Mycenaean Amber: Within the Exchange Network of Mercenaries and Metals

Mycenaean Amber: Within the Exchange Network of Mercenaries and Metals By Konrad Bennett Hughes Dr. Buckingham AMS 7320 Spring 2020 5/17/20 Hughes 1 Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. Amber Trade Network 3. Mycenaean Amber Finds 4. Bernstorf Mercenaries 5. Conclusion 6. Bibliography Table of Figures Figure 1. Bernstorf Settlement Reconstruction. Figure 2. Theorizing Trade Travels and Transmission, model of mobile Bronze Age specialists and institutions. Figure 3. Exchange values and relationship theoretical model. Figure 4. Distribution of octagonal swords. Figure 5. Linear B inscribed lentoid seal stone from tomb 239 in Medeon, Phocis made of bone, dating from LH III. Figure 6. Naue II swords distribution and dating. Figure 7. Gold objects found at Bernstorf. Figure 8. Object A from Bernstorf. Figure 9. Object B from Bernstorf. Figure 10. Detail of fresco from Citadel House at Mycenae. Hughes 2 1. Introduction This paper will synthesize some of the multifaceted arguments about Bronze Age amber finds and trade networks connecting the Baltic and Aegean Sea regions. Bronze Age trade networks were far more complex than previously thought, as recent archaeological discoveries have proven. The items found at the excavations at Bernstorf, Bavaria are paramount in understanding the significance of this complexity, as they show deep political and cultic connections between the elites of Mycenaean Greece and Central Europe. From the amber seal stone incised with Linear B, Object B, to the golden diadem, scepter, and jewelry of Mycenaean origin found at Bernstorf, we can extrapolate many elements of these pre-history societies. By investigating the amber finds in Greece, the distribution of certain swords types across Europe, and the gold and amber items found at Bernstorf, the long distance trade relation of the Late Bronze Age can be directly linked to prestige gift-exchange of amber between chiefly rulers, as it had not only a high value in trade but also social status and ritual properties.1 These exotic prestige items, along with the Naue II swords and their precursors, were highly desirable for both Nordic and Central European chieftains as well as for Mycenaean rulers with the intent of linking themselves with the wider network of ideas and technologies of the societies of Europe in this era. Around 1320 BCE, not far from the Danube, the wooden fortress of Bernstorf, which was built upon a small hill, burned with an intense heat of up to 1350oC (Figure 1). Though it was the largest of its kind north of the Alps, covering 14 hectares,2 it had not stood there in its current 1 C. Horn, and K. Kristiansen. Warfare in Bronze Age Society. Cambridge University Press, 2018, 56; Johan Ling, Timothy Earle, and Kristian Kristiansen. “Maritime Mode of Production: Raiding and Trading in Seafaring Chiefdoms.” Current Anthropology 59, no. 5, 493. 2 Horn and Kristiansen, Warfare, 36. Hughes 3 form for very long, only a generation, but this fortress and others like it served as key components to a vast trade network spanning from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Adriatic and Aegean in the south and beyond into the eastern Mediterranean.3 Before the burning of this trade node, the inhabitants buried several precious items, possibly to keep them from being taken in the foreseeable violence.4 On the west side of the fortresses enclosure two pits were dug. In the pit closest to the timber wall a blob of sand and clay was shaped around one of the incised glowing amber items. We know these two deposits as Amber Object A and B today. Object A depicts a face with possible Linear A or B script, and Object B is inscribed with a Linear B place name, ti-nwa-to, which is identified as the easternmost region of Arcadia in the Further Province of the Pylian Kingdom.5 In the other pit an offering of golden diadem, scepter, and jewelry, all which would have possibly adorned a wooden cultic statue, was folded and placed with great care.6 These ritual items held great significance for the locals’ connections to their far-off trade partners in the Kingdom of Pylos. They had burned exotic incense from southern Arabia in front of this figure before its burial, possibly in conjunction with their sealing of this significant trade partner far to the south on the Aegean coast. Since these mysterious finds’ excavations in 1992 and 2000 the obscurities of these items have been explored in a multitude of ways.7 Richard Janko, “Amber inscribed in Linear B from Bernstorf in Bavaria: New Light on the Mycenaean Kingdom of Pylos” in Bavarian Studies in History and Culture (2019), 3; Rovena Kurti, "Qelibari gjatë periudhës së Bronzit të Vonë dhe të Hekurit në Shqipëri/Amber during Late Bronze Age and Iron Age in Albania." Iliria 36, no. 1, 99. 