classics essay 2 quotes

7/27/2019 Classics Essay 2 Quotes

1/5

Choose one of the following topics and prepare a paper of approximately 1,500 words length

(about 4-5 pages at 1 spacing):What sort of information does underwater archaeology provide that traditional excavation

on land cannot? What does the Ulu Burun or Ka shipwreck tell us about trade and the distribution

of commodities in the Late Bronze Age?

Renfrew and BahnArchaeology

Reader # Book # Quote

79 95 From earliest investigations, using crude diving bells, it has developed

into a valuable complement to work on land.

More than 1000 shipwrecks are known in shallow Mediterranean waters,

but recent explorations using deep-sea submersibles have begun to find

Roman wrecks at depths of up to 850 m, and two Phoenician wreckspacked with amphorae discovered off the coast of Israel are the oldest

vessels ever found in the deep sea.

If the vessels hull survives at all, detailed drawings must be made sothat specialists can later reconstruct the overall form and lines, either on

paper or in three dimensions as a model or full-size replica.

Nautical archaeologists have now excavated more than 100 sunken

vessels, revealing not only how they were constructed but also many

insights into shipboard life, cargoes, trade routes, early metallurgy, and

glassmaking.

80 374 It is difficult for the archaeologist to learn what commodity was traded

against what other commodity, and to understand the mechanics of trade.The discovery of the shipwreck of a trading vessel complete with cargo,

is thus of particular value.

In 1982, just such a wreck, dating from close to 1300 BC, was found at

Ulu Burun, near Kas, off the south Turkish coast in 43 m to 60 m of

water. It was excavated between 1984 and 1994 by George F. Bass andCemal Pulak of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology in Texas.

The ships cargo contained about 10 tons of copper in the form of over

350 of the so-called oxhide ingots already known from the wall

paintings in Egypt and from finds in Cyprus, Crete, and elsewhere.

It seems evident that at the time of the shipwreck, the vessel was

sailing westwards, from the east Mediterranean coast, and taking

with it tin, from some eastern source, as well as copper from Cyprus.

The pottery included jars of the type known as Canaanite amphorae,because they were made in Palestine or Syria. The exotic goods in the

wreck included lengths of a wood resembling ebony, which grew in

Africa south of Egypt.


2/5

There was also ivory in the form of elephant and hippopotamus tusks,

possible from the eastern Mediterranean

Bronze tools and weapons from the wreck show a mixture of types thatinclude Egyptian, Levantine, and Mycenaean forms.

His usual circuit probably involved sailing across Cyprus, then along the

Turkish coast, past Kas and west to Crete, or more likely to one of themajor Mycenaean sites on the Greek mainly, or even further north, as

hinted by the discovery on the wreck of spears and a ceremonial

scepter/mace from the Danube region of the Black Sea.

George F. Bass

229 699 The loss represented by the wreck is revealed in the great distances thecargo was transported by land and sea before being loaded aboard for the

voyage.

Yet distinctive shape of the ingots, with four legs or handles, mayrepresent Near Eastern influence.

Other finds include amber, which has since been identified as a type

found in northern Europe, known as Baltic amber. There was also ivory

in the form of elephant and hippopotamus tusks, both probablyoriginating along the Syro-Palestinian coast, and ostrich eggs.

Canaanite amphorae have been found in both Greece and Egypt, and

Cypriot pottery has been identified as Kommos in Crete and in various

parts of Egypt.

Bronze weapons and tools recovered from the Ulu Burun wreck

represent a variety of designs, including Mycenaean, Canaanite, and

Egyptian. Jewelry seems mostly Canaanite.

The ship carried products of at least seven culturesMycenaean Greek,Canaanite, Cypriot, Egyptian, Kassite, Assyrian, and Nubian. Thesevaried products emphasize the economic ties that existed among Bronze

Age kingdoms too often studied today as separate geographic entities.

234 709 I was soon convinced that the Ulu Burun ship nonetheless carried a royal

consignment of some sort dating from the 14th

century B.C.in the LateBronze Age, a period roughly between 1600 and 1050 B.C.

