SOURCE: "What Did the Argonauts Seek in Colchis?," in Hermathena, No. 150, Summer, 1991, pp. 31-41.

[Below, Doumas suggests that the purpose behind the voyage of the Argonauts was to obtain the secrets of metallurgy.]

As an archaeologist seeking to interpret a myth, I too, like the Argonauts, am sailing in difficult and possibly dangerous waters, but like them I accept the challenge, I have my motives. For, like G. S. Kirk, I believe that myths 'retain elements from a period many generations earlier than their first recording' and that they offer 'a cause or explanation of something in the real world'.¹ Thus I see the tale of the Golden Fleece and the Voyage of the Argonauts as aetiological myths, and here I take issue with Kirk who maintains that they 'do not explain or offer a cause for anything, unless It is my perhaps for the feeling enchantress like Medea². It is my contention that archaeological evidence shows that these Greek myths are not, after all, 'silent about the inventions of many human functions and social institutions'³ but rather, as Mircea Eliade has suggested 'reproduce the creative era, the time before history when things were developed and set in order'.⁴

Familiar as the myth of the Voyage of the Argonauts is, I should like to recall certain points, pertinent to the subject of this paper.

First and foremost is the land of Colchis which, according to descriptions in the ancient sources, lies at the easternmost edge of the Euxine, or the Black Sea as it is otherwise known, south of Caucasus. It corresponds to the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, a fertile country with clement climate and crops in abundance: today's visitor sees all around him vegetable gardens, citrus trees, vines, apple and pear orchards, figs and persimmons, even tea plantations. This land, the Far East of the ancient Greeks, was known to the people of the Aegean from earliest times. It was to a crag on Mt. Caucasus that Zeus chained the benefactor of mankind, Prometheus, for no other reason than that he had stolen fire from Olympus and brought it back to earth, an act described by the English Classical scholar George Thomson as 'one of the most revolutionary steps in the progress of material technique'.⁵ It was for this revolutionary feat that Prometheus was condemned by almighty Zeus to perpetual torture: an eagle consumed his liver by day and this was restored each night. It was from the blood of Prometheus that the two-pistilled Caucasian crocus sprang, the juice of which was a salve against burns.

It was in this same region, Colchis, that Phrixus sought refuge. Mounted on the ram with the golden fleece, gift of Hermes, he and his sister Helle fled from their sacrifice. Luckless Helle, as we know, fell into the sea which still bears her name, the Hellespont, but Phrixus reached the kingdom of Aeetes, Colchis. There he sacrificed the ram and presented its golden fleece to Aeetes, who hung it on an oak tree and placed a dragon as its guardian. Phrixus married Aeetes' daughter, Chalciope (the one with the face of bronze). After his death he was not buried but, in accordance with local custom, his body was hung from a tree to be devoured by birds of prey.⁶ And so, according to Greek custom, his soul did not find eternal repose.

The Delphic oracle had pronounced that the land of lolcus would only prosper and its king, Pelias, would only be rid of the persecution of Phrixus' spirit if that spirit and the golden fleece were brought back to lolcus. This is the reason, so myth relates, why the Voyage of the Argonauts took place. Pelias entrusted the entire venture to Jason. The ship was built by the famous shipwright Argos from Thespiae, and manned by valiant youths sent from all Greek cities to take part in the expedition. When all was ready, sacrifices had been made to the gods, and after a great feast, the Argo set sail from lolcus. The Argonauts' first port of call was Lemnos, the beloved isle of Hephaestus,⁷ where the divine smith had set up his forge. It was here he sought refuge whenever he was out of favour on Olympus. The inhabitants of Lemnos had in days gone by come to the aid of the god, rescuing him from the sea into which Zeus, in a fit of rage, had one day flung him from the summit of Olympus. The god never forgot this help. Later, his sons (or according to another version, his grandsons), the renowned metal-workers, the Cabiri, had settled here.