4 Horn and Kristiansen, Warfare, 34. 5 Janko, “Amber,” 18, 9; Though some scholars still doubt these items’ legitimacy, "curators of the Archäologische Staatssammlung at Munich are certain of the authenticity of both the inscribed amber and the golden objects;" Kristiansen, Kristian, and Thomas B. Larsson. The Rise of Bronze Age Society: Travels, Transmissions and Transformations. Cambridge University Press, 235. 6 Janko, “Amber,” 4, 8; Occupation of the site began in 17th century. Carbon 14 dating shows that the site was then abandoned either from 1376-1327 or 1317-1267, while dendrochronology shows that the logs of the fortifications were felled between 1339 and 1326, “more likely closer to 1339,” so within one generation of the fortifications being built. 7 Anthony Harding, and Helen Hughes-Brock. “Mycenaeans in Bavaria? Amber and Gold from the Bronze Age Site of Bernstorf.” Antiquity 91, no. 359, 1382. 3 Hughes 4 Archaeologists Moosauer, Bachmaier, and more recently Richard Janko have all led the charge in these investigations.8 By incorporating more of the Late Bronze Age scholarship on trade networks by Curt Beck, Kristian Kristiansen, and Paulina Suchowska-Ducke, as well as others, this paper will develop the reasons and means of these amber and gold objects arrival to Bernstorf as well as their wider significance to the time period. 2. Amber Trade Network Where the European Bronze Age was viewed by early scholarship as primitive and insular both socially and politically, with more recent analysis of material evidence, it has become clear that a vast network of trade stretched across the region. Though no direct written evidence exists to corroborate the archaeological, the oral cultures of northern, central, and eastern Europe were more closely connected with the Mediterranean world than previously thought.9 To examine these oral cultures, written evidence from contemporary sources must first be examined. The well documented Old Assyrian trade networks connecting Mesopotamia to Anatolia to Egypt and the Aegean give us a glimpse of what trade might have looked like to the northwest also. In the Middle Bronze Age “the clay tablets on which the merchants recorded their shipment consignments, expenses, and contracts”10 show a complex system of taxation, emporium establishment, and foreign policy.11 Anatolian cities upon these access routes grew to new heights of size within this system, attracting merchants and craftsmen, as well as providing safety from raiding and banditry for their populations, as there can be drawn direct correlations Janko, “Amber,” 1-3. Ana Cruz, and Juan F. Gibaja. Interchange in Pre and Protohistory: Case studies in Iberia, Romania, Turkey and Israel. BAR International Series 2891. Oxford: BAR Publishing, 2018, 87. 10 Gojko Barjamovic, Thomas Chaney, Kerem Coşar, and Ali Hortaçsu. “Trade, Merchants, and the Lost Cities of the Bronze Age,” 1455. 11 Ibid. 1456. Emporiums being trade centers, “ports,” set up to both build local contacts for resources as well as serve as way stations to long distance traveling merchants and caravans; Osgood, R. Warfare in the Late Bronze Age of Northern Europe, 74. 