Relazioni e processi d'interazione culturale in Sicilia e costa nordafricana nell'età del Bronzo: un approccio critico

This paper aims at investigating a topic largely neglected in the Prehistory of Sicily, the long-term relationships between the island and the Northern coast of Africa. Although a solid "Aegean-centrism" in the perspective of the history of discipline, the cultural processes moving from North Africa towards the central Mediterranean have been mostly explored since the Neolithic Age. However, a scarce attention has been paid on the Bronze Age and the period before the Greek colonization. This study will focus on the long-distance connections between Sicily and North Africa during the Middle and Late Bronze Age (1500-1200 BCE cal.), when Aegean prospectors travelled in direction to the copper sources in Sardinia, moving from Eastern Libyan coast to South Sicily. The archaeological indicators, analyzed in this paper, suggest a close connection between the area around the Gulf of Cyrene and those sites of Sicily where Aegean and Cypriot-Levantine pottery was found. The archaeological investigation on both areas confirms that a same maritime route connected Crete, North Egypt and Sicily during the Late Bronze Age.

Il lavoro prende in esame il tema delle relazioni tra Sicilia, costa nordafricana ed Egitto dal Neolitico alle soglie della colonizzazione greca, con particolare riferimento alla circolazione di merci egeo-micenee e levantine tra Cirene e la Sicilia nel corso del Bronzo Tardo