Cultural contacts and mobility between the south central Mediterranean and the Aegean during the second half of the 3rd millenium BC

Abstract

One of the effects of the reconfiguration of world prehistoric chronologies as a result of radiocarbon dating has been the questioning of hitherto established frameworks of connectivity and the movement of people, materials and ideas in prehistory. This contribution revisits issues of connectivity between the south-central Mediterranean region and the Aegean during the Early Bronze Age. This short study highlights the need for scholars to re-examine connectivity using, as an example, diagnostic archaeological evidence of intra-regional links between South Italy, Sicily and Malta and the Aegean, that was not affected by carbon dating. The paper suggests that while broader regional patterns of connectivity may have benefited from revised chronologies of world prehistory, micro- regional cultural links may require new explanations of crossings and the evident movement of commodities by land and by sea.