Approaching Levantine shores: aspects of Cretan contacts with Western Asia during the MM-LM periods

Resumé

This article presents an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the foreign relations of Crete towards the Levant and beyond, from their first encounter to the end of the New Palace Period, with the main focus on the MM-LM I periods. The archaeological material indicates contacts during the
EM II and from the MM I period onwards, whilst the textual evidence strongly indicates direct royal connections perhaps from the Old Palace Period or early New Palace Period, and furthermore offers a mythological remembrance of these contacts during the Late Bronze Age.

This article does not review the Western Asian imports in Crete as these have been extensively discussed. Neither does it lend the place for substantial theoretical discussions oftrade and its mechanisms.