Villing, A. (2017), ‘Greece and Egypt: reconsidering early contact and exchange’, in: Mazarakis-Ainian, A., Alexandridou, A. and Charalambidou, X. (eds), Regional Stories Towards a New Perception of the Early Greek World, Volos, 563-596 (original) (raw)
Related papers
In the Midst of the “Great Green”: Egypto- Aegean Trade and Exchange
In Jeffrey Spier, Timothy Potts, and Sara E. Cole (eds.), Beyond the Nile. Egypt and the Classical World, Los Angeles (Getty Museum), pp. 24-28, 2018
The mid- second millennium BC was a period of unprecedented contact between Egypt and the Aegean. It was long thought that most of the contact between these two regions was indirect and largely controlled by Cypriote and Levantine middlemen. Recent discover-ies (for example, the Minoan- style frescoes at Tell el- Dab‘a and new interpretations of known material (such as the new reconstruction of the Gurob ship- cart model or the identification of Mycenaeans on a pictorial papyrus from Tell el- ‘Amarna have made this scenario increasingly tenuous; and evidence suggests that there was, in fact, significant direct contact between Egypt and the Aegean. The means by which this contact was maintained, however, still largely escape the archaeologist's gaze. Nonetheless, through analysis of contempo-rary texts and the archaeological record, it is possible to recon-struct some aspects of interstate contact, including the types of ships that were used and the people they may have carried, the sea routes traversed, and the persons and institutions that prompted the voyages across the “Great Green.”
Panel Organizer and Chair: Matthew Skuse Panelists: Matthew Skuse - 'Scarabs, Sailors, and Seaside Sanctuaries: Pre-Naukratis Evidence for Archaic Greek Interactions with Egypt' Hannah Ringheim - 'Greek Mercenaries in Saite Egypt during the 7th and 6th Centuries B.C.: Revisiting the Archaeological Evidence in the Nile Delta' Kira Hopkins - 'Herodotean Influences on Saite Egypt' Justin Yoo - 'The Statue of Pedon: A Re-Assessment and Re-Analysis from both sides of a Disciplinary Divide' Panel Abstract: Traditionally, discussions of Greek interactions with Egypt in the Archaic Period have been dominated by the consideration of a small number of common features – mercenaries, merchants, royal gifts, and Naukratis - the features which Herodotus describes to us, and which have appeared validated by archaeological finds at Naukratis and Tel Defenneh. Naturally, however, Herodotus cannot be expected to have provided a complete or unproblematic picture of Graeco-Egyptian interactions. This panel brings together different disciplines (Ancient History, Archaeology, and Egyptology) in order to demonstrate how the utilisation of a broader range of evidence and approaches can challenge, and contribute new perspectives to, the conventional and largely Herodotean narrative of Graeco-Egyptian interactions in the Archaic Period. The panel begins by considering evidence for archaic Greek interactions with Egypt which pre-date the foundation of Naukratis and Psammetichus I’s use of Greek mercenaries (SKUSE). The ensuing two papers (RINGHEIM, HOPKINS) scrutinise, in turn, modern and ancient accounts of Greek mercenaries in Egypt against archaeological evidence. The final paper (YOO) concludes the panel by demonstrating the benefits of a holistic, interdisciplinary approach through the discussion of a specific object, an Egyptian statue used as a votive by a Greek mercenary. Together, these papers will highlight some of the new findings which can be drawn from the consideration of classical texts and material culture in parity. Full abstracts of all papers: http://www.ed.ac.uk/files/atoms/files/final\_abstracts\_list\_ca2016.pdf
The Egyptian Interest in Mycenaean Greece
Connections between Egypt and the Mycenaean world have often been understood in terms of indirect exchange, via middlemen on Cyprus and in the Levant. This view is mainly informed by the relative paucity of Mycenaean pottery found in Egypt, especially when compared to the large amounts of Mycenaean pottery found on Cyprus and the Levant. It will be argued in this article that connections between Egypt and Mycenae were of direct, diplomatic nature and that various different missions can be identified over the course of the 15th to 13th centuries BC. Moreoever, it is argued that, as a result of these connections, Mycenaeans may well have settled in the land of the Nile -serving the Pharaoh in different capacities. To that purpose, the article presents a range of archaeological, iconographical and textual evidence coming both from Egypt and the Mycenaean world.
