Chapter VII: Trade and Commerce During the Amarna Age

By the Amarna Age the Mediterranean had become a highway for the ships of Egypt, Crete, Cyprus, Ugarit, the Phoenician cities, and even distant Mycenae. Land routes around the Fertile Crescent saw a steady stream of caravans bearing tribute to kings and items of trade for commoners. Horses and lapis lazuli were carried westward from Babylon, and its king Burnaburiash hoped for large quantities of Egyptian gold. Caravans were subject to attack, and Burnaburiash made it clear that it was the duty of Akhenaton to punish such offenders:

Canaan (Kinahhi) is your land, and its kings are your servants. In
your land I have been violently dealt with. Blind them (i.e., the
raiders) and make good the money which they have stolen. Kill the
people who murdered my servants and avenge their blood, for if you do
not kill these people they will return, and my caravans, or even your
messengers they will murder, and messengers between us will be
intercepted, and if that happens, the inhabitants of the land will
fall away from you.[50]

The king of Alashia (Cyprus) sent copper to Egypt, requesting silver and gold in exchange.[51] Iron, which in Hyksos times had twice the value of gold, became more plentiful during the Amarna Age. Tushratta of Mitanni sent iron to Egypt.[52] Iron, however, was not in common use in Israel until the time of David (I Chron. 22:3; 29:2). During the days of Saul, the Philistines had a monopoly on iron in Canaan:

Now there was no smith to be found throughout all the land of Israel,
for the Philistines said, "Lest the Hebrews make themselves swords or
spears"; but every one of the Israelites went down to the Philistines
to sharpen his plowshare, his mattock, his axe or his sickle, and the
charge was a pim for the plowshares and for the mattocks, and a third
of a shekel for sharpening the axes and setting the goads (I Sam.
13:19-21).

Minoan Crete

The great sea power of the eastern Mediterranean prior to the Amarna Age was Minoan Crete. The Cretans traded with Egypt from the earliest history of the two peoples. In addition to the direct route across the Mediterranean, the Minoans made use of an indirect trade route along the southwestern and southern shores of Asia Minor, and then southward by way of Cyprus to Egypt. The Egyptian word _Keftiu_ (Hebrew _Caphtorim_, Gen. 10:14; Deut. 2:23; Amos 9:7) may be used of the peoples of southern Asia Minor as well as the inhabitants of Crete and its adjacent islands. The Philistines trace their ancestry to the _Caphtorim_ (Amos 9:7), accounting for a non-Semitic element in southern Canaan.

Cretan trade with Egypt is depicted in the tomb of Rekhmire, lieutenant governor of Upper Egypt under Thothmes III (_ca._ 1490-1435 B.C.).[53] Here a prince of the _Keftiu_ is depicted with gifts for the rulers of Egypt. Cretan power came to an abrupt end, however, some time around the end of the fifteenth century B.C., when Knossus, the capital, and other centers of Minoan culture were destroyed. The cause is not known, but Mycenaeans from mainland Greece may have been responsible, at least in part, for the fall of Knossus.

Early in the fourteenth century B.C., Mycenae became the cultural and political center of the Aegean world. Trade with Egypt brought to the Mycenaeans the ivory that appears frequently in their tombs. Scarabs discovered at Mycenae bear the names of Amenhotep III and his wife, Tiy.

The Phoenicians

It was not the Mycenaeans, however, but the Phoenicians who succeeded the Minoans as the seafarers and the traders of the eastern Mediterranean. A tomb painting from Thebes shows Phoenician merchant ships tied up at docks along the Nile with their crews selling merchandise in the Egyptian bazaar. Amarna letters speak of Tyrian sailors and the wealth of their home port. Ships of Arvad also carry merchandise to Egypt. Phoenician control of the eastern Mediterranean was not challenged until Rome fought a series of wars with Carthage, which began as a Phoenician colony. We know the conflicts as the Punic (i.e., Phoenician) wars.

Commerce was not without its dangers. Roving bands of pirates from Lycia in Asia Minor infested the eastern Mediterranean and even landed on the coast of the Egyptian Delta. Amenhotep III found it necessary to organize a police force to patrol the Delta coast and keep the mouths of the Delta closed to all but lawful ships. The police manned customs houses and collected duty on all merchandise that was not consigned to the king. The land routes into Egypt were also policed, and admission was only granted to those with legitimate business.