The Cabiri abandoned the island in disgust, after the heinous sin committed by the women of Lemnos, who murdered their menfolk because they suspected them of adultery with maidens from Thrace. In order for the Cabiri to return to Lemnos, and the profitable craft of metallurgy thrive once more on the island, the Lemnian women must expiate their profanity. And this would come to pass if the Argonauts agreed to sleep with them. So they made this a condition of allowing them to drop anchor on the island. By the way, it is worth mentioning in connection with this episode in the myth, the charming manner in which the ancient Greeks justified the seafarers' extra-marital transgressions: invoking a force majeure, or as we might say today, the national interest! But to return to the myth, we should not forget that negotiations with the Lemnian women were conducted on behalf of the Argonauts by Aethalides, son of Aethale, that is of the Sweep, the one blackened by smoke. All these elements of the myth—Hephaestus, Cabiri, Aethalides—allude to Lemnos' association with metal-working and, indeed, in an age long past, at the very beginning of metallurgy.

The early flowering of metallurgy on Lemnos is attested by archaeological data. On the east coast of the island, directly opposite Troy, lies the earliest town in Europe, Poliochni, founded around the end of the 4th millennium BC. Excavations conducted there before the Second World War brought to light considerable evidence not only of the early use of metals but of their working locally.⁸

From Lemnos the Argonauts sailed to Samothrace, another island famed in antiquity for the cult of the Cabiri. Indeed the ancient Greeks considered old bronze vessels on Samothrace as votive offerings of the Argonauts.⁹ With Imbros to starboard, the Argonauts negotiated the Hellespont in the dead of night, thus avoiding the control of Laomedon, king of Troy. Delayed by bad weather and after numerous adventures and wanderings, they eventually came to the island of Bebrycus in the Sea of Marmara. There Polydeuces, challenged to a boxing contest, was victorious over King Amycus, even though his opponent wore gloves studded with bronze nails. Following Amycus' death and the looting of his palace, the Argo set forth again for Salmethessus in Eastern Thrace, home of the blind seer Phineas, son of Agenor. Phineas advised the intrepid seafarers how to pass between the Symplegades at the exit to the Black Sea.

The Argonauts rowed on until they arrived at the islet of Thynias, off the southern shore of the Euxine, from where they sailed to the city of Maryandyne. After voyaging for several days they reached Sinope in Paphlagonia, then skirted the coast of the land of the Amazons, where they were attacked by frenzied birds on the islet of Ares. As the birds swooped down they destroyed everything in their path and plagued the island. To protect themselves from the bronze feathers the birds shot from their wings, the Argonauts donned their helmets and created a roof with their shields. Finally, beating their shields with all their might they created such a noise that the birds were terrified and left the island for ever. Continuing their voyage, the Argonauts sailed alongside the land of the Chalybes, who neither tilled the soil nor husbanded flocks but lived exclusively from the exploitation of metals. According to one interpretation, land of the Chalybes means land of shining silver.

In Colchis, their eventual destination, the Argonauts were welcomed by Aeetes who, on hearing the purpose of their arrival, pretended that he would help them. But he set such terms for handing over the golden fleece, that he believed impossible to meet. Jason had to yoke two untamed bulls, works of Hephaestus, which had feet of bronze and snorted flames from their nostrils. Once he had yoked the beasts he had to plough and then sow the dragon's teeth left over from Kadmos' sowing in Thebes, and slay the giants which sprang from them. Instructed and assisted by Aeetes' daughter, the sorceress Medea, who had fallen madly in love with Jason, the leader of the Argonauts managed to yoke the bulls. He neutralized their fiery breath by smearing his body and his weapons with the balm of the Caucasian crocus, supplied by Medea. Again with the aid of Medea he confronted the giants, causing confusion by throwing a stone in their midst, so that they killed one another. And lastly, Medea overcame the dragon which guarded the golden fleece by dropping a sleep-inducing potion into its eyes. Through these artifices Jason became master of the golden fleece which, after many adventures and many years, he brought back to Iolcus.

