Naukratis: Trade in Archaic Greece (Oxford Monographs on Classical Archaeology)

323 Pages·2001·12.77 MB·English

by  Astrid Moller

OXFORD MONOGRAPHS ON
CLASSICAL ARCHAEOLOGY
Edited by
J O HN BOARDMAN
JIM C O U L T ON
D O N NA KURTZ
R. R. R. SMITH
MARGARETA S Τ ΕIΝ Β Y

N A U K R A T IS
Trade in Archaic Greece
ASTRID MÖLLER
OXTORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
O X F O R l)
UNIVERSITY PRESS
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Möller, Astrid.
Naukratis : trade in archaic Greece / Astrid Möller,
p.cm. — (Oxford monographs on classical archaeology)
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Naucratis (Extinct city) 2. Egypt—Relations—Greece. 3. Greece—Relations—Egypt. 4.
Greece—Economic conditions—To 146 B.C. I. Title. II. Series.
DT73.N3 M65 2000
932—dc21 99-086587
ISBN 0-19-815284-1
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Typeset in Bembo
by Regent Typesetting
Printed in Great Britain
on acid-free paper by
T.J. International,
Padstow, Cornwall
Preface
This book originates in a German doctoral thesis submitted at the Freie
Universität Berlin in 1990. During the process of translation it has been
revised and recent literature till 1997 included, but its substance remained
unchanged.1
To work with archaeological material which was excavated a hundred
years ago has its vagaries. The excavators were very prompt in publishing
the results of each campaign, but did not attempt to publish the material in
full. Since it was dispersed widely without being indexed beforehand, it is
now difficult to reconstruct the finds. If I had hoped to undertake a major
archaeological study, I would not have embarked on such an enterprise
with the material from Naukratis. For one person alone, to catalogue and
categorize all unpublished finds which can still be detected in museum
stores seems impossible. I herefore, I have concentrated on the published
material, putting special effort into the identification of finds published
in the old Naukratis volumes, with museum inventory-numbers where
possible. Sometimes this was a mere incident of serendipity.
Whoever has had a book translated has probably experienced similar
agonies. (This is not the least reason for delaying publication for so long.)
To read my text in English first seemed to me like reading it through filters
which alienated my own thoughts, since I felt deeply the difference
between expressing thoughts in German and in English.
During the academic year of 1987/8 and many more research visits to
Oxford I always experienced the generosity and erudition of Sir John
Boardman. He supervised my work during the year at Oxford, suggested
the translation of my thesis into English for publication at the Oxford
University Press, commented on its progress, and never failed to believe
that one day I would finally finish the manuscript. To him I express my
profoundest gratitude.
The continuous support of Hans-Joachim Gehrke (Freiburg i.Br.), my
1 There is, however, a number of more recent literature to be acknowledged. W. D. E. Coulson
(with the assistance of J. Leventi and with contributions by J. Rehard, J. Sanders, R. Sullivan, and C.
Villas), Ancient Naukratis, ii: The Survey at Naukratis and Environs, pt. I: The Survey at Naukratis (Oxford
1997) was long awaited, but unfortunately not available before finishing my manuscript. R. M. Cook
and P. Dupont, East Greek Potteiy (1997) and J. Boardman, Early Greek Vase Painting: Ihh 6th centuries
BC (1998) came equally too late to make use of them. And T. Heine Nielsen (ed.), Yet More Studies in the
Ancient Greek Polis (Historia Einzelschriften 117, 1997) contains two studies dealing with empôria (M. H.
Hansen, J. Hind).
Doktorvater, who has encouraged my work on this topic and its approach,
who accompanied its progress with his clear-cut advice and examined my
doctoral thesis, has shaped this book a great deal. Γ ο him I owe much intel-
lectual inspiration.
The text was translated by Michael A. C. Claridge (Bremen). Without
his conscientious care and devotion, the task of publishing a German dis-
sertation in English would have been impossible. However, nobody can
