Helene J. Kantor

“Since Homer celebrated the artistic skill of the {{W|Phoenician}}s the western world has looked to the coastal areas of Syria and Palestine as centers of applied art. We now know that many crafts flourished there not only in the Phoenician period (ca. ninth to fifth centuries {{small-caps|b.c.}}) but also in the preceding {{W|Canaanite}} era, particularly in the sixteenth to thirteenth centuries {{small-caps|b.c.}} when great Syrian and Palestinian cities were centers for the international trade and politics of the Late Bronze period.”

“We have seen that the greatest expansion of Cretan trade occurred in the MM II period, when its wares were carried around the shores of the Mediterranean. Minoan connections with the East apparently continued into the MM III period. A stone vase lid from Knossos inscribed with the name of the {{W|Hyksos}} king {{W|Khian}} is part of the evidence that has been interpreted as an indications of the ephemeral Hyksos empire ranging from Crete to Egypt, and East toward Babylonia.”