L’età (non più) oscura dei commerci: riflessioni sugli scambi tra l’Oriente e il Mediterraneo centro-occidentale agli inizi del I millennio a.C.

Abstract

The historical phase previously referred to as dark age, between the end of 2nd and the beginning of 1st millennium BC, is actually a period of deep transformations. Recent discoveries, in the eastern and western shores of the Mediterranean, shed new light on trade and exchange patterns. After the first activities undertaken by the Cypriots and other Eastern seafarers and traders, the role of Phoenicians becomes more and more prominent over time. The attention recently paid to matters such as perception and entanglement allows us to study exchange patterns adopting a new integrated approach, giving thus more consideration to the role of the western recipients of traded goods, in addition to the better-known role of the eastern traders.