Syria And Anatolia In The Early Bronze Age

The Growth Of Cities, Technology and Trade, ca. 3000 B.C.E

Apr 6, 2009

As trade flowed northward from Mesopotamia, urban centers and regional identities in Syria and Anatolia grew to form societies that linked Asia to Africa and Europe.

Much of what is known about Syria during the beginning of the Bronze Age comes from Egyptian sources. There is evidence that Egypt’s Dynasty 0 had set up colonies along some of the Palestinian coastal regions. These colonies had already become abandoned by the beginning of the 3rd Millennium B.C.E. Egyptian texts found in Egypt, as well as Egyptian inscriptions found at Gubla/Byblos, confirm this early presence. From archaeological evidence, such as the discovery of an Egyptian axe head, it can be determined that the colonial motive was driven in large part by the Egyptian desire for cedar.

There is also evidence that Syria served as a conduit for other goods being sent to Egypt. The most important of these during this time was lapis lazuli. This highly prized blue stone filled with golden flecks was found primarily in distant Baluchistan in modern day Afghanistan. This stone’s presence in Egypt is one of the best pieces of evidence for the theory that a large-scale trade network was already in place even before the dawn of metallurgy and the ensuing growth of the metals trade.

Although Egyptian sources provide a view of coastal Syria, there is abundant archaeological evidence to show that central Syria was also beginning to develop urban centers and trade networks. Like the Egyptian material, remains of trade goods found along the Euphrates River show commercial activity predating the Bronze Age. Some textual references, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, make fairly clear reference to the Cedar Mountains of Lebanon and the Silver (Taurus) Mountains of Anatolia. It is also possible that colonists from Southern Mesopotamia moved into Syria and established themselves along the Euphrates.

Syria at this time began to develop a successful animal husbandry tradition that would begin to generate a steady flow of wool south into the City-States of Sumer and Akkad, and later to Assyria. Although Syria did have additional commodities, it was the location of some of its cities as trade hubs that made them so successful. One of these cities, Ebla, which centuries later would produce a vast written archive, was just such a location and the Early Bronze Age would see it grow into one of the regions primary marketplaces.

During the 4th Millennium B.C.E., Anatolia had already seen the growth of urban centers. It was originally thought that the earliest Anatolian communities had risen on the eastern side of the Taurus Mountains, but it is now known that sites such as Catal Huyuk and the earliest levels of Troy were occupied even as their inhabitants began to develop the technologies of metallurgy. A combination of advanced building, using stone to provide well defended strongholds, and increased use of more efficient bronze tools saw a rise of population as well as the development of political organization.

As the use of metals increased, Anatolian communities were required to develop sophisticated trading practices that would allow them to bring in supplies of tin, needed to make bronze. As individual rulers sought to guarantee the safety of the flow of goods, regionalism increased. Eventually, dozens of small entities that were something more than a city-state, but can not be termed kingdoms, appear on the map.

These proto-kingdoms would facilitate the trade of goods that flowed through northern routes from Iran, across the Hellespont to the west into Europe, and from the south, both from Syria and Assyria. Centuries later, merchants from Assyria would make these Anatolian cities the center of a long term colonial enterprise.

Ackerman’s, Peter and Glen Schwartz. The Archaeology of Syria. (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003.)

Hawkes, Jacquetta. The Atlas of Ancient Archaeology, (New York, Barnes and Noble. 1994)

Roaf, Michael, Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia, (Andromeda, Oxfordshire, 2004.)

Hawkes, Jacquetta. The Atlas of Ancient Archaeology, (New York, Barnes and Noble. 1994)

The copyright of the article Syria And Anatolia In The Early Bronze Age in Near Eastern History is owned by Robert McRoberts. Permission to republish Syria And Anatolia In The Early Bronze Age in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.