THE LEGEND OF THE AMBER ROAD
Did the ancient Egyptians conduct trade with the Baltic region?
In 1922 English archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the tomb of King Tutankhamun in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. The treasures he unearthed soon became celebrated around the world, but they also raised a number of questions. For example, what was the origin of amber scarabs and beads found in the tomb? The 19-year-old pharaoh had died more than 3,000 years earlier, and the idea of amber being found in ancient Egypt seemed impossible. There was gold in neighboring Nubia… But amber? Then, as is the case now, the most plentiful source of amber is the Baltic Sea area, which would suggest that there was regular trade taking place between Egypt and Northern Europe. But these two regions lie 2,000 miles apart and are situated at opposite ends of the world that was known to Europeans and Egyptians at the time. So how could trade be possible?
A mysterious location in southern Germany has yielded some important clues. An extensive fortified citadel at Bernstorf near Munich is known to have burned down some time around 1300 BC. After excavations at the site had already turned up gold regalia that seemed Greek in appearance, further digging in 2000 revealed two amber objects that appeared to be inscribed in Linear B, the script used for writing Mycenaean Greek after about 1450 BC. Linear B is the earliest form of the written Greek language and predates the Greek alphabet by several centuries. One Bernstorf item, “Amber Object A,” bears a male face that is generally reminiscent of the Golden Mask of King Agamemnon of Mycenae, though somewhat cruder.
Its back side appears to be inscribed in Linear B, although its meaning has remained obscure. The material was shown to be succinite, the type of amber found in the Baltic region. The gold objects recovered at the site are of a purity that was almost unknown in Central Europe at the time, but it’s similar to the purity of Tutankhamun’s funerary mask. The discoveries are so unparalleled that there have been allegations of forgery. But leading experts are convinced: As unlikely as it might seem, the finds at Bernstorf provide important evidence that there had been extensive contacts around 1300 BC between southern Germany and Scandinavia and, via the Adriatic Sea, also with Greece and the eastern Mediterranean, including Egypt.