As discussed in chapter 4, the cosmopolitan society of the Late Bronze Age in the eastern Mediterranean came to a violent end between 1200 and 1000 b. c.e. This certainly slowed down trade among the Mediterranean superpowers such as Greece and Egypt, not to mention the production of luxury items. Nevertheless, neither trade nor production for export came to a total halt, and certain parts of Greece flourished during the early Dark Age, especially Athens and the islands of Euboia, the Dodecanese, and Crete.
The primary evidence for contacts between the Greek mainland and Cyprus from the tenth through eighth centuries b. c.e. is imports of Euboian and Attic pottery to Cyprus (Coldstream and Bikai 1988, 42). The earliest find site for post-Bronze Age Greek pottery—exclusively Euboian pottery—on Cyprus is Amathus, a site that probably served as a port of call for east-west trade between Euboia and the Levant (Coldstream and Bikai 1988, 35). This Euboian monopoly on the markets of Cyprus (and the Levant) was maintained throughout the early Dark Age, and it was only in the ninth century that Attic imports began to appear throughout Cyprus (Coldstream and Bikai 1988, 42).
From the opposite direction, both Cypriot and Phoenician artifacts appeared in Greece possibly as early as the late tenth century b. c.e. (Kourou 1997, 220 ff.). This was evident in Euboia, where there is evidence for trade with the Levant via Cyprus at Lefkandi (see chapter 4). The Athenian Kerameikos (the pottery center that gave rise to the word ceramic) began to show evidence of eastern contacts in many of its wealthier graves during the tenth and ninth centuries, such as examples of Cypriot pottery and—even more elaborate— Levantine-style gold jewelry (Kourou 1997, 221; Tzedakis 1979; Coldstream
1977, 55-68). Likewise, Cypriot-style weapons began to appear in Attica in the ninth century, notably an early ninth-century spearhead and shield bosses dating to c. 850 b. c.e. (Demetriou 1989, 75).
To the east, in the Dodecanese, renewed contact with the Near East was evident as early as 925 b. c.e. with the appearance of Cypriot materials in Cos (Coldstream 1998, 255). These materials include pottery—such as Bird-vases, pilgrim flasks, and barrel-jugs—as well as at least one sword (Demetriou 1989, 85). There is, however, no evidence of Dodecanese artifacts in Cyprus in the years 1050-700 b. c.e., although it seems that the Dodecanese probably served as one of the main ports of call on the trade routes between Cyprus and the western Mediterranean (Coldstream 1998, 260). Perhaps the new connections between Cyprus and Greece occurred originally between Cyprus and Euboia-Attica, with ships passing through the Dodecanese.
There is even more evidence for Cypriot and Levantine contacts with the island of Crete during the Dark Age. Starting in the mid-tenth century b. c.e., countless Cypriot ceramics made their way to Crete, where they ended up buried with the more affluent members of Cretan society. Of particular interest is a hemispherical bronze bowl of Cypriot style found in the Fortetsa cemetery near Knossos. This item, dated to c. 900 b. c.e., was inscribed with a Phoenician graffito, not only showing evidence of contacts with Phoenicia, but also serving as one of the earliest examples of an alphabetic script in Greece (Coldstream 1977, 257). Further evidence of Cretan-Phoenician trade comes from southern Crete, especially at the site of Kommos, where not only have shards of Phoenician ceramics come to light, but where the Phoenicians themselves set up a small sanctuary, possibly for use during long trading missions (Shaw 1989, 165 ff.).
It is evident, then, that long-range trade continued through the Dark Age, frequently trade in the luxury items we tend to associate with an elite class. In the absence of direct evidence, we might use this information to suggest that grinding poverty was not the norm during this phase of Greek history and that there was an adequate surplus to support the import of gold jewelry and elegant tablewares.
World History
