ABSTRACT.This contribution examines the extensive international maritime exchange networks that developed in the Eastern Mediterranean during the late Bronze Age (1550–1180 BC). It shows how the details of these networks that are indicated by surviving textual sources, including documents from the archives of Egyptian, Hittite, Ugaritic and Babylonian rulers, can be supplemented by an ever-increasing body of archaeological evidence to reveal a wide range of raw materials, trade goods and luxury items being shipped between the élites of the Eastern Mediterranean in this period.
RÉSUMÉ.Cette contribution étudie les vastes réseaux internationaux d’échange maritime qui se sont développés en Méditerranée orientale vers la fin de l’Âge du bronze (1550–1180 av. J.-C.). En s'appuyant sur des sources textuelles d'origine, et notamment des documents issus des archives des souverains égyptiens, hittites, ougaritiques et babyloniens, et en les comparant à l'ensemble de plus en plus fourni de preuves archéologiques, elle révèle le vaste éventail de matières premières, de marchandises et de produits de luxe qui transitaient par bateau entre les élites de Méditerranée orientale à cette période.
During the Bronze Age (c. 3200–1180 BC) a growth in long-distance exchanges is visible in the Eastern Mediterranean, picking up in the Late Bronze Age (c. 1550– 1180 BC), which is generally described as an international period. International networks linking the Levant, the Aegean and Egypt are documented since at least the Middle Bronze Age, by Aegean type paintings in the Levant (at Alalakh, Qatna and Tell Kabri) and in Egypt (at Tell el Daba). Moreover, a text from Mari demonstrates that, in the coastal region of the Levant, the city state of Ugarit was already an active trading hub where tin trade was conducted with Minoans, with the help of a translator.1 During the Late Bronze Age, the intensification of exchange is documented by archaeological material itself as well as by ancient texts, be they private or official letters, administrative documents or tales and stories.