Four presents an overview of theconclusions reached by this study and reiterates that the current work presentsmuch raw data and some preliminary observations but is only the tip of theiceberg in terms of tapping the wealth of information which may be extractedfrom the accompanying catalogues.