Greek Commercial Endeavors in the Antiquity - A Brief Account of the Ancient Commerce of Cassiterite Between Greece and Northern Europe

Abstract

). Thehistorical facts that have been gathered up to date present that the shipping fleets of the Minoans conducted most of this commerce, along with other merchants from the Aegean Sea.Moreover, the sea was not the only route of transport for the aforementioned metal, since also continental paths were in use. In this way, the Greek geographical area was interlockedwith the areas of extraction, production and exportation of cassiterite.There were two primary Kassiterean islands: Ireland and Britain. Almost all ancient writers referring to them placed these islands in the North-Western part of Europe: ‘North andacross of Artabron’ (modern day Galicia), as Strabo notes. Britain at that time was often mentioned as ‘Albion’, whilst Ireland as ‘Hibernia’ or ‘Hernia’. The latter seemed to have asignificant amount of minerals that were exported to the Aegean cities of that time (1). The main bulk of cassiterite was concentrated in Cornwall, which was during the 3rd MillenniumBC the undisputed production centre of the known world.There were cassiterite ores to be found in the Mediterranean basin and specifically in the areas of: Cadiz, Asia Minor and Cyprus. When the intense productions led to the overvaluationof this metal, risk-taking merchants directed their efforts towards the discovery of this ore in more distant lands (2).Quite a few researchers have argued that the first nation that started the North-South commerce of cassiterite should have been the Phoenicians, who enjoyed a remarkable commercialstatus in the Mediterranean world, as well as a long string of colonies from modern day Lebanon to the south of Spain. Nevertheless, this nation did not appear on the shores of theWestern Mediterranean Sea before the 13th Century BC (3). Therefore, they could not have been the “culprits” of any mercantile activity prior to that time. According to the archeologistand historian Stanley Casson, the Greeks had been exploring the British Isles from 2000 BC, and ignited a dynamic commercial activity concerning cassiterite as well as pottery.Having stated the aforementioned point, a question that arises is how the Aegean-Greek communities managed to travel so far from their bases and be able to maintain so dispersecommercial networks for such a prolonged period of time. Raymond Furon notes that, ‘Already from the Proto-Minoan period I (2800-2400 BC) commerce was very developed. Cretewas in the process of becoming then a major commercial power in the world. The industrial use of Bronze was a major factor for the development of the island, which in turn neededcassiterite as the main element for Bronze production. For that reason the Western Mediterranean was firstly explored and gradually came under the economic and political sphere ofinfluence of the Minoans’ (4).During that era a wide commercial network centered in the Aegean Sea spanned across the entire Mediterranean Sea, and when exploitation of the metal had reached its peak, theCretans were eager to obtain new unspoiled sources of production, so as to retain their dominant position. Thus the need to venture in the North was formed. Dr. Cyrus Gordon notes:‘A small Minoan sword was engraved in a Stonehenge Menir, reflecting in that way the direct or indirect relations between the population of the British Isles and those of the AegeanSea. Furthermore, Minoan scriptures—1500 BC—were to be found from the Anatolian area to the Hibernian Peninsula and the Metcalf Rock in the USA. The existence of an ancientformidable commercial network on which the Mediterranean Sea was the epicenter, is being revealed’ (5).In addition to cassiterite, electron (amber, C