Message #115769

[Bianca]

Diamantis Panagioopoulos from Heidelberg University said that after some decades of intensive scholarly research, the study of cultural interaction in the eastern Mediterranean of the second millennium BC had reached a critical stage.

In the vast and fragmented terrain of relevant literature scientific approaches go in quite different directions, while the gap between empirical historical knowledge and theoretical visions is still growing. Within this climate, he said, it had become increasingly difficult to establish a common ground of scholarly research in which the interrelationships between new spectacular finds and new theoretical models could fruitfully be interrogated.

Facing these difficulties, Panagioopoulos suggested it was important to reframe the current state of affairs and identify some collective concerns for future studies. "Taking the concept of transculturality as an overarching of theoretical umbrella under which one can explore the most salient aspects of cross-cultural interaction in a systemic manner is an attempt to contribute to this aim," he claimed. Within this broad semantic concept, he continued, the focus would be on the cultural dynamics of maritime activity which constituted a core element of transnational exchange during the late second millennium BC.

"The key questions will be to what extent the expanding arteries of maritime contacts and trade fostered cultural mobility and change in the eastern Med." He foresees that a brief overview of geographical, social and political structures, channels and agents of exchange and materiality would help to comprehend this historical phenomenon as a complex interaction of multiple dynamic parameters.

Leila Badre from the American University in Beirut spoke of the cultural interconnections in the eastern Mediterranean during the late Bronze and Iron Ages. This relationship was highlighted through pottery found in the Tell Kazel area in Summur in Beirut, which was excavated by the American University of Beirut museum team in 1985.

"This site has produced an interesting amount of important pottery which sheds some light on trade relations between Beirut, Cyprus and the Aegean in the late Bronze and Iron Ages," Badre pointed out.