Both classicists and historians concerned with interpreting the myth of the Voyage of the Argonauts concede that it embodies historical memories of the colonisation of Propontis and the Euxine by the Greeks in the 9th and 8th century BC.¹⁰ However, is it not possible that the inhabitants of the Aegean with a nautical heritage going back millennia may have attempted to negotiate the Black Sea at a much earlier date? Let us see what the archaeological finds tell us in this respect.

For the present, the earliest relations of the Aegean with the world beyond are traced through exchange of commodities, which commenced around the middle of the fifth millennium BC. Honey brown flint from what is nowadays northeast Bulgaria was evidently uséd by the inhabitants of Sitagroi at Photolivos on the Drama Plain in eastern Macedonia.¹¹ Shells of the mollusc spondylus (Gaederopus) from the Aegean were exported, in the form of bracelets and pendants, to the peoples along the Danube, particularly in eastern Rumania and Bulgaria.¹² Coastal Aegean sites seem to have played a most important role in the production and distribution of these objects of status in the Neolithic societies of the north Balkans. The exchange model proposed by Colin Renfrew to explain the considerable concentration of spondylus so far from its source is that of prestige chain exchange, as exemplified by the Kula system of the Trobriand islanders in the western Pacific.¹³ If one takes into consideration the rarity of this commodity at further inland sites and its great frequency at sites 'actually lying very close to the shores of the Black Sea',¹⁴ one may readily presume that its circulation was effected by sea.

Another, more recent, archaeological testimony of the early external relations of the Aegean comes from the Cycladic island of Naxos;¹⁵ a strip of gold very like corresponding pieces from the Chalcolithic cemetery at Varna, Bulgaria, which is dated to circa 4000 BC.¹⁶ If the gold strip from Naxos, which was also discovered in a Neolithic level in the Zas cave, is indeed of north Balkan provenance, then there is no doubt that at least some part of its journey was made by sea. The question which immediately springs to mind is: did the means and possibilities for sailing to the Euxine exist in the Neolithic period?

A large proportion of the surface waters of Europe flow into the Black Sea—from the Danube alone this amounts to an estimated 228-350 thousand million tonnes per annum, depending on precipitation.¹⁷ These waters are channelled into the Aegean through the Straits of the Bosphorus and the Hellespont. As Rhys Carpenter wrote in 1948: 'As it leaves the Black Sea the surface water is moving at less than a knot; but at the narrows which are marked by the late medieval castles of Anadolu and Rumeli Hissar, the speed has risen above two knots, thereafter mounting to three, four and even five knots, just before reaching the site of ancient Byzantium'.¹⁸ Further down, at the Straits of the Hellespont, the momentum of the current is significantly modified since the width is twice that of the Bosphorus. Thus, again according to Carpenter's calculations, a boat travelling at a speed of two knots and ample time for waiting, could negotiate the Hellespont and reach the Sea of Marmara, but would require double that speed in order to counteract the Bosphorus current and enter the Black Sea.¹⁹ Carpenter doubts whether such a ship could have been constructed in the Aegean before the penteconters, the 'fiftiers', of the Phocaeans, that is before the beginninng of the 7th century BC. He maintains that this was the first time man had the capability of sailing the Hellespont, Propontis, the Bosphorus.²⁰