8 9 Hughes 5 with city size and trade access.12 The same model can be placed upon the fortified hill settlements of Bronze Age Europe, though on a smaller population scale. Where choke points occurred in the trade routes, both laterally (North-South) and longitudinally (East-West), an increase in settlement density, particularly hillforts, is apparent.13 The settlement at Bernstorf is certainly one of these locations, as it sits not far from the Danube River, which gave access to the Black Sea, as well as on a direct path from crafting and resource centers in northern and Jutland to northern Adriatic emporiums established by Mycenaeans who wished to tap into this trade network.14 Bernstorf would have served as a midway point for traveling artisans, merchants, and warriors, who could at times all be a part of the same group.15 What these Aegean merchants and magnates were seeking from their trade partners in the north will be discussed further below. In the MHIIIA&B to the LH I/IIA Black Sea trade networks were established extending along the Danube and into the Carpathians. These central European societies were likely just as organized as those in Greece at the time and had trade networks stretching from the Black Sea to Scandinavia. This phase is when we find the first Baltic amber in the Aegean, as well as gold and copper from the Carpathians.16 Amber beads appear in burials17 and hoards, such as Barca, with types similar to those in other European contexts. After 1500 amber was traded via southern Germany with the Tumulus Culture, linking Scandinavia with Mediterranean more directly. Amber might have been brought to Greece to be shaped then sent back north to Wessex in giftexchange (Figure 2). This argument is strengthened when one considers the symbols of power of Barjamovic, “Trade,” 1500. Kristiansen and Horn, Warfare in Bronze Age Society. 41; Osgood, Warfare, 87. 14 Massimo Cultraro, Evidence of amber in Bronze Age Sicily: local sources and the Balkan-Mycenaean connection, 388; Kurti, "Amber during Late Bronze Age and Iron Age in Albania," 100. 15 Kristiansen and Larsson, The Rise of Bronze Age Society, 231. 16 Marija Ljuština, “Amber in the Bronze Age of Serbia: Old Finds and New Discoveries,” University of Belgrade, Serbia, 2019, 99; Kristiansen and Larsson, The Rise of Bronze Age Society, 125. 17 Curt Beck, Analysis and provenience of Minoan and Mycenaean amber, III. Kakovatos, 22. 12 13 Hughes 6 Aegean origin which have direct correlation with those in the north such as scepters, drinking cups, and amber ornaments.18 Crafts and knowledge were a part of this exchange rather than only prestige goods. Just as in trade with the east, Aegean trade with the north was not only based on equal value trade but also exchange (Figure 3). Where pre-monetary trade expects an equal value of items in return, exchange is a form of ceremonial passage between elites, implying unspecified obligations to one another.19 This elite exchange was paramount within societies that had not reached monetary based economy, as well as to establish contacts with other elites in societies from far away, as no one in this period would be transporting a ton of gold or silver hundreds of miles away by land. "The Bronze Age is the age, par excellence, of cosmological power and distance linked to heroic travels of skilled artisans and specialists."20 Long distance travel served as a ritual for social elites as it was highly organized and specialized, adding to the "mystique" of the artisan. Traders and artisans were gifted free passage into unknown lands, acquiring foreign language skills in their journeys. This access to knowledge outside of the local engendered a learning elite to be associated with long distance travel and trade.21 In a world of oral wisdom, this kind of transmission of knowledge is paramount in understanding trade networks of the Bronze Age. The goods brought from far away, signified greater knowledge of the foreign, 18 Kristiansen and Larsson, The Rise of Bronze Age Society, 125. Pydyn, Andrzej, Exchange and Cultural Interaction, 7, 9; Singer, Amber exchange in the Late Bronze Age Levant in Cross-cultural Perspective, 251; Ling, “Maritime Mode of Production.” 504; Ole Christian Aslaksen, ed. Local and Global Perspectives on Mobility in the Eastern Mediterranean. Papers and Monographs from the Norwegian Institute at Athens, Volume 5. Athens: Norwegian Institute of Athens, 2016, 63. 20 Ioanna Galanaki, Between the Aegean and Baltic Seas: prehistory across borders: Proceedings of the International Conference Bronze and Early Iron Age Interconnections and Contemporary Developments between the Aegean and the Regions of the Balkan Peninsula, Central and Northern Europe, University of Zagreb, 11-14 April 2005. 