| As you tour Enkomi, near Famagusta
in North Cyprus, you might imagine you are a copper merchant
during the city's heyday between 1300 and 1100 B.C.
Your city is now only about 500 years old.
Let us imagine you are leading a donkey caravan laden with
copper ingots. You have been to the copper mines in the interior
of the island. Copper is smelted from its ore close to the
mines, where there is a lot of wood to keep the smelting fires
hot. Your ingots are shaped like oxhides and are famous throughout
the eastern Mediterranean world.
You approach your walled city through the farmland that feeds
it and are filled with civic pride as you near the massive
walls. Your city is thoroughly up-to-date for its time, with
gates set symmetrically and streets crossing at right angles.
Not for you the ancient cities with their rabbit warren of
twisting alleys. You didn't call your city Enkomi, but probably
Alasia.
Your home is built of good stone. Its many rooms surround
a central court, where your donkeys are unloaded. In our time,
you can see the first few courses of stone and trace the outline
of the houses.
First you, the merchant, must instruct your scribe to record
the shipment. He uses Enkomi's own invention, a script
similar to Minoan and Mycenaean, which in our time we will
call Cypro-Minoan. He writes on the clay tablets so traditional
in the Middle East, but uses a simple syllabary, rather than
the complex cuneiform writing.
You greet your family and trade your dusty robes for finer,
embroidered clothes that befit your wealth. Then you are quickly
off to the market sector near the port. You want to hear news
of the great battles at Troy. Troy controls the passage to
the North Sea, where Cypriot copper is exchanged for wheat
and dried fish. In fact, political and military conditions
throughout the known world are important to you, for your
copper is traded everywhere. The siege at Troy has dragged
on for years, and copper prices have risen with the demand
for weapons.
The market is vibrant with color and sound. You hear Hittites
arguing with Syrians and Egyptians haggling with Cilicians.
Most of the people are robed in brilliantly dyed cloaks, but
the Egyptians stand out in their snow-white linen. You find
your favorite tavern, where your cronies welcome you. They
want to know about road conditions on the way to the copper
country. You want to catch up on local news.
After a good gossip and perhaps some wine, bread, and olives,
you go down to the harbor at the river's edge. Changes in
the coastline have silted up the harbor in modern times. But
you, the merchant, find many ships berthed in its harbor.
You are looking for a captain who will buy your copper. You
are surrounded by a variety of languages, especially Greek
and Semitic dialects; you know enough to get by in several
of them.
After a good haggle, you sell much of your copper to a fellow
from Syria, who has wonderful ivory carvings to trade. He
has beautiful glassware from Egypt and luxury pottery from
Mycenae in Greece. Your copper will be only part of his load.
His ship will leave port with ten tons of copper ingots.
And he's told you some shocking news. You hardly wait to
tell your wife that the High King of the Greeks, Agamemnon,
has been divorced and deposed at his home in Mycenae. Clytemnestra,
the Queen, has taken a new husband. This, you know, will not
end well.
But first, you must visit the temple of the Horned God. The
Horned God is Hittite and Alasia was under the sway of the
Hittite Empire for several centuries. The Hittites considered
Alasia "the outer limits" and sent their exiles
here. Now the Egyptians have the mastery of Cypriot affairs.
But the Horned God has been good to your family, and a quick
visit will surely help your affairs to prosper.
Hittites yesterday, Egyptians today, tomorrow, perhaps the
upstart Greeks. As long as business is good, and pirates are
kept to a minimum, you care not a fig which foreign ruler
considers himself to be in charge.
As you pass the craftsman's quarter, the acrid smell of copper
smelting assaults your nose. Here the copper is further refined,
mixed with tin, and made into bronze. Enkomi/Alasia is famous
for its bronze statues and for its tripods, but you can find
any tool or weapon you need on these streets. Now the air
is sweeter and the noise is gentler as you pass the shops
where fine jewelry is made. You have a little gold in your
moneybag, perhaps you should have a trinket made for your
wife. Here are the ivory carvers. There, that is just the
thing – a game board and pieces inlaid with ivory. She
loves the Phoenician style.
The Phoenicians and Syrians have been coming to Enkomi for
centuries. They were always competitive among themselves,
but now, with the Mycenaean Greeks elbowing themselves a place,
the markets are even more volatile. All to the good, for a
canny bargainer such as yourself.
And now, to home, where you make a quick but reverent bow
to your ancestors buried beneath the floor. How pleasant it
is in the courtyard, beneath the grape arbor. Your meal is
simple -- bread, fish, olives, figs, wine. Some night soon
you will entertain your business associates and serve that
lamb you've been fattening, but for tonight, you will dine
with your family.
Northern Cyprus is one of the last unspoiled
landscapes in Europe. Prices for real estate & holiday
homes are still very reasonable. Learn
more about owning a Northern Cyprus property or call toll
free in the UK: 0800-849-4168 or + 90-533-8613588 |