The relatively recent discovery of the wall-painting of the fleet at Akrotiri, Thera,²¹ has proved that at least ten centuries earlier, in the 17th century BC, large swift Aegean ships embarked on long voyages, as verified by relevant finds from lands of the eastern Mediterranean.²² But even before this time, in the third millennium BC, the Cycladic islanders had built boats²³ which, it is generally agreed were the product, the outcome of nautical experience already spanning four or five thousand years'.²⁴ The size of these Cycladic ships is reckoned at 19-20 metres and they are deemed capable of accommodating 25 paddlers, as depicted in representations. Even though a recent study accepts that these ships could reach a speed of 6 miles per hour, it rejects the possibility of their voyaging beyond the Aegean.²⁵ But, as we have seen, according to Carpenter, this would have been more than sufficient for sailing the Hellespont and the Bosphorus. Of course, the outlet to the Euxine has always been fraught with dangers and the myth of the Symplegades is probably not unrelated to the force and swirl of the waters as they enter the Straits.²⁶ However, it should be remembered that there are periods when the volume of water flowing from the Black Sea into the Aegean is much reduced, when, for instance, the rivers of Europe are frozen over or in long periods of drought, and then the current in the Straits is much weaker.

Tim Severin's recent expedition with his modern Argonauts has provided us with valuable information about rowing up-stream in the Hellespont and the Bosphorus.²⁷ His experience suggests that 'the skill lies in finding the counter-currents and riding them northwards wherever possible.²⁸ And it is not surprising that the modern Argo followed almost exactly the same course as its Bronze Age ancestor. For 'the pattern of currents and counter-currents in the Bosphorus is a clue to the particular shore location visited by Jason and his companions as described in the Argonautica. The currents dictate just where a galley crosses from side to side, either to find helpful eddies or to avoid the worst races'.²⁹ But above all what the new argonauts have demonstrated by rowing 'the entire 18-mile distance from the Marmara to the Black Sea against the current and against the wind' is that 'the passage of the Bosphorus could be done in a twenty-oared galley, and the straits had not been an insuperable barrier to Jason and his men in the search for the Golden Fleece'.³⁰

For the pioneering mariners of the Aegean to venture into these hazardous and uncharted waters, a very powerful incentive indeed must have existed. It is my belief that this incentive is concealed within the myth of the Voyage of the Argonauts.

Archaeological research has shown that even as early as the Late Neolithic era (fourth millennium BC) the techniques of metallurgy were known in the Aegean.³¹ Even so, however, as Colin Renfrew has pointed out, 'during the Early Bronze I period there is limited interest in metals in the Aegean in general, although both Thermi and Poliochni have important finds'.³² Moreover, as J. D. Muhly notes, 'it seems obvious that EB II metallurgy in the Aegean was on a scale and level of complexity that renders almost preposterous any attempt to explain it in terms of local, indigenous developments growing out of EBI accomplishments'.³³ In this respect, the fact that Renfrew's 'important finds', which belong to an advanced technology, are found on islands perhaps alludes to the nature of the route this technology followed on its journey to the Aegean: it came by sea.

Indeed, research has demonstrated that there were two routes, not one. One area in which the new technology was received was the southern Greek islands and Crete, and the other the islands of the north Aegean. That there were two starting points is deduced from the differences observed in these two regions, both with respect to the techniques applied and to the types of objects made. In the north Aegean the technology is more highly developed than that of the south. Tools were cast in covered moulds or by the method of cire perdue, perhaps for the first time in the world.³⁴ On the contrary, on Crete open moulds were used and hammering was required for the final finishing process.³⁵ The technique of cire perdue was introduced later. With regard to the typology of the metal tools of Crete, they display affinities with corresponding ones in Palestine,³⁶ while parallels for the objects of the north Aegean have yet to be located. Yet another difference lies in the nature of the alloy. In the metallurgy of the south Aegean mainly arsenic bronze is used, whereas in the north Aegean tin bronze.³⁷ All the elements cited link the metallurgy of Crete and the south Aegean in general with the eastern Mediterranean, and especially the Syro-Palestinian littoral. Cyprus, which later constituted the principal source of copper in the Mediterranean world³⁸ and which, according to one version, gave its name to that metal (cuprium aes in Latin, copper in English, cuivre in French, Kupfer in German) lies in this very region and may have played some part in the early introduction of this new technology to the Aegean. Moreover, the Telchines, the mythical smiths of Crete, are associated with Cyprus and with Rhodes, another allusion perhaps to the route of contact between Crete and the eastern coast of the Mediterranean.³⁹