26. 21 Suchowska-Ducke, Paulina. “New Technologies and Transformations in the European Bronze Age: The Case of Naue II Swords,” Bulgarian e-Journal of Archaeology vol. 8, 146, 157; P. L. Cellarosi, R. Chellini, F. Martini, A. C. Montanaro, L. Sarti, and R. M. Capozzi. "The Amber Roads. The Ancient Cultural and Commercial Communication between." Millenni. Studi di Archeologia preistorica 13, 313. 19 Hughes 7 outside of the local, thus lending to their prestige status, as well as the crafting skills which it took to shape them into new forms. Because of their association with status, these long-travelled traders and artisans can then be seen as a proxy representative of the chief at home. The further afield a chief's artisans and traders travelled, the more prestige he had within his own community. Warriors also can be seen to have this social linking status, as many times they travelled far abroad also.22 That is not to say trader, artisan, and warrior could not all be the same person or group of people.23 A group of skilled craftsmen, who both traded their wares and fought when in need of extra payment or when the opportunity struck, is a well-known archetype within 9th century CE Rus-Varangian society, which shared these same non-literate and longtravelled aspects of their cultures. Traders went north with advanced metalworking techniques and resources, and returned with amber, or vice-versa. Two types of swords are found in abundance in Europe during this period which show unique aspects of trade. "The octagonal hilted sword can be regarded as a kind of "passport" or social identification of a certain group of chiefly traders and specialists, just as the flange hilted sword was the social identification of the "professional" warrior."24 Kristiansen proposes that the full-hilted (Riegsee) with an octagonal hilt (Dreiwulst) swords would have served as a symbol from trade while the flange-hilted swords would have been closely linked with mercenary service, by close analysis of their distribution, usage, and find contexts (Figure 4). The octagonal hilted swords show very little if any usage while the flangehilted swords show a great amount of wear, losing almost all decoration in some instances.25 Alliances and confederacies were built with these kinds of services as well as with marriages 22 Galanaki, Between, 27; Aslaksen, Local and Global Perspectives, 65, 70, 75. Ljuština, “Amber in the Bronze Age of Serbia,” 99. 24 Galanaki, Between, 31. 25 Horn and Kristiansen, Warfare, 32. 23 Hughes 8 between groups of elites. This passage of warrior-trader-artisans through the land of other chieftains, covering immense distances, signifies an extremely interconnected BA world, rather than the simple model traditionally given limiting groups to local trade and little long-distance travel. As more and more evidences are excavated and investigated, using the World Systems model of trade in Bronze Age economics becomes more effective.26 The world of the Bronze Age was deeply connected through these bonds from the Baltic to the Eastern Mediterranean. Mycenaean colonies of the MH and LH in Sicily and Southern Italy point towards this exchange with the north also. Around the same time as the Mycenaean takeover of the “Minoan maritime empire” the trade routes north also saw upheaval.27 From 1600 to 1500 the Tumulus culture expanded eastward into the Carpathian basin, causing the disruption of this society and the former trade routes. Excavations show new groups of people in the region henceforth. The conquered Carpathian groups then likely served as mercenaries to the intruders, while their elite women married into Tumulus culture society.28 Rather than the Mycenaean takeover being the cause of this shirt in trade routes, there is more evidence to support that this shift aided this change in supremacy in the Aegean region. Since the Early Bronze Age Brittany, Wessex, and Ireland amber played an integral part in exchanges of luxury goods, coming from Denmark in exchange for metals. This network also linked with the Mediterranean one, which can be seen by a number of similar Mediterranean finds in both areas, as well as similarities in grave customs with those of the Mycenaeans and Central Europeans in MHII.29 Foreign exotic goods are also prevalent in the Aegean, such as 26 Galanaki, Between, 48, 136. Kristiansen and Larsson, The Rise of Bronze Age Society, 127. 