blame him for infelicities of style or Germanisms of expression, since I am
responsible for the revision.
In its various stages, this book has benefited a great deal from many
different people. First of all I wish to acknowledge my examiners Wolf-
Dieter Heilmeyer (Berlin) and Volker Fadinger (Berlin) for their support of
my research and the examination procedure. The first anonymous reader,
who read both the German and the English versions, and the second, both
deserve my appreciation for their suggestions, which were duly considered.
I was able to discuss specific problems of my topic with Andrée Gorton
(Paris), who also provided me with parts of her manuscript before publica-
tion, Uta Kron (Berlin), Franziska Lang (Rostock), Anna Lemos (Athens),
Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier (Heidelberg), Stephan Seidlmayer (Berlin), and
Helen Whitehouse (Oxford); to all of them I owe illuminating comments.
During different stages, parts of this work were read by Jim Coulton
(Oxford), Martin Dennert (Freiburg i. Br.), Ala η W. Johnston (London),
Nino Luraghi (Freiburg i.Br.), Sitta von Reden (Bristol), Simon Stoddard
(Bristol), Rudolf Wächter (Β asel), Gregor Weber (Eichstätt), Greg Woolf
(St. Andrews), all of whom undoubtedly improved the book by their valu-
able criticism. I have to thank Dyfri Williams (British Museum, London),
Ann Brown and Michael Vickers (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford), and
David Gill (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge) for helping me to a first hand
view of the Naukratis material.
For many, many years, I enjoyed the friendship of the members of an
interdisciplinary study group on theoretical archaeology in Berlin. I wish to
thank Reinhard Bernbeck (Binghamton/NY), Svend LIansen (Bochum),
Stefan Hauser (Berlin), Susanne Kerner (Berlin), Roland Lamprichs
(Dresden), Franziska Lang (Rostock), and Gunnar Lehmann (Beer-Sheva)
for stimulating discussions on theoretical issues.
I am much obliged to Bettina Kreuzer (Freiburg i.Br.) and Brigitte
Wilke (Triberg i.Schw.) who never failed to listen to the difficulties
puzzling me in dealing with the evidence and who read several parts of this
work.
My brother Thomas Möller (Berlin) contributed his expertise in graphics
design to provide the chronological chart of Greek pottery styles at
Naukratis, and Marion Cox (Oxford) drew the map of Naukratis, for
which I am most grateful.
To Luis E. Gonzalez (Cologne) for encouragement and intellectual help
I owe more than I am able to put down in writing.
I have to thank the Friedrich Naumann-Stiftung for a scholarship
enabling the research and writing of my doctoral thesis and the DAAD for
their support in financing the year at Oxford.
Last, not least, thanks to the editors of the Oxford Monographs on
Classical Archaeology, who were so kind as to include this book in their
series, since so much of my work was conceived at Oxford.
This book is dedicated to my grandmother Martha Rosenthal, whose
constant confidence and wit helped me through times of discouragement.

Contents
List of Illustrations xii
Plates xii
Figures xii
List of Abbreviations xiii
I. Introduction 1
II. Karl Polanyi's Anthropological Theory of Economy 8
1. The Formal and the Substantive Approaches to Economic
Theory 9
2. Patterns of Integration II
3. Analysis of the Institutions 13
a. Money uses 13
b. External trade 14
c. Market elements 17
4. The'Port of Trade' 19
III. Egypt under the Saite Dynasty 26
1. Egyptian Society and Economy as a Redistributive System 26
2. Relations between Egypt and Greece 32
a. Greek mercenaries in Egypt before Amasis 33
b. Amasis and the Greeks 36
IV. The Greek Economy and Its Market Elements 39
1. The Organization of External Exchange! Modes of Trading 39
2. Τ he Personnel of External Exchange! The 1 raders 48
a. The Homeric period 48
b. The Archaic period 54
3. The Place of External Exchange: The empôrion 60
4. 1 he Development of a Market-place: I he agora 71
EXCURSUS: The economic background of the twelve poleis
mentioned in Herodotus 2. 178 75
V. The Archaeological Material from Naukratis 89
1. Problems relating to the Archaeological Material 90
2. A Historical Survey of the Excavations 92