"Egypt" in A Companon to Greeks across the Ancient World
Blackwell Companion to Greeks Across the Ancient Worldd, 2020
Greeks, broadly defined, had a long historical relationship with Egypt (Map 3). That is already clear in the Ionian geographers' fascination with Egypt and the Nile River of which Herodotus's Histories Book 2 treatise on Egypt was a kind of summa (de Meulenaere 1951; Lloyd 1975-1988; Asheri, Lloyd, and Corcella 2007). Greek speculation that summer monsoonal rains in east Africa caused the annual flood was confirmed by explorers sent to east Africa by the Ptolemies (Malinowski 2014). It remained the best account of Egypt until the decipherment of Egyptian in the nineteenth century opened, for the first time, the understanding of Egypt in Egyptian terms. But the intimate and complex relationship between the Greek world and Egypt extends back a thousand years before that. "Thebes of a hundred gates" is already in Homer (Il. 9.383), but we can go deep into the Bronze Age to examine the intimate cultural and economic connections Egypt, especially the Delta, had with other cultures of the Mediterranean (Broodbank 2013). The famous Uluburun shipwreck reveals something of the very wide exchange network in the eastern Mediterranean basin in which Egypt was a part (Pulak 1997, 2008). Archaeological work at the Egyptian Delta site of Avaris has revealed Cretan connections; Greece borrowed from Egypt, never the other way around, according to Herodotus, although it is difficult to imagine, without needing to go as far as Bernal's Black Athena hypothesis, to suggest that the Egypt-Greece relationship was not to some extent reciprocal in the Bronze Age. With the emergence of the Iron Age, the relationship is clearer, and the presence of Greeks living in Egypt grew from perhaps a few thousand under the Saite kings of the seventh and sixth century BC to perhaps hundreds of thousands under the Ptolemies, amounting to something between 5 and 10% of an estimated 3.5 million. The Ptolemaic Egypt Joseph G. Manning CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
When we speak of contacts between Egypt and Greece before the time of Alexander, we should divide these contacts into twohistorical phases: the first comprises the contactsbetween Egypt and the Minoans (c. 3000 – 1400BCE) and Mycenaeans (c. 1600 – 1100 BCE) andthe second, the contacts between Egypt and theGreeks/Hellenes (c. 800 – 332 BCE) so we go on to describe ”—The peoples of the Aegean—can be observed since the beginning of Greekcivilization. Both the Minoans and the Mycenaeans had intensive trade relations with Egypt andused Egyptian prototypes to craft their own objects, adapting the original Egyptian meanings intotheir own cultural contexts. In Egypt, Minoan and Mycenaean influence can be traced in thecraftsmanship of pottery and textiles. The relations between Greece and Egypt in the Archaic andClassical Periods were based mainly on trade, but Greek mercenaries gained special importance for Egypt during the Egypto-Persian struggles of the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. While Egypt profited from these contacts, Hellenic culture seems nevertheless to have had little influence on Egypt. Greece, in contrast, profited from Egyptian goods such as papyrus and grain. Moreover, Egyptian wisdom was held in high esteem in Greece. When we speak of contacts between Egypt and Greece before the time of Alexander, we should divide these contacts into twohistorical phases: the first comprises the contactsbetween Egypt and the Minoans (c. 3000 – 1400BCE) and Mycenaeans (c. 1600 – 1100 BCE) andthe second, the contacts between Egypt and theGreeks/Hellenes (c. 800 – 332 BCE) from the timethe Greeks entered the scene of history in the eighthcentury until the conquest of Egypt by Alexander. The two phases are separated by the so-called Dark Ages between the fall of the Mycenaean civilizationand the formation of the Greek polis culture. Tospeak of “Egypto-Hellenic culture” poses questionsof both definition and chronology. Does “Hellenicculture” define only the culture of Archaic andClassical Greece, or can the first phase of Minoanand Mycenaean Greece also be included? Since the -Mycenaeans were clearly Greeks as we know fromtheir Linear B script, they are subsumed under theEgyptian-Greek contacts. It is