Inter-cultural communications and iconography in the Western Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age

The symbolic images of the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age [c. 1300-525 B. C.] that were widespread in the central and western Mediterranean offer a broad base for the understanding of the inter-cultural communications and the alleged spread of ideas and knowledge throughout the area. This book comprises the first comprehensive, comparative analysis of iconographical records from Sardinia, Southwest Iberia, Corsica and Sicily within their archaeological context of the intense contacts that had emerged in the Mediterranean during the Bronze Age. Settlement archaeology, monument building, funeral rites and religious ritual as well as local economic approaches in these four regions, which were connected by a network of anchorages, are also examined and compared. The communitarian organization as well as the allocation of power within prehistoric societies are analyzed through alternative theoretical methods considering heterarchy and complex anarchic societies. In this context, sometimes dramatic socio-political changes in the Early Iron Age, which further resulted in changes in local art and symbolism, can be explained through manipulative strategies, intensified communications or – to the contrary – dissociation. This volume contains comprehensive, fully illustrated data on 245 Sardinian anthropomorphic bronze figurines as well as references to 216 zoomorphic bronzetti and 146 boat models. Furthermore, 118 western Iberian stelae have been analyzed in detail and are contrasted with the completely diverging motives of the Iberian Early Iron Age. Finally, the statue-menhirs of Corsica and the figurative art of Sicily complete the material basis of this study. This pioneering work provides chronological data, iconographical and archaeological analyses as well as distribution maps and therefore offers an invaluable database for Mediterranean archaeology.