The prosperity of Troy in the later Early Bronze Age (periods II–III, ca. 2550 to 2200 BC), as reflected in architecture and material culture, did not come by chance; The second half of the 3rd millennium BC was a period of extraordinary economic growth, in which Troy participated through strong connections to the Central Anatolian and – through this – to the Near Eastern cultural area.
At that time, a system of regional trade networks had emerged in Anatolia, which enabled the spread of various socio-cultural, economic and production technology innovations that originated in the early urban cultures of the Near East and was instrumental in the development of a northern Syrian-Mesopotamian region in the southeast with the Aegean Sea in the west connecting eastern Mediterranean interaction zone. However, maritime transport routes located off the Anatolian southern coast seem to have played a comparatively minor role and land routes were preferred instead.
At that time, complexly organized, hierarchically structured societies developed. Proto-urban, redistributive central locations emerged with large public buildings, market squares and separate residential and economic districts. And an advanced division of labor also developed. The cultural transfer, which went far beyond the mere acceptance of imported items from the East, can also be seen in the adoption of Near Eastern vessel shapes and the associated drinking customs in the Anatolian and Aegean regions, as well as in the introduction of specific metrological systems and the use of seals for administration purposes and specialized, controlled stockpiling.
In addition, there is the use of a developed metallurgy with the processing of precious metals and alloys, the latter in particular, with the emergence of tin bronzes, being seen as one of the decisive impulses for the intensification of supra-regional contacts from the middle of the 3rd millennium BC . Judging by the comparatively large number of whorls and weaving weights, textile production may have been a key economic factor in this exchange system for Troy II.
The early ceramic production of Troy II was very closely linked to that of Troy I in terms of typology and technology. Hand-made vessels with gray and black surfaces were still quite common in Phase IIa, but were gradually replaced by beige, light brown and reddish to bright red ones. The introduction of the potter’s wheel, another innovation brought to Troy from the East, enabled the rapid and mass production of ceramic products and led to the popularity of certain new shapes, particularly flat plates (type A2). No other type of vessel is documented in a comparable number. Characteristic features include rounded edges, a wall that is only slightly curved outwards, a more or less flattened bottom and sometimes quite deep rotating grooves on the outside and especially on the inside. Stephan WE Blum