On The Trades Of Samos In The Eastern Mediterranean During The Archaic Period

Samos was the only Hellenic polis,which located on the Samos island on Asia Minor.Around the end of the 12 th B.C.,Greek colonial groups,which dominated by the Epidaurus,continued to reach Samos,lived with the local Lelegians.Around the end of the 9th B.C.,Saman culture began to revive.Samos already had Greek identity in Homer's epics.In the early Archaic Period her polis-community gradually formed.Samos participated in the politics and trades of the Greek Mainland because of its Greek identity.After the Lelantine War,the focus of Samos trades turned to the Near East,mainly dued to the reduction of the Greek attraction,the end of the Samos monarchy,and aristocratics pursuit the Near Eastern goods.Samos overseas agricultural colonization also indirectly promoted the development of overseas trades.The overseas trades was concentrated on the coast and islands of the Eastern Mediterranean,roughly distributed in Lydia,North Syria,Cyprus,Phoenicia,Egypt and Greek.Among the existing archeological materials,which were mianly from the Heraion Temple,there are many bronze animal carvings from North Syria,while Phoenician are dominated by ivory craving.Cyprian terracotta appeared early,with large number of trades,and had a long period.Egyptian goddess statues and scarab seal found at Heraion temple,Naucratis was the center of Egpyt.Lydia,which was located in Asia Minor,was the closest,its electrum and coinage technology entered Samos together.Polycrates pursuit Lydian extravagant lifestyle.The trades between Samos and Greek was dominated by potteries and aromatic ointment.Delos,which had Panionian and Panhellenic religion,was the center of goods exchange in Cyclades.Samos trades with Athens,Corinth,and Sparta,were all of the alliance nature.The overseas trades of Samos was a way that in which the civilizations contacted,while not fulfall poli's economic policy.The Greek civilizations and the Near Eastern civilizations influenced Samos craftmanship,religion and culture together.Greek identity of Samos determined her core was Hellenic culture,which embedded by Greek or the Near Eastern forms.The elites played the key role in overseas trades.They persuitted the Near Eastern luxuries,used them in daily lives and as sacrifices,but the articales of most citizens still were crude.In the period of the tyranny,tyrants used huge wealth on public buildings and cultural projects.Samos became one of the leaders of culture and wealth in Greek during the Archaic Period.The influence of orientalization on Samos was religious,decorative and limited.