Natalie Abell, PhD

Associate Professor of Mediterranean Archaeology

University of Michigan

Abstract:

From around 1700-1400 BCE, major shifts in material culture are evident throughout the southern Aegean, contemporary with the Neopalatial period on Crete, the so-called era of Minoanization in much of the insular and coastal Aegean, and the shaft grave or “early Myceanaean” period in mainland Greece. These developments reflect substantial social, economic, and political change, which took different forms in each region. This era also witnessed increasing interconnectivity between Aegean regions and complex patterns of interaction, exchange, and influence among them. This paper explores how concepts derived from network studies as well as communities and constellations of practice can provide new insights into the mechanisms of these changes, particularly in the Cyclades and mainland Greece.

Bio:

Natalie Abell is an Associate Professor of Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Michