Page 249 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

-------------------- ™ argosies L1510-1440 b.C>]
same gods and spoke a language that could with difficulty be
understood, had a very different and luxurious way of life. Large
timber-built towns surrounded by wide acres of grazing ground

boasted booths and workshops where professional craftsmen
produced intricate metalwork such as brooches and flanged axes
and slim rapiers. And luxury articles brought over the mountains
from the south could be bought in the permanent market places.
For sale was burnished and even painted pottery, containing
fabulous things like olive oil and wine, as well as jewelry of
mother-of-pearl and of faience and of gold.

It was here that the crew first heard precise details of the
rich cargoes to be obtained in the Mediterranean coastlands, and
while some adventurous spirits took the direct route thither, join­
ing the portage gangs carrying goods by land to the Danube and

the Adriatic, the rest returned home with the idea of sailing to
the Mediterranean firmly planted in their minds.
They set off the following year, with a full cargo of furs
and amber, on the long route round the western coasts, and it
was many years before the ship was to be seen again in its home

waters. The voyage was made with all speed, to save useless ex­
penditure on provisioning, and only brief halts were made to en­
gage pilots with a sailing knowledge of the next stretch of coast.
Across the Bay of Biscay and along the Portuguese coast they

had to strain to their oars against the awe-inspiring rollers of
the Atlantic, but these they left behind on the great day when
they passed the headland of Gibraltar and knew that they had
entered the inland sea. They began to trade in a small way with
the coastal towns of south Spain, where the inhabitants still
built the stone graves which had gone out of fashion generations

ago in the north. But the main cargo remained untouched, only
a few bales of furs being exchanged for ingots of silver. (And
two of the young men missed ship through drinking excessively

of the Spanish wine in a dockside tavern.)
The voyage went on, past the Balearics, through the straits
of Messina and round the headlands of Greece. And before win­
ter came, the ship ran its prow ashore on the beach of Knossos

in Crete.
Crete had been their destination from the start. For even