As stated earlier, the exact provenance of the metallurgy of the north Aegean remains an enigma. It is, however, certain that Lemnos played a highly important role in its introduction. Poliochni's development into an urban centre even at the beginning of the third millennium BC is due in large part to the introduction of the new technology and the distribution of metals. Its geographical location, in front of the mouth of the Hellespont, was surely particularly favourable to seafaring and trade. The fact that it is on precisely this island that the greatest burgeoning of metallurgy appeared makes it, I believe, more than plausible that both the metals and the technology pertaining to them must have come from the Black Sea. Archaeological research has shown that metallurgy developed earlier than in the Aegean in SW Europe and in the region of Caucasus.⁴⁰ It was presumably from one of these regions that the Aegean peoples acquired their skills. However, the association of Caucasus with early Greek myths related to metallurgy leads me to suspect that it is this latter region which must have played an important role in this field. Prometheus, the ram with the golden fleece, the Voyage of the Argonauts are all associated with Caucasus and all are directly related to metallurgy. Moreover, if the prehistoric Aegean was supplied with tin from Afghanistan, as has recently been proposed,⁴¹ this could well have been via the Black Sea, and if so, could not the name Chalybes, the people of shining silver, actually refer to tin? Thus it is not impossible that it was from this region that the first metals were introduced to the north Aegean, and also knowledge of their working. But, the zeal with which producers seek markets for their goods is invariably matched by a reluctance to divulge the secrets of their manufacture. Conversely, every buyer persists in trying to obtain this knowledge, by whatever means, in order to ensure independence on the one hand and cheaper goods on the other. Even today, espionage, mysterious disappearances, piracy are implicated in the acquisition of technological know-how. And the prehistoric inhabitants of the Aegean were surely no exception to this rule. From the moment they came into contact with peoples cognisant of metallurgy, it is only natural that along with its products they would wish to learn the technical know-how. And their efforts to this end can be seen in certain episodes of the myth of the Voyage of the Argonauts. Its main target, the golden fleece, is, according to the geographer Strabo, nothing more than the method of collecting alluvial gold from the rivers of Colchis.⁴² Even in recent times, in the region of Pontus, gold was collected using sheepskins pegged securely to the beds of streams. The flecks of gold stuck on the wool fibres and the metal was accumulated by burning the fleece.⁴³

In my opinion the task that Jason was forced to perform, the yoking of the untamed, bronze-hoofed bulls, also masks the acquisition of technical know-how. In these bulls we may easily see the smelting furnace and the bellows. So precious, so invaluable is knowledge of metal production and working that it is worth all the perils and adventures of the Argonauts. As they approached their final goal, however, their virility and valour were evidently not enough. The secrets of the craft were closely guarded indeed. So the major ruse was set in motion: Jason made a play for Medea. She fell into the trap of love and not only revealed her father's secrets but herself played an active part in helping Jason achieve his end. She supplied him with the balsam which protected him from burns in his struggle with the bulls, with the smelting furnace. She put to sleep the dragon which guarded the golden fleece.

If, in the light of the aforesaid, we accept that the purpose of the Voyage of the Argonauts was to acquire the technology of metals, then this could not have taken place in the ninth or the eighth century BC. The quest for this knowledge must have been embarked on immediately after the Aegean first came into contact with metal-working peoples, that is at the end of the fourth, beginning of the third millennium BC. This is confirmed by the archaeological data from Lemnos. It is, I think, echoed in the myths of Hephaestus, Prometheus and the Argonauts.⁴⁴

Modern technology, through the application of lead-isotope analysis, tries to determine the provenance of the early metal objects in the north Aegean.⁴⁵ Will myth and metals be reconciled?