28 Janko, “Amber,” 11. 29 Kristiansen and Larsson, The Rise of Bronze Age Society, 122. 27 Hughes 9 amber from Baltic, horse gear from Carpathians/Russia, as well as sword types in the Late Bronze Age.30 The Mycenaeans were tapping into a wider European trade network of goods and technologies, as well as Anatolian, Egyptian, and Near East contacts via the Minoans. The Ulu Burun shipwreck, dating from 1340 to 1305 BCE, exemplifies the interconnectivity of the European and Mediterranean two trade networks as well as shining light upon the modes of trade which likely took place.31 Exotic items from Egypt to the Baltic are found within this ship’s holds, including Canaanite jars filled with faience beads, blue glass ingots, logs of ebony and ivory from Africa, 40 Baltic amber beads, as well as 10 tons of copper oxhide ingots likely from Cyprus and nearly 1 ton of tin possibly from further east in Afghanistan.32 There are also two Italian type swords, likely carried by Mycenaean elites who were serving as trade envoys to their eastern partners. These sword types were developed first in Central Europe and through the 15th and 14th centuries became popular not only in Italy but also in the Aegean.33 The Baltic amber present with this array of Near Eastern goods was not likely part of the trade goods, but rather personal adornment items of the Mycenaean aboard the ship. This amber was obtained through gift-exchange with groups from Central Europe, including those who lived at Bernstorf. 30 Galanaki. Between, 30; Kristiansen and Larsson, The Rise of Bronze Age Society, 125-127 52; Shelmerdine, Cynthia W., ed. The Cambridge Companion to the Aegean Bronze Age. Cambridge University Press, 2008, 389; Carole Gillis, ed. “Trade and Production in Premonetary Greece: Aspects of Trade.” In Third International Workshop. Athens, 1993, 62. 31 George Bass, “Evidence of Trade from Bronze Age Shipwrecks, Bronze Age Trade in the Mediterranean: Papers Presented at the Conference Held at Rewley House, Oxford, in December 1989, 74-75; George Bass Cemal Pulak, Dominique Collon, and James Weinstein. “The Bronze Age Shipwreck at Ulu Burun: 1986 Campaign.” American Journal of Archaeology 93, 2. 32 Kristiansen and Larsson, The Rise of Bronze Age Society, 101; Janko, “Amber,” 58. 33 Janko, “Amber,” 11; Louise Schofield, The Mycenaeans. Getty Trust Publications. J. Paul Getty Museum, 126, 177. Hughes 10 3. Mycenaean Amber Finds The amber found in Mycenaean contexts mostly comes from grave goods and hoards. Both male and female graves have an abundance of items, mostly beads, shaped from Baltic amber, though there is some ambiguity to older finds as scientific methods of defining Baltic amber have improved greatly since the early 20th century.34 Early Mycenaean archaeologists determined the provenience of amber artifacts by physico-chemical means, sometime burning the amber and determining its provenance by smell or dissolving it in chemical solutions or just claiming that Baltic amber was darker than that from Iberia, Sicily, or Romania.35 Determining amber’s origin through modern scientific includes using (FTIR) Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy.36 Amber from the Baltic has a distinct absorption peak in the 1160-1150cm which is proceeded by a flat band between 1250 and 1180 cm, this peak is called the "Baltic Shoulder".37 However, since some of the older methods destroyed the sample, we cannot determine all amber objects provenance. The grave goods of Mycenaean elites have been determined to have a significant number of Baltic amber objects, though some of the objects have questionable provenance. Mycenaean women's jewelry often incorporated amber as well as lapis lazuli glass and faience beads. The amber beads would have glowed in ancient times, though now they are dull due to exposure to the atmosphere.38 These complex amber necklaces not only occur in female burials Mycenean burials but also in Southern Germany, near Bernstorf.39 Gold and electrum jewelry as well as Joseph Maran, “Bright as the Sun: The Appropriation of Amber Objects in Mycenaean Greece,” 148. Curt Beck, Analysis and provenience of Minoan and Mycenaean amber, I, 191. 