ABSTRACT
Within the Mediterranean at least, ‘connectivity’ refers generally to the mobility of people and goods, the means of travel and communication, and any related social exchanges. Maritime mobility and maritime interconnections have formed key features of coastal dwellers and islanders in the Mediterranean from its earliest prehistory (e.g. Broodbank 2006; Knapp 2010; Leppard 2014). Even so, it was only during the third millennium bc (the Early Bronze Age), when seagoing, sailing ships developed alongside other social and cultural factors, that we can see evidence of what Broodbank (2010: 250-254) terms purposive voyaging, and the pursuit of exotic goods, gain or glory. Indeed, the very practice of maritime mobility, and not least the sleek new craft that made it possible, may have been ideologically charged and imbued with sociopolitical power (Broodbank 1993: 323; 2013: 329), with respect not only to specific ports and their associated polities, but also within wider maritime land-, seaand islandscapes.
