Dodecanese – Italy – Europe. Rediscovering some long known objects

Mario Benzi Annuario della Scuola Archeologica Italiana di Atene LXXXVII (2010): 157-168.

Abstract (from the Introduction)

One the most conspicuous innovations marking the end of the Late Bronze Age (LH IIIB late-IIIC) in the Aegean is the sudden appearance and growing popularity of bronze objects of Italian/European origin and/or influence. They have a widespread though uneven distribution on the Greek Mainland, Crete, and the islands of the central Aegean, while the eastern Aegean as well as the western coast of Anatolia seem to have been less involved in that flow of new ideas and objects coming from areas north and west of the Aegean. Although recent finds from Troy and Rhodes have produced a handful of new “European” objects, the list of such objects found so far in the area remains meagre. This is quite surprising, for some of the earliest European-type bronzes come from eastern Aegean contexts.