236 713 If we could match such ingots chemically with tin from a known source,


3/5

238 716

we could solve one of the great mysteries of the Bronze Age.

Own: Found bronze dagger in Ulu Burun then found same dagger photoin archaeological report

It had been excavated along with several others just like it at Tell

el-Ajjul, the site of a Canaanite city in southern Palestine.

The information offered strong evidence that our own dagger was

probably Canaanite and dated from the Late Bronze Age.

If one multiples the story of the dagger by 1,224the number of

artifacts we have so far raised and cataloged from the wreck at Ulu

Burunone begins to understand what underwater archaeology is reallyall about.

237 714 However, the unpretentious terra-cotta kylix is of a style popular in theearly 14

thcentury B.C., and it thus serves as a relatively accurate dating

tool

238 716 The great number of copper ingots at Ulu Burun could support a

theory I had help for more than a quarter of a century: that the

Canaanites, or Bronze Age Phoenicians, played a major role in the

maritime commerce of the eastern Mediterranean.

Scholars ask where is the evidence of Canaanite trade in

Mediterranean or the Aegean. Scholars believe that Mycenaeans

held a virtual monopoly on seaborne commerce during the Bronze

Age. They point out the distribution of myc pottery throughoutmedit,

Bass believe that evidence was on land but quickly vanish because it

vanished.

I have long believed that that something was Bronze Age raw

materials such as copper, tin, ivory, glass, and other substances that

were quickly converted on arrival into tools, weapons, ornaments,

and household goods.

Only disaster such as shipwreck would preserve them in their originalform.

239 718

Much later Robert H. Brill, research scientist at the Corning Museum ofGlass in Corning, New York, analyzed one of our glass ingots. He found

it identical in content to blue glass in Egyptian bottles and Mycenaean

medallions dating from the same period as the shipwreck.


4/5

Did Canaanite glassmakerskeeping their formula secretship ingots

of this marvelous and mysterious substance to all parts of the eastern

Mediterranean? Once more the wreck at Ulu Burun demonstrated whatfaint traces, if any, raw materials leave on land.

one thing I can saythis ship definitely was coming from Cyprus

718-19 In the end we found nearly every major type of pottery made on Cyprusduring the Late Bronze Age.

Equally surprising, however, was that the pottery was shipped in a

pithos. Such large, open-mouthed jars appear on the decks of

Canaanite merchant ships in a 14th

-century Egyptian tomb painting.

240 720-21 The humble kylix is of a distinctive shape in vogue only at the end of,and shortly after, the reign of Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III, whoruled from 1417 to 1379 B.C. So out ship probably sank during the early

14th

century

241 722 The raw materials on board the Ulu Burun ship, together with theCypriot pottery and Canaanite amphorae, weapons, and jewelry, all

had eastern Mediterranean connections, establishing our ship was

sailing from east to west when it sank.

241 723 Cemal proudly handed me a scarab of bone or ivory framed in gold and

carved with ornamental hieroglyphs on its base.

Is it possible that someone on this voyage worshipped Ptah, who was not

only an Egyptian creator of the universe but also the patron gold of

craftsmen, especially metalsmiths?

243 726

727

Most of the hundred of Canaanite amphorae we had so far excavated

had been filled with a yellow resin.

the tablets at Knossos likewise refer to huge quantities of resin.

Was it used millennia ago just as it is today, in the making of

perfume, and was it thus considered a very valuable substance?

244 729 In 1985, we had found a number of dark logs on the wreck, the largest ayard long. I assumed they were ebony

It is the same wood used in an elegant bed, a chair, and a stool in

Tutankhamuns tomb.

246 732 Not only was this the first gold scarab ever found of the Exquisite

Beauty of the Aten Nerferiti, as her full name is translated it also wasthe first artifact found in the Asian Minor or the Aegean that names

either the famous Akhenaten or his beautiful wife.


5/5

What Egyptologist, enduring a cruel sun in pith helmet and desert boots,

could have imagined such a discovery coming from the cool blue sea?

classics essay 2 quotes

Documents