Changing the route. Trade interaction between the Atlantic Iberian Late Bronze Age and the mycenaean in the Central Mediterranean (1425-1050 BC)

Abstract

The aim of this work is to present a new interpretation on the commercial exchanges during the Late Bronze Age IC-IIC, c. 1425-I050 BC, between the Western and Central Mediterranean, starting from a review of two types of metallic artefact, axes and swords, originating from the Iberian Peninsula, and present in Sardinia, Sicily and Lazio in the Italian Peninsula. We start from three premises: the calibrated chronology of the Late Bronze Age in the Iberian Peninsula, Sardinia and Sicily-Eolian. Secondly, a more accurate chronology of the Iberian artefacts present in Italian settlements and deposits. And finally, the analysis of the confluence between the Atlantic and Mycenaean trade in the Central Mediterranean, particularly during the Late Bronze Age IC-IIA/Late Helladic IIIA-IIIB, c. 1425-1225 BC, to reveal that the mycenaean pottery presence in Andalusia can not be tried as an isolated phenomenon, but is integrated within the commercial interrelationship that existed between the Western and Eastern Mediterranean around the islands of Sardinia and Sicily in the Central Mediterranean.