Why water mattered
Before good roads and wheeled transport were common, moving heavy goods overland was slow and costly. Water was usually the easier way. A single boat could carry far more grain, stone, timber or metal than a team of animals, and rivers and coasts provided natural routes. This is why the earliest large trading systems grew around the Nile, the Tigris and Euphrates, the Gulf and the Mediterranean. The details of each system differed, but the main pattern was common: bulk goods went by water, and people and ideas travelled with them.
Our knowledge comes from a mix of written records, wrecks, pottery and the goods themselves. These sources survive unevenly, so any comparison is partly informed guesswork. Figures for the volume of trade, or the size of fleets, are usually uncertain and are avoided here.
What was carried
Cargoes fell into a few broad groups.
- Staples: grain was the main bulk cargo for cities that could not feed themselves, such as classical Athens. Oil, wine and dried fish also moved in large quantities.
- Raw materials: timber was in short supply in Egypt and Mesopotamia, so cedar and other woods were imported. Metals, especially copper and tin, were needed to make bronze. Stone for building and sculpture was carried by boat, often down rivers.
- Luxury and prestige goods: incense, ivory, ebony, gold, precious stones such as lapis lazuli and carnelian, and fine textiles travelled over long distances.
- Containers: many goods moved in pottery jars, or amphorae. Their shapes and stamps help archaeologists trace where goods were made and where they went.
The best snapshot of a Bronze Age cargo is the Uluburun shipwreck, found off the southern coast of Turkey and generally dated to the late fourteenth century BCE. It carried copper ingots in a quantity of around ten tonnes, as well as tin, glass ingots, jars, ebony, ivory and a variety of objects from different regions. It shows how one ship could hold a mixture of bulk metal and valuable small items.
Egypt: river first, sea second
In Egypt, the Nile was the backbone of the economy. Grain, stone and people were carried along the river, and royal and temple authorities organised much of the shipping. Sea voyages were less frequent and were often state projects, such as the expeditions to the Land of Punt in the Red Sea. The Mediterranean link to the Levant brought cedar and other goods from ports such as Byblos. These topics are covered in more detail in the articles on Egyptian Nile commerce and Egyptian sea lanes.
Mesopotamia: rivers, canals and the Gulf
Mesopotamia had a dense network of rivers and canals, with barges moving grain, dates and stone. Beyond that lay the Gulf, where ships carried copper from the Oman region, and goods from the Indus valley, to cities such as Ur. The island of Dilmun, usually identified with Bahrain, acted as a trading hub. Written records on clay tablets give a better view of this trade than for most other regions, and they are the basis of the articles on the Gulf copper trade and the Dilmun and Magan voyages.
The Aegean and the wider Mediterranean
Mediterranean trade involved many peoples. Minoan and Mycenaean communities in the Aegean, Canaanite and Cypriot traders, and later the Phoenicians and Greeks, all took part. The Phoenicians in particular are associated with cities such as Tyre and Sidon and with voyages as far as the western Mediterranean. Their harbours, including those described in the article on Phoenician harbours, were key places for exchange. Greek settlers founded colonies from the eighth century BCE, which created a network linked by trade, and the resulting Greek merchant fleets brought grain, wine, oil and pottery across the sea. Metals such as tin were part of long chains of exchange, as the article on tin trade routes describes.
Ship types
The ships themselves reflected local materials and conditions.
- Nile craft were built of short timbers lashed or pegged together and suited to a river with a steady current, as set out in the discussion of Nile hull construction.
- Mesopotamian craft used reeds, hides and bitumen, and later planked hulls for the Gulf, as explained in the account of bitumen-sealed hulls.
- Mediterranean merchant ships, such as the one found at Kyrenia, were broad and deep with a square sail, and they were built shell-first with mortise-and-tenon joints.
- Warships, like the trireme, were not primarily cargo carriers, but they protected trade and sometimes carried goods or troops.
For a detailed survey of how hulls changed, see the discussion of ancient shipbuilding methods.
Ports and institutions
Trade needed harbours, storage and rules. Early ports were often natural bays or river mouths with simple quays, and larger harbours developed with warehouses, breakwaters and officials to collect dues. Palaces and temples played an important role in the earliest trade, organising shipments and holding stores. Over time, private merchants became more important, especially in the Greek world, where maritime loans helped finance voyages. Where several states shared a sea, the result was a mixture of cooperation and rivalry.
Seasons also mattered. In the Mediterranean, sailing was usually avoided in winter, and ships tended to follow the coast where possible. Wrecks like the one at Uluburun hint at the risks involved, since loss at sea could be a real hazard.
Reading the evidence with care
Finds are biased. Wrecks tell us about ships that sank, not about the many that arrived safely, and perishable cargoes such as textiles and grain leave little trace. Written sources may reflect the interests of rulers rather than ordinary merchants. Even so, the combined record shows that trade by water was well established long before the classical age, and that it connected distant regions. The study of maritime archaeology continues to add detail, and some of the details given here may change as new discoveries are made.