Notes

¹ Kirk, G. S., The Nature of Greek Myths (London 1974) 53.

² Kirk (above n. 1) 54.

³ Kirk (above n. 1) 65.

⁴ Kirk (above n. 1) 25.

⁵ Thomson, G., Aeschylus and Athens (London 1950) 317.

⁶ Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica iii, 200-209; Graves, R., The Greek Myths (London 1969) 152.3.

⁷Odys. VIII, 284.

⁸ Bernabo-Brea, L., Poliochni Citta Preistorica nell' isola di Lemnos I (Roma 1964) 591-96.

⁹ Graves (above n. 6) 149.2.

¹⁰ Hammond, N. G. L., A History of Greece to 322 B.C. (Oxford 1963) 114; Carpenter, R., "The Greek Penetration of the Black Sea", AJA 52 (1948) 1.

¹¹ Renfrew, C., Elster, E., Gimbutas, M. (eds.), Excavations at Sitagroi I: A Prehistoric Village in Northern Greece (Los Angeles 1986) 320.

¹² Renfrew, C. and Shackleton, N., "Neolithic Trade Routes Realigned by Oxygen Isotope Analyses", in C. Renfrew, Problems in European Prehistory (Edinburgh 1979) 188; Renfrew, C., Before Civilization, 1978, 207-8; see also S. Moshkovitz, "Neolithic Spondylus", Nature 232, July 23, 1971, 285-6.

¹³ Malinowski, B., Argonauts of the Western Pacific (New York 1961) 81-104; Renfrew, C., Before Civilization (1978) 188.

¹⁴ Renfrew and Shackleton 188.

¹⁵ Zachos, C., "The Neolithic Period in Naxos", in Marangou, L. (ed.), Cycladic Culture: Naxos in the Third Millennium B.C. (Athens 1990) 30; 34.

¹⁶ Ivanov, S. I., "La necropole chalcolithique de Vama et les cites lacustres voisines", in Le Premier Or de l'humanite en Bulgarie, Se Millenaire. Reunion des musees nationaux, (Paris 1989) 49-56, cat. no. 181.

¹⁷ Carpenter (above n. 10) 1.

¹⁸ Carpenter (above n. 10) 2.

¹⁹ Carpenter (above n. 10) 6-7.

²⁰ Carpenter (above n. 10) 8. However, Tim Severin's recent experiment (The Jason Voyage: The Quest for the Golden Fleece. [London 1985]) has proved quite the opposite.

²¹ Marinatos, S., Excavations at Thera VI, 1972 (Athens 1974) colour pl. 9; Doumas, C., Thera, Pompeii of the Ancient Aegean (London 1983) colour pl. X.

²² Hallager, E., 'Aspects of Aegean long distance trade in the second millennium B.C.", in Monumenti Precoloniali nel Mediterraneo Antico (Roma 1988); Merillees, R. S., "Aegean Bronze Age Relations with Egypt", AJA 76 (1972) 281 ff.

²³ Tsountas, C., Kykladika, Archaiologike Ephemeris 1899, 90; Doumas, C., "Remarques sur la forme du bateau égéen pendant le bronze ancien", in Anati E. (ed.), Valcamonica Symposium (1968) 285-290.

²⁴ Basch, L., Le Musee imaginaire de la marine antique (Athens 1987) 77; see also Basch, L., "The Aigina Pirate Ships of c. B.C. 1700", The Mariner's. Mirror 72 (1986) 415.

²⁵ Broodbank, C., "The Longboat and Society in the Cyclades in the Keros-Syros Culture", AJA 93 (1989) 334.

²⁶ It has also been suggested that the Symplegades, or Clashing, or Wandering or Blue Rocks, might be 'ice-floes from the Russian rivers adrift in the Black Sea' (Graves [above n. 6] 151a, note 1).

²⁷ See Severin (above n. 20).

