Dr Sergios Menelaou, “From ceramic islandscapes to mobility dynamics in the Late Chalcolithic-Early Bronze Age northeast Aegean”
Dr Sergios Menelaou, “From ceramic islandscapes to mobility dynamics in the Late Chalcolithic-Early Bronze Age northeast Aegean”
The geo-cultural region of the northeast Aegean, encompassing the Greek islands and the western Anatolian coast, is crucial to understanding the dynamics of the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age (EBA), a period characterised by extensive cultural, social, and technological interactions and transformations. This lecture presents a systematic analysis of ceramics from key sites in the region, including Poliochni (Lemnos), Thermi (Lesbos), Emborio (Chios), and the Heraion (Samos), aiming both to characterize the local pottery-making traditions and to investigate the role of cross-regional connectivity of these sites with the wider Aegean island- and coastscapes. By taking a diachronic approach, this research explores ceramic production, specialisation, and circulation, as well as the exchange of craft knowledge across the northeast Aegean during the late 4th and 3rd millennia BC. Despite extensive excavations and publications since the mid-20th century, these sites have been largely overlooked in the broader context of Aegean-Anatolian prehistory. Our research challenges this oversight by proposing that this region was a central hub for cultural and technological transmission, with communities that were far more interconnected and socially complex than previously assumed.
