It is worth recalling that the Mycenaean galley was the largest and most technologically advanced machine of its time, and the resources and organizational capacity of the palaces may have been required to build and maintain a galley fleet. Although it is uncertain how extensively Mycenaean ships traveled around the Mediterranean in pursuit of trade and diplomatic missions (see the discussion in Chapter 2), certain materials, particularly metals, were imported from overseas and controlled carefully by the palaces. The Linear B tablets from Pylos provide compelling textual evidence for palatial oversight of building, finding crews for, and sailing ships, at least in Messenia (Palaima 1991: 284—86). The personnel drafted for these tasks are listed or named. Shipbuilders (na-u-do-mo) are mentioned on two tablets at Pylos. On Vn 865, na-u-do-mo is the heading
Of a list of 12 names, each followed by the numeral 1, probably indicating 12 shipbuilders assigned to construct one ship each. On Na 568, a group of men with this title is recorded with a single place name and an exemption of 50 units of flax while they are supervising construction. The title e-re-e-u, found on several tablets at Pylos, seems to refer to an official in charge of rowers. The rowers themselves were recruited from a number of coastal towns, apparently as part of an annual levy organized using the same principles as Mycenaean taxation; they performed their services in exchange for land use rights (Killen 1983). The association of at least one of the absent rowers on tablet An 724 with the lawagetas, a military leader, suggests that these records refer to a military, rather than commercial, fleet.
At least seven names occurring in the Linear B archives at Knossos and Pylos derive from roots associated with maritime activities, translatable as “Ship-Famous," “Fine-Ship," “Swift-Ship," “Ship-Starter," “Shipman," “Fine-Harborer," and “Fine-Sailing" (Palaima 1991: 284). Intriguingly, however, the men with these names appear mainly as herders, as well as two bronze smiths at Pylos; none is recorded pursuing a maritime activity. One way to interpret the lack of correlation between name and occupation is that as the palace states reorganized and consolidated their economies, workers from across the economic spectrum were co-opted to the large, palatially controlled industries, including metallurgy and other craft manufacturing, and the production of wool on Crete and linen at Pylos. One of the political consequences of economic restructuring by Minoan and Mycenaean states tended to be that traditional ties between communities and their landscapes and subsistence practices were severed (Haggis 2002). Even so, skilled seamen would have been prime candidates for the annual levy of rowers. We might imagine that many such names existed among members of specialized maritime communities throughout the Mycenaean world; on the other hand, these could be very old names that had long since lost any exclusive association with the original occupation, much as names like Smith, Miller, and Carter have done in English-speaking countries today.
The Linear B scribes did not concern themselves with localized coastal activities such as fishing, presumably because the palaces had neither the interest nor the ability to exert direct control over a ubiquitous resource with little potential for profitable specialization. Products of the sea must have been widely available in local markets, and the palace may have used agents or other means of acquiring them as needed. The practices of fishing and short-distance voyaging for social and economic purposes must have continued, both within and beyond the palatial territories, without hiatus during the Mycenaean period. In other words, these traditional activities tend to persist regardless of the vagaries of political organization.
The matter, discussed in Chapters 2 and 3, of whether maritime commercial activity was carried out in state-controlled ships or commissioned to private merchant vessels that may have been partially or fully independent of the palace, is unlikely to be resolved soon, barring the discovery of a series of tablets that explicitly addresses overseas trade. The same may be said for Wedde's (2005) argument from the Pylos tablets that a “galley subculture," composed of captains, helmsmen, and rowers, arose on the Messenian coast to challenge the authority of the palace in LHIIIB (Chapter 3). This is one plausible interpretation of the apparently ominous circumstances under which rowers were recruited in one document (made up of tablets An 657, 654, 519, 656, and 661) bearing the heading, “Thus the watchers are guarding the coastal regions" (Chadwick 1994: 173—79). Whether the galley crews helped to topple the palace, or instead came to the aid of the palatial elites in a time of grave danger (Wachsmann 1999), we may infer minimally the existence of a seafaring community with specialized, highly valued knowledge and skills — helmsmen and navigators being most obviously in demand. To what extent that community operated independent of the palace, we cannot say with certainty, but we can propose with some confidence that the state controlled some aspects of seafaring — such as military operations and long-distance trade — while leaving the rest in private hands. Thus, the Linear B archives do not offer an unambiguous portrait of a maritime community, but the pattern of palatial political and economic interests revealed in the tablets points to an aggressive but limited oversight of nautical affairs, leaving much room for traditional coastal activities.
World History
