Foreign affairs. Diplomacy, Trade, War and Migration in the Mycenaean Mediterranean (1400-1100 BC)

Mycenaean long-distance contacts in the Mediterranean have had a prominent position in Aegean Bronze Age studies and have been the source of considerable scholarly debate. Two of the most controversial issues have been the degree to which commercial and private trade was part of these contacts (1) and whether or not the Mycenaeans themselves travelled in the Mediterranean and took part in the exchange of goods and services (2). In this paper, I will give an overview of the evidence for Mycenaean interactions in the Mediterranean in a strict chronological framework. The focus will be on the complexity of the Mycenaean involvement in the Mediterranean, which increased through time.