36 Beck, Analysis and provenience of Minoan and Mycenaean amber, III. Kakovatos, 22; Curt Beck, Analysis and provenience of Minoan and Mycenaean amber, V. Pylos and Messenia, 122, 126. 37 Ana Cruz, Juan F. Gibaja, Interchange in Pre- and Protohistory, 86-87; Beck, Analysis and provenience of Minoan and Mycenaean amber, V. Pylos and Messenia, 119. 38 Shelmerdine, Aegean, 252, 276. 39 Galanaki, Between, 31; Kristiansen and Larsson, The Rise of Bronze Age Society, 234. 34 35 Hughes 11 amber beads have been found in Mycenaean Grave Circle B, from the MBA, Grave Beta, indicating wider trade relation had already begun to be established in this MBA period.40 In later phase of Grave Circle B, Grave Omicron (early 16th century) held a woman of elite status with a number of prestige goods. She was wearing a "diadem of gold bands, necklaces of gold flying birds, amber, cornelian and amethyst," which points toward a continued to high status of amber through the Middle and Late Bronze Age. These beads found in Grave Omicron have close parallels with "the Upton Lovell necklace from contemporary Bronze Age Wessex Culture in Britain.”41 Mycenaean Warrior Graves also have an abundance of with amber beads,42 as well as the 1200 BCE Attic chamber tomb graves at Perati which also include exotic items from the east such as a Syrian knife and Egyptian scarabs and glass.43 Baltic amber finds in Minoan contexts from a tholos at Porti,44 fifty-nine samples from the tholoi at Mycenaean Kakovatos,45 Pylos Graves 1 and 2, and the Vayenas tholos46 ranging from the Middle to the Late Bronze age, show that these items were of significant prestige value to Aegean cultures for centuries. There are also three possible amber find which point towards their usage as seal-stones in Mycenaean bureaucracy. The first comes from the Mycenaean Chamber Tomb 518, dating from LHI-II, which depicts the figure of a bull,47 much like the translucent Agate seal-stone from Phigalia, Arcadia now held in the Museum of Art and Archaeology at the University of Missouri’s collection, which dates from LHIIB-LHIIIA.48 Another possible amber seal stone was 40 Schofield, Mycenaeans, 34 Ibid. 65. 42 Ibid. 103. 43 Ibid. 178. 44 Beck, Analysis and provenience of Minoan and Mycenaean amber, I, 201. 45 Beck, Analysis and provenience of Minoan and Mycenaean amber, III. Kakovatos, 22. 46 Beck, Curt W., and Lily Y. Beck. "Analysis and provenience of Minoan and Mycenaean amber, V. Pylos and Messenia," 122, 126. 47 Janko, “Amber,” 17. 48 Museum of Art and Archaeology at University of Missouri Collection. “Argus: Collections – Object 57.8.” 41 Hughes 12 found in the tholos tomb at Pellana in Laconia from LHIIIA. A third example of a possible amber seal stone comes from tholos Tomb 1 at Routsi in Messenia, from LHIIIA period, possibly inscribed with the image of a human head, like Object A from Bernstorf, and possibly having Linear A or B inscription.49 These prove that amber was worked after its arrival to Greece, possibly by local or transitory artisans. There is also a Linear B inscribed lentoid seal stone from tomb 239 in Medeon, Phocis made of bone, dating from LH III (Figure 5).50 These items not only set the precedence for Objects A and B from Bernstorf legitimacy but also their possible usage within elite society which will be discussed further in the final segment of this paper’s argument. 4. Bernstorf Mercenaries To explain the significance of the amber and gold items found at Bernstorf, we now turn to the commodities and avenues which this gift-exchange took place. While oxhide ingots, new technologies, and prestige goods flowed north from the Aegean through the Mycenaean settlements in the Adriatic, amber and mercenaries flowed south from central and northern Europe.51 These elite warrior-artisans brought not only goods for trade but strength of arms with them. The distribution of Naue type II swords and their precursors, Dreiwulst and Riegsee, the flanged and octagonal hilted swords,52 in not only the Aegean but also in the Eastern Mediterranean, shows that a significant number of fighting and crafting individuals lived within Mycenaean Greece (Figure 6). In 13th century, Central European/Italian Flanged swords are found in the Aegean, while Mycenaean armor is also found in central Europe, possibly pointing Janko, “Amber,” 17. Ibid. 17. 