Trading with the Wider World
Trading is one of the most important ways in which Wilusa was able to interact with the wider Late Bronze Age Mediterranean world. As a large, well placed city placed right on the bridge between Europe and Asia the evidence suggests that Wilusa was a vibrant city with well established trade links with its neighbours. This favourable position not only appears to have made Wilusa a very prosperous and busy city but it also boosted its political importance and power. On the debit side this very prosperity rendered Wilusa a tempting target for raiders from both sea and land as the political and ecological situation of the Ancient Near East deteriorated. This culminated in its destruction along with the trading network that made it prosperous, during the iconic end bronze age collapse.
Wilusans at Work
Wilusa (or Troy) was perfectly placed to be a trading hub in the wolrd of the Late Bronze Age. As can be seen on the map on the right it lay at the mouth of the Dardanelles that not only straddle the route between Europe and Asia but also guard the Sea of Marmara which connects the Black Sea with the Mediterranean. Sitting at this cross roads not only made Wilusa a natural hub for traders from all four regions but also put them in an ideal position to collect taxes from those wishing to cross between them.
In addition to levying duties from visiting traders, Wilusa also produced trade goods of its own. We have strong archaeological evidence of textile workshops producing large quantities of cloth, including work on small lap looms which produced intricately patterned work such as that worn by the figure on the left, depicted on a roughly contemporary Egyptian tomb. Murex shells found on the site may also be evidence of purple dye production, which would also have been a valuable trade good.
Finally, we have archaeological evidence, including equine skeletons to back up Homer's description of his Trojans as horse breeders and trainers. This evdence is also backed up by written evidence from Hattusas in which the Hittite emperor demands a tribute of Wilusa's famous horses and chariot teams, some of which also fought for the Hittite Emperor at the famous Battle of Kadesh.
Trade with neighbouring states
The Late Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean was a world of jostling powers, city states, Kingdoms and Empires all trading tribute and gifts as well as vying for power and influence (dee top left).
These civilisations communicated and traded via complex networks over lands and sea and the amount of foriegn good and luxuries received by each empire was frequently a source of pride (top right).
These goods were transported either by guarded land caravans or trading ships such as the one wrecked off the coast of Uluburun in Turkiye during this period (centre). The hold of this boat contained ingots of copper and tin and a wide variety of luxury trade goods like the glass sown in the bottom right. Among the most common such goods however were wine or oil produced in Mycenaean Greece, which was transported in distinctive stirrup jars (bottom right), many of which were found in the Troy Vi layer at Hisarlik, which is the city layer I used as a model for the Wilusa that appears in The Wilusiad.
The Wider World
In addition to the direct trade network of the Eastern Mediterranean, where trading ships and caravans carried goods directly between their producers and intended destinations, there is also abundant evidence of indirect trade from further afield, where goods travelled through a series of intermediaries along trade routes that ran for thousands of miles.
One of the earliest examples of this is lapis lazuli, which was prized throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and can be traced to the Sar-e Sang mine in Afghanistan, which is still the oldest working mine in the world today.
Similarly, amber from Denmark has been found in Ancient Egypt, most famously included in the scarab pectoral included amongst the treasures of Tuht ankh amun (centre).
Most crucially for survival in the Late Bronze Age Mediterranean, the tin without which bronze cannot be produced is found nowhere in the local region. Instead Mycenean Linear b tablets record tin ingots being collected from Southern Italy, which would also have had to import them. It has recently been confirmed that this vital material was largely imported to the Eastern Mediterranean from Cornwall in South West England.