²⁸ Severin (above n. 20) 134.

²⁹ Severin (above n. 20) 140-1.

³⁰ Severin (above n. 20) 140.

³¹ Muhly, J. D., "Beyond Typology. Aegean Metallurgy in its Historical Context", in N. C. Wilkie and W. D. C. Coulson (eds.), Contributions to Aegean Archaeology. Studies in Honor of W. A. MacDonald (1985) 109ff.

³² Renfrew, C., The Emergence of Civilization (London 1972) 312.

³³ Muhly (above n. 31) 124.

³⁴ Branigan, K., Aegean Metalwork of the Early and Middle Bronze Age (Oxford 1974) 104, though Muhly (above n. 31) 121 suggests that this casting method was known in western Asia from at least the fourth millennium B.C.

³⁵ Branigan (above n. 34) 105.

³⁶ Branigan (above n. 34) 101. A unique 'rat-tailed' spearhead from the Early Cycladic III site of Panormos on Naxos finds its parallels in Cyprus and may constitute yet more evidence for early east-west relations. C. Doumas, An early Cycladic "Hooked-tang" spearhead from Naxos. Cypriot Studies 1992 (in press).

³⁷ Gale, N. H., Stos-Gale, Z. A., and Gilmore G. R., "EBA Trojan Metal Sources and Anatolians in the Cyclades", Oxford Journal of Archaeology 3, 3 (1984) 29-30.

³⁸ Portugali, Y. and Knapp, A. B., "Cyprus and the Aegean: A Spatial Analysis of the Interaction in the Seventeenth to Fourteenth Centuries B.C.", in A. B. Knapp and T. Stech (eds.), Prehistoric Production and Exchange. The Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean (Los Angeles 1985) 44ff.

³⁹ Craik, E. M., "Cyprus and the Aegean Islands: Links in Myth", RDAC (1979) 179; Portugali and Knapp (above n. 38) 52-53.

⁴⁰ Katin arov, R., "Le développement des cultures néolithique et chalcolithique et l'apparition de la métallurgie sur les terres Bulgares", Le Premier Or (above n. 16) 16-18; Tchernykh, E., "La révolution métallurgique", in Yanine, V., Fedorov-Davydov, G., Tchemykh, E., Chelov, D. (eds.), Fouilles et recherches archéologiques en URSS (Moscow 1985) 43ff.

⁴¹ Muhly, J. D., "Sources of Tin and the Beginnings of Bronze Metallurgy", AJA 89 (1985) 282-85. See also E. Pernicka, et al., On the Composition and Provenance of Metal Artefacts from Poliochni and Lemnos. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 9, 3, 1990, 291.

⁴² Strabo XI, 2.19.

⁴³ Aravidis, A., "Mineral wealth of Pontus" (in Greek), Pontiaki Estia 2 (1979) 115-24; Hodges, H., Artifacts (London 1974) 92; see also Tim Severin (above n. 20) 222-23.

⁴⁴ N. G. L. Hammond (A History of Greece to 322 B.C. [Oxford, 1963] 62) has already suggested that the Homeric 'idea of the world was not derived from the limited knowledge of the eastern Mediterranean which might have been gained during the early Iron Age. Rather it springs from acquaintance with the oceans beyond the Mediterranean Sea—the Atlantic, the Black Sea, and the Red Sea—an acquaintance which might well have been won by Minoan and Mycenaean sailors during the acme of the Bronze Age'. As recent evidence suggests, however, this acquaintance may have occurred many centuries earlier.

⁴⁵ For example, Wagner, G. A. et al., Geochemische und isotoprische Charakteristika früher Rohstoffguellen für Küipper, Blei, Silber und Gold in der Türkei. Jahrbuch des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums 33, 1986, 723-752. Wagner, G. A. Die Anfánge der Kupfermetallurgie Kleinasiens. Die Geowissenschaften 6, 1968, Nr. 11, 323-329.