2,700-year-old carved shell found in Italy - but made in Syria, Lebanon, or Palestine ... trade & trade routes- civilization #art #beauty

Carved Grooved Clam Shell (700-600 BC), Vulci, Italy.

 

A woman's face peeks out from this clam shell, and the waves on the shell's back are swirling like the woman's cloak blowing in the wind. 

 

The bark once held perfume or was used to mix makeup. 

 

The approximately 2,700-year-old shell was found in Italy. It wasn't made in Italy; the face and other decorations were carved in what is today Syria, Lebanon, Israel or Palestine. 

 

Decorated shells were sold to Italy in the west and Iraq in the east. But the scallops were actually brought from elsewhere, from the warm clear waters of the Red Sea or other parts of the Indian Ocean.

 

On the lower edge of the shell you can see faint patterns that were once black. There are water lilies in the middle and on both sides, an Egyptian-looking sphinx, and a lion with a human head and bird wings.

 

British Museum

 

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The Middle East and Egypt

In the Middle East of the early Bronze Age the two great civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt are flourishing. They have sophisticated writing systems, bronze technologies and highly developed public administrations. The first literatures are flowering, and already some of the most spectacular structures in all world history, the Great Pyramids, have been built in the Nile valley.

 

What is happening in Syria in 2500 BCE

 Agriculture has probably been practiced for longer here than anywhere else in the world. By this time, important trade routes run through Syria and Canaan between Mesopotamia to the east and Egypt to the south, both by land and sea. These trade routes have brought the influences of Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations into the region, and small city-states now scatter the region. The city of Byblos, on the Syrian coast, is an important port, is home of a thriving shipping trade with Egypt and other Mediterranean regions.