Expert: Maria - 4/4/2007

Question
What did the ancient Minoans import & export, with who, & what did they do with the imports?


Answer
Hello,

here's a brief outline which can help you with your essay on the Minoan trade. Obviously you must develop my suggestions.

By around 2500- 2000 B.C  the Minoans created an autonomous sphere of economic activity, making contact with other peoples for trade purposes.
It was in fact from trade that they derived their surplus, unlike Babylon and Egypt for example,  which relied mainly on agricultural surplus to sustain its cities.
So the Minoans traded with  Asia Minor;Syria; Palestine; Mesopotamia; Egypt; the tribal clans living then on the Greek mainland; probably with  Kolchida (today southern Russia); Romania; Northern Turkey around the Black Sea, where it seems they had trade outposts or small colonies;  finally with Italy and Spain in Western Mediterranean. From Spain it seems in fact they imported tin through the harbor city of Tartessos on the south coast of Spain, at the mouth of the modern Guadalquivir, since the inhabitants of Tartessos seem to have discovered the route to the Tin Islands (Britain or more precisely the Scilly Islands). Tin was a much-wanted product in those days, as it was necessary for the production of bronze.

As for the goods the Minoans traded, their most important re-exports were ceramics, copper, tin, gold, and silver . They in fact not only traded manufactured goods, such as pottery and metalwork which were made on the island of Crete, but  also  traded raw materials and finished products throughout the Mediterranean as they  were the unrivaled long distance traders of the Mediterranean.
In fact their ships carried  the products of Minoan and other societies throughout the Aegean and  Mediterranean, as we read in Egyptian writings where Minoans are always mentioned as  traders, since they traded with the Egyptians because the inhabitants of Egypt wanted certain plants that were found on Crete to use them in the mummification process.
Moreover in order to facilitate trade, the Cretans developed the most advanced navy that had ever been seen.
So, all of this concentrated mercantile activity produced great wealth for the Cretans, which went into massive building projects, art, and technological development.The appearance of rich cities such as Knossos on the northern coast of Crete attests in fact  to the growing importance of Minoan trade.
To sum up, the Minoans developed  a remarkably sophisticated society: their cities were at a technological level not found in other urban societies on the Ancient Near East; homes, for example, had indoor plumbing, and there were great palaces whose walls were covered with beautiful frescos.

Best regards,
Maria