#MAREMonday 31

On 03.06.2024 we present the 31st session of our online lecture series with a contribution of

Angela Falezza
(University of Oxford)

Mediterranean Ports Of Interactions:
Aegean And Southern Italy In The Late Bronze Age

Abstract:

The interactions between peoples across the Mediterranean have been much studied and debated both in relation to contemporaneous and ancient events, especially in light of their social implications. Ports are naturally an important gateway for interactions across the Mediterranean Sea. There are some port cities which have often been chosen as either temporary or final destination of these journeys made by sea, becoming place of gathering and interactions of different nature between cultures. This paper aims at investigating the role of ports of trade in the interactions between societies in Southern Italy and the Aegean, looking at whether their characteristics were unique to specific geographical areas or were widely shared across the Mediterranean. The sites selected as case study are located in different areas of the Mediterranean: Kommos on the Aegean Sea, Roca Vecchia on the Adriatic Sea, and Lipari on the Tyrrhenian Sea. The identification across different ports of interactions of some common patterns of behaviour suggests that similar dynamics of interactions were taking place between different cultures.