51 Kristiansen and Larsson, The Rise of Bronze Age Society, 234; Suchowska-Ducke, “New Technologies,” 49 50 147. 52 Galanaki, Between, 31. Hughes 13 to returning warriors to central Europe from campaign under Mycenaean leadership, likely as mercenaries.53 "Warriors often formed special group identities (sodalities) that linked them in a spatial network defined by rules of special behavior and etiquette." We find institutions of this kind not only in later historiographic evidence with the Masaai of Africa, the Samurai of Japan, and the Vikings of Scandinavia, but also "in many Indo-European texts that describe the organization of such armed young warrior sodalities from India to Europe, probably with roots in the third millennium herding societies of the steppe and an important mechanism behind their expansion."54 These models of warrior culture are not delegated to one culture alone but shared by a host of interlocking social groups. In Southern Scandinavia, Jutland, there is a clear connection to Mycenean customs in body care items which is not found in the intermediate area between. Scandinavian elites used razors and tweezers like Mycenean elites after 1500 BCE. This can only be explained with close ties between travelling warrior elites from Scandinavia to Greece and back. These warriors were also likely traders too. The dual rulership model of the Mycenean Wanax and Lawagetas seems to also have been adapted in the Nordic Realm, however this might be explained by a shared Indo-European tradition dating further back in time.55 Indo-European warrior cultures have a long standing tradition of trading young men as foster sons and brothers to other groups to enhance their prestige and closely tie their societies together.56 The profundity of these evidences in certainly complex and very difficult to pick apart, however, without these many fluctuating elements, the finds at Bernstorf make little sense. 53 Horn and Kristiansen, Warfare, 27. Ibid. 27. 55 Ibid. 34. 56 Kristiansen and Larsson, The Rise of Bronze Age Society, 235. 54 Hughes 14 The Bernstorf items themselves also reveal much of their journey northward to this hillfort when closely scrutinized. The golden objects, including diadem scepter and jewelry, are of 99.7% purity by weight (Figure 7).57 Only one item from Mycenean context shows a similar purity, a sword handle from Chamber Tomb 12 (the "Cuirass Tomb") at Dendra in the Argolid, dating from LHIIIA1, while all others of this high level of purity from this time period come from Egypt.58 The gold crown found at Bernstorf has direct correlations with three golden crowns found in the Aegean, two in the Peloponnese, one of which from Mochlos Grave VI, and one on Crete,59 as well as a depiction in a fresco from Xesta 3 at Thera.60 Though these items might have been crafted by a workshop closer to Bernstorf, their connection to Mycenaean form and iconography are undeniable. The amber Objects A and B from Bernstorf are the most significant find, however, and must now be addressed. Object A is incised with a bearded face, possibly the ruler of the Ti-nwato region of the Pylian Kingdom’s Further Province,61 and what might be Linear A or B,62 as well as a possible ideographic depiction of the golden scepter found nearby (Figure 8).63 Alone this item might overlooked as a forgery or anomaly as there is much to be guessed at in its context and significance, but with the other amber object and the gold nearby the trade connections between Bernstorf and Mycenaean Pylos become more clear. Janko, “Amber,” 9. Ibid. 9. The golden mask of Tutankhamun is 97-98% pure, a ring from Amarna is 98.2% pure, and gold from the "coffin of Akhenaten” in the Valley of the Kings is 99% pure. 59 Kristiansen and Larsson, The Rise of Bronze Age Society, 208. 60 Janko, “Amber,” 4. 61 Ibid. 47. 62 Ibid. 17. 63 Ibid. 59. 