Assyria and the Mycenaean Greece (1)

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There is evidence for the trade between Assyria and the Mycenaean Greece in the Late Bronze Age. The Hittite king Tudhaliya IV concluded a treaty with his vassal Sausga-muwa, who ruled the kingdom of Amurru in Syria in the second half of the thirteenth century. In the treaty text he forbade “traffic between Ahhiyawa and Assyria via the harbours of Amurru”. There is a consensus that ‘Ahhiyawa’ refers to the Greek word Achaea, meaning the Achaean or Mycenaean Greek world, or a part of it. If so, the treaty demonstrates that trade between Assyria and the Mycenaean world was important, substantial, and regular, and the Mycenaeans were not simply exchanging products sporadically with coastal towns in the Levant.

Bibliography

Stephanie Dalley

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