Missing Links: Colonization Horizons and Cultural Transitions in Mediterranean Island Archaeology (AIA 2015, New Orleans) (original) (raw)

Abstract

The earliest permanent settlement of the Mediterranean islands is largely a Neolithic phenomenon, but recent archaeological investigations point to other forms of colonization for different purposes during earlier times. On current knowledge, pre-Neolithic colonization involved the largest islands in both the western and the eastern Mediterranean (Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Crete, and Cyprus); nonetheless, archaeological investigations increasingly support a Mesolithic horizon on smaller islands also, especially in the Aegean, and seemingly where geographical configuration was conducive to early maritime exploration (e.g., the Dalmatian Islands). These discoveries are filling existing gaps in the archaeological record but are inevitably raising even more questions. Generally, because our data are mostly derived from surface surveys rather than excavations, it has been difficult to prove continuity between different colonization horizons on individual islands, especially for the earlier phases. We are still far from having a clear picture of the degree of overlap and admixture between subsequent lifestyles on the Mediterranean islands; thus, islands are generally considered to have undergone multiple colonization, abandonment, and recolonization events. In the study of overall patterns of island colonization, biogeography remains a useful explanatory framework for the earlier periods, up to the point when communities were able to overcome geographical constraints and sustain long-term populations on islands through social interaction. After the Neolithic, an island’s size and distance were no longer key parameters affecting colonization; nonetheless, several islands were abandoned and recolonized also in later periods. A wide range of environmental and cultural factors contributed to this palimpsest of trends, including changing cultural attitudes toward the sea and the islands, and different motivations for travel.

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