Cyprus, Sardinia and Sicily: A Maritime Perspective on Interaction, Connectivity and Imagination in Mediterranean Prehistory

Abstract

In this study, we outline a maritime perspective on interaction in the Late Bronze/early Iron Age Mediterranean. In response to what has elsewhere been termed the ‘maximalist’ approach, which foregrounds direct, long-distance trading connections between distant Mediterranean regions as a key feature of Late Bronze Age exchange systems, we propose a more nuanced, ‘minimalist’ and argue that notions of contact, connectivity and mobility need to be carefully distinguished if we wish to discuss both the material and social dimensions of maritime mobility. In particular, we critique the prominently proposed, allegedly direct trade route between Sardinia and Cyprus. The network we suggest hinges on multiply connected nodes, where a variety of social actors take part in the creation and maintenance of maritime connections. By unpacking several such nodes between Sardinia and Cyprus, we demonstrate that simply asserting the dominance of Sardinian, Cypriot or Aegean mariners falls short of the complex archaeological evidence and eschews possible social interpretations. In conclusion, we submit that maritime connectivity is an inherently social activity, and that a culturally diverse prehistoric Mediterranean was connected by multiple interlocking and overlapping networks.

Modelling the Cost of the Wind: A Preliminary Reassessment of Networks of Mobility in the Late Bronze Age Mediterranean

“…a range of opportunities to interact, exchange goods and ideas, and manage risk through maritime movement (Horden & Purcell 2000). Arguably beginning with Braudel's (1949; seminal work on the Mediterranean as a basin, more recent studies have continued to underscore the uniqueness of its complex geography for connectivity, interaction, and human mobility (Abulafia 2011;Broodbank 2013Broodbank , 2016Horden & Purcell 2000;Knapp, Russell & van Dommelen 2021;Malkin 2003;Renfrew 1972;Tartaron 2013). From this perspective, the Mediterranean can be viewed as a region with variably permeable boundaries that stretch inland, connecting and integrating beyond just its sea and coastline (Broodbank 2013;Knappett 2018;Leidwanger & Knappett 2018;Leidwanger et al 2014).…”

Climbing the Giara: A quantitative reassessment of movement and visibility in the Nuragic landscape of the Gesturi plateau (South-Central Sardinia, Italy)

“…The potential of the archaeology of Sardinia in shedding light over the processes of Mediterranean deep history has been increasingly remarked by recent research [ 1 ]. Sardinia is one of the major islands in the Mediterranean sea, in a rather central position; it is remote and close enough to interposed islands and to the coasts of mainland Europe and Africa, to have been selectively approached through millennia, and is characterized by peculiar resources, such as obsidian and metal ores.…”

Technological Insights on the Early-Middle Bronze Age Pottery of Monte Meana Cave (Sardinia, Italy)

“…In these areas the discovery of emporia with Mycenaean, Cretan and Cypriot artifacts are evidence of an advanced network between the Near East and the Tyrrhenian area. Archaeometric research on Bronze Age pottery (for a review see [11,12,13]) has been fundamental to understanding the relationship between Nuragic and Mycenaean and Levantine societies with an exchange of knowledge, proved by the imitation of Mycenaean pottery by the Nuragic people and, in other respects, by the Nuragic pottery discovered in Crete and Cyprus [14,15,16,17,18,19]. Several authors studied the mineralogical composition and technological aspects of the Nuragic pottery, such as the Sardinian Late Bronze age gray ware [20] or general aspects of the Middle Bronze Age -Early Iron Age pottery, also in terms of evolution [14,21,22].…”