Naming the Aegean Sea, in 'Water and Identity in the ancient Mediterranean', special issue of MHR (original) (raw)
Related papers
East Meets West: Aegean Identities and Interactions in the Late Bronze Age Mediterranean
eTopoi. Journal for Ancient Studies, 2020
Interaction in Mediterranean protohistory is generally considered via the core-periphery model, with greater influence being ascribed to the complex polities of the eastern Mediterranean than to those of the Aegean and central Mediterranean. This is despite archaeological evidence attesting that they actively participated in material and cultural exchanges. In this paper, we focus on Minoan Crete and Mycenaean Greece, reflecting on their interaction spheres and on the meaning of 'central' and 'peripheral' places. We consider two case studies: Thera and the Aeolian Islands. These islands functioned as maritime hubs in both interregional and regional networks. We propose a model of 'cycles of integration' , as a more accurate and less static representation of interaction. core-periphery; interaction; connectivity; Minoan; Mycenaean; Akrotiri; Lipari Interaktionen im vorgeschichtlichen Mittelmeerraum werden meist mit Hilfe des Zentrum-Peripherie-Modells untersucht. Dabei wird den komplexen politischen Gebilden des östlichen Mittelmeerraums mehr Einfluss zugeschrieben als der Ägäis-Region und dem zentralen Mittelmeerraum. Dies steht im Widerspruch zum archäologischen Befund, der die aktive Teilnahme dieser Regionen am materiellen und kulturellen Austausch belegt. In diesem Beitrag werden das minoische Kreta und das mykenische Griechenland fokussiert (Interaktionssphären; ‚zentrale' und ‚periphere' Orte) anhand zweier Fallstudien, Thera und den äolischen Inseln, die als maritime Umschlagplätze in interregionalen wie regionalen Netzwerken fungierten. Das Modell ‚Integrationszyklen' kann dabei Interaktion genauer und weniger statisch abbilden.
Mediterranean Historical Review, 2005
This article examines the evidence that inhabitants of islands with more than one polis (city-state) in the Aegean in the Classical and Hellenistic periods identified with their islands rather than with their individual poleis. Island rather than polis identity is expressed in the use of ethnic names in epigraphic and literary evidence from both the island world and outside it. The use of the island ethnic name indicates that politicatly fragmented islands had a strong sense of unity. This sense of unity was also expressed in action: practices such as minting coins, engaging in political unifications and forming island federations, participating in pan-island cults, and appearing in the form of group assessments in the Athenian Tribute Lists are seen as examples of the manifestation of a common island identity. Examination of attestations of island identity suggests that, although the ways in which this kind of identity was felt and expressed were probably diverse, the geographical separation ofislands allowed for islanders to overcome probable local tensions and individual dffirentiations and seek ways of self-identification and of expression of political-religious-economic collaborations alternative to the polis.
MA Dissertation at University of Bristol, 2013
This is my Masters Dissertation, completed at the University of Bristol in 2013. It is painfully flawed in places, but there is perhaps enough here to be of use to others and possibly stimulate further discussion regarding ancient (and our own) relationship with the Sea. The abstract is as follows: To the Greeks, Phoenicians and Assyrians alike, the Sea existed as a space at once physical and conceptual. On the one hand it could be seen, heard, smelt and touched; it could be harvested for sustenance and traversed by will or at whimsy. Yet more than this, conceptually, it played a vital role in cosmologically defining their worlds, delineating the boundary between an ordered centre and a chaotic beyond. In light of this cosmological perception, Greek, Phoenician and Assyrian experiences and responses to the Sea were dynamic processes wherein the dangers presented by it are both imaginatively perceived and experientially grounded – primordial sea-monsters and actual sea-storms fuse to create a foreboding space. Axiomatically, the Sea is conceptually a space either of bounty or a route towards bounty: the realities of trade, exploration and colonisation open up new vistas of possibility to which Greeks, Phoenicians and Assyrians alike responded, albeit it in different ways. Risk and rewards become inseparable in these perceptions of the Sea, resulting in the need to negotiate passage through what is a religiously charged space. Finally, with an exclusive focus on the Greeks of the period, the way in which this variously conceptualised Sea is utilised as a metaphor for poetic space and practice is examined, as well as its centrality to the formation and positioning of Greek identity.