57 58 Hughes 15 Object B, which was found surrounded by “a matrix of local (to Bernstorf) sand and clay,”64 retained its bright amber glow for millennia because of this sealing. It’s reverse is convex with a small conical hole of .35-.31 cm in diameter drilled through it, much like the agate seal-stone mentioned earlier.65 Likely both of these items were worn on the wrist of an elite, and in the Bernstorf context that of an elite trade envoy from Mycenaean lands, as depicted in the fresco from the Citadel House in Mycenae (Figure 10).66 Two thin strips of gold sheet, the same thickness as the gold jewelry found nearby, were found deep within the hole.67 This connection to the nearby gold object is strengthened by the image on the obverse, which, underneath the Linear B, might depict an ideograph of the gold diadem (Figure 9).68 The Linear B script written above this image of a crown have several interpretations. However, Richard Janko reliably concludes that it reads Ti-nwa-to. Though this word is unknown in Linear B elsewhere, it has direct linkage as a proper noun to the adjective ti-nwa-si-jo which is attested in the Pylos and Knossos tablets as the eastern Arcadian region of the Pylian Kingdom’s Further Province.69 If placed within the context of the other possible seal stones made of amber found within Mycenaean contexts, this item becomes extremely important in understanding these Bronze Age trade relations. 64 65 57.8.” Ibid. 5. Museum of Art and Archaeology at University of Missouri Collection. “Argus: Collections – Object Janko, “Amber,” 49. Ibid. 7. 68 Ibid. 59. 69 Ibid. 23. Pylos Tablets Fn 324.12, Jn 431.23, Vn 1191, Ea 810, Nn 831, Aa 699, Ab 190, Ad 684, Jo 438, On 300, and Knossos in Tablet L 698. 66 67 Hughes 16 5. Conclusion By placing Janko’s arguments within the context of Aegean-Baltic trade relations presented by Kristiansen and Suchowska-Ducke,70 I come to agree with one of his several proposed arguments for these objects’ presence in Bernstorf. Though it is possible that these items arrived from indirect trade or seizure through raid, the probability of their being part of an elite gift-exchange for warriors to serve in either the Pylian Kingdom or one of their subsidiaries, Ti-nwa-to being the most likely, has the most evidence to back it up. The extensive distribution of weaponry crafted in a central or northern European context within Mycenaean Greece and the Near East, point toward far-traveled warriors bringing amber with them in their seeking copper ingots from the Aegean. The instability of the Bronze Age collapse might even have its roots within these warriors from far away, as they could have been used by subsidiary regions in attempts to overthrow their overlords, then possibly have turned upon their hirers to raid the rich Eastern Mediterranean with the aid of local groups of dispossessed and oppressed peoples. If we want to find a nucleus to the “Sea Peoples” maybe it can be found in the landlocked regions of central Europe, maybe at Bernstorf. 70 Suchowska-Ducke, Paulina. “New Technologies,” 154. Hughes 17 Figure 1. Bernstorf Settlement Reconstruction. (Turecek, Igor. “Bronze Age Inscriptions on the Ambers of Bernstorf.”) Hughes 18 Figure 2. Theorizing Trade Travels and Transmission, model of mobile Bronze Age specialists and institutions. (Kristiansen, Bronze Age Trade and Migration, 159.) Hughes 19 Figure 3. Exchange values and relationship theoretical model (Kristiansen, Rise of Bronze Age, 113, Developed from Renfrew 2001.) Hughes 20 Figure 4. Distribution of octagonal swords. (Galanaki, Between the Aegean and Baltic Seas, 34.) Hughes 21 Figure 5. Linear B inscribed lentoid seal stone from tomb 239 in Medeon, Phocis made of bone, dating from LH III. (Janko, “Amber,” 17.) Hughes 22 Figure 6. Naue II swords distribution and dating. (Suchowska-Ducke, Paulina, “New Technologies,” 153.) Hughes 23 Figure 7. Gold objects found at Bernstorf. (Janko, “Amber,” 3.) Hughes 24 Figure 8. Object A from Bernstorf. (Janko, “Amber,” 4.) Hughes 25 Figure 9. Object B from Bernstorf. (Janko, “Amber,” 7.) Hughes 26 Figure 10. Detail of fresco from Citadel House at Mycenae. (Janko, “Amber,” 49.) Hughes 27 6. Bibliography 1. Aslaksen, Ole Christian, ed. Local and Global Perspectives on Mobility in the Eastern Mediterranean. Papers and Monographs from the Norwegian Institute at Athens, Volume 5. Athens: Norwegian Institute of Athens, 2016. 2. 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