Interaction and acculturation: The Aegean and the central Mediterranean in the Late Bronze Age

Marco Bettelli in Hartmut Matthäus, Norbert Oettinger & Stephan Schröder (eds) 2011. Der Orient und die Anfänge Europas. Kulturelle Beziehungen von der Späten Bronzezeit bis zur Frühen Eisenzeit [Philippika, Marburger alterumskundliche Abhandlungen 42]. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 109-126.

Από την εισαγωγή (στα Αγγλικά)

Since the interrelation between the Aegean and the Central Mediterranean is a historical phenomenon that lasted more than five centuries – a very long period in which crucial changes affected both areas – a refinement in comparing the two chronological sequences seems necessary. Very recently a good correlation between the phases of Italian and Aegean Bronze Age was established. It is founded on the results of Lucia Alberti’s and my own research, which to a large extent agree with Reinhard Jung’s opinion. In accord with this chronological reassessment, the LH I coincides with the very beginning of the local Middle Bronze Age (MB 1); the LH II certainly coincides with a developed phase of the Italian Middle Bronze Age (MB 2); the LH IIIA runs parallel with a late phase of the local Middle Bronze Age (MB 3). The Italian Recent Bronze Age is parallel with LH IIIB and LH IIIC not only early, as until now was believed, but also middle. In fact stratigraphical and typological data show how the transition between the Recent and Final Bronze Age in Italy probably takes place within the LH IIIC advanced. The early and developed stages of the local Final Bronze Age are parallel with the LH IIIC advanced and late.