It was not the Mycenaeans, however, but the Phoenicians who succeeded
the Minoans as the seafarers and the traders of the eastern
Mediterranean. A tomb painting from Thebes shows Phoenician merchant
ships tied up at docks along the Nile with their crews selling
merchandise in the Egyptian bazaar. Amarna letters speak of Tyrian
sailors and the wealth of their home port. Ships of Arvad also carry
merchandise to Egypt. Phoenician control of the eastern Mediterranean
was not challenged until Rome fought a series of wars with Carthage,
which began as a Phoenician colony. We know the conflicts as the Punic
(i.e., Phoenician) wars.
Commerce was not without its dangers. Roving bands of pirates from Lycia
in Asia Minor infested the eastern Mediterranean and even landed on the
coast of the Egyptian Delta. Amenhotep III found it necessary to
organize a police force to patrol the Delta coast and keep the mouths of
the Delta closed to all but lawful ships. The police manned customs
houses and collected duty on all merchandise that was not consigned to
the king. The land routes into Egypt were also policed, and admission
was only granted to those with legitimate business.
VIII
THE ART OF AMARNA
Akhenaton's influence in art, like his religious beliefs, had
antecedents and it would be improper to give him the credit--or
blame--for all the art forms which found expression during the period of
his reign. Nevertheless, under his inspiration we meet a new type of
naturalism, almost an expressionism, coming to full flower. W. Stevenson
Smith notes, "Men of ability ... fell in with the ideas of Amenhotep IV
and after a few tentative efforts, developed a new style with remarkable
speed."[54] Bas reliefs show that Akhenaton was personally interested in
art. He appears on visits to the sculptors' workshops in the company of
Nofretete. Akhenaton's views of art are reflected in the royal monuments
of his reign, the stelae that were erected to mark the boundaries of
Akhetaton, and in the tombs prepared for government officials in the
eastern desert.