ABSTRACT
Material remains from our area in the Bronze Age show the fortunes of the islanders dependent, as so often in their history, on those of the great sea-powers of the time. On Rhodes, relations between Trianda and the neighbouring Mycenaeans were at first amicable, as the presence of Minoan and Mycenaean pottery side by side indicates. Archaeological evidence indicates that Rhodes had become an important trading station of the maritime Mycenaean empire. The technique of detection of trace elements by optical emission spectroscopy makes it possible to determine the provenance of pottery by analysing small samples and isolating composition types. Analysis of Rhodian pottery indicates that 50 per cent was of local manufacture, 50 per cent imported from the Peloponnese a surprisingly high proportion of imported ware. Rhodes long remained an attractive tourist resort a welcoming haven for men banished into exile from Rome and a flourishing intellectual and cultural centre.