improbable, however,that the Minoans were Greeks as their Linear Ascript is not a Greek dialect and has not beendeciphered. A discussion of their relations withEgypt is nevertheless important to ourunderstanding of the Mycenaean contacts. Phase I Minoan-Egyptian relations Occupying the island of Crete, the Minoans wereskilled sailors who had established hegemony in the Aegean; it was therefore natural that they madecontact with neighboring civilizations. With Egyptthey established mainly economic relations as far ascan be judged by archaeological evidence. Firstcontacts between Crete and Egypt are attested by afragment of a 1st or 2nd Dynasty Egyptian obsidian vase found in Crete in an EM-II-A stratum (Warrenand Hankey 1989: 125, fig. 1, tab. 1a), testifying to(indirect?) trading contacts since earliest historicaltimes. There were three possible routes by which theMinoans (or their trade goods) could have traveledto Egypt. First, there was the direct passage over350 miles of open sea, which does not seem verylikely. The second option was to sail within sight ofthe shore along the Levantine coast (and probablytrade with the settlements there) to (later) Pelusium. The third, and most likely, passage was to cross theMediterranean to (later) Cyrene and then sail alongthe coast to Egypt (cf. Kemp and Merrillees 1980; Wachsmann 1998). The Minoans valued gold,alabaster, ivory, semiprecious stones, and ostricheggs, but Egyptian stone vessels and scarabs werealso found in Crete (Philips 2008). Some scholarsmaintain that Egyptian craftsmen were present onthe island, based upon a statuette (14 cm high) of anEgyptian goldsmith called User that was found atKnossos (cf. Edel 1990); this single example,however, should not be considered as evidence forthe migration of Egyptian craftsmen. In addition tothese items of Egyptian origin, a certain adaptationof Egyptian styles in Minoan art is apparent(Panagiotopoulos 2004). The Minoan artisans usedsome Egyptian elements eclectically, adjusting oradapting their meaning to new contexts.Conversely, Egypt imported Minoan pottery,metal vessels, and jewelry, and probably also wine,olive oil, cosmetics, and timber, as the archaeologicalrecord proves. We know that the first Minoanartifacts found in Egypt do not date prior to thetime of Amenemhat II (1928 – 1893 BCE), becausefrom his times Middle-Minoan pottery (so-calledKamares ware) is attested. All in all, Minoan culturehad at least some influence in Egypt, as can bejudged from Egyptian copies of Kamares ware(Kemp and Merrillees 1980: 39, 67ff.; cf. theMinoanizing small can from Qubbet el-Hawa near Aswan: Edel 1980: 200 - 201, 204; for Tell el-Dabaa:Höflmayer 2012). Even Minoan textiles seem tohave been appreciated by the Egyptian elite, as Aegean textile patterns were copied on the walls oftombs from the reigns of Hatshepsut and ThutmoseIII (Kantor 1947; Shaw 1970). The pinnacle of Minoan-Egyptian relations canbe dated to the beginning of Egypt’s 18th Dynasty.Having already established good relations with theHyksos, the Minoans stayed in close contact with anumber of Egyptian pharaohs as well, as is provenby Minoan frescoes found in two palaces at Tell el-Dabaa/Avaris in the Nile delta (fig. 1). It was at firstassumed that these royal houses were decoratedduring the rule of the Hyksos kings (cf. Bietak 1996;Bietak et al. 2007), but this view has been revised. Itis now clear from the stratigraphical evidence thatthe palaces date to the Thutmosid era (Bietak 2005,but cf. the results of 14C dating by Kutschera et al.2012). Contemporary with this evidence from LowerEgypt are scenes in seven Theban tombs of 18th-Dynasty high court officials that show Minoanlegates from Keftiu (as Crete is called in Egyptiantexts) bearing tribute ( jnw ) (Wachsmann 1987). According to some scholars, these scenes bear witness to reciprocity of political contacts ratherthan formal tribute to a dominant partner (cf.Zaccagnini 1987; Bleiberg 1996; Hallmann 2007). Thus the Minoan frescoes in the Lower Egypt andthe pictorial evidence in tombs of almost the sameperiod in Upper Egypt underscore rich cultural,economic, and eventually even political, contactsbetween Egypt and the Minoan civilization duringthe 18th Dynasty, just before the time of Akhenaten. This is corroborated by the fact that some Egyptianscribes seem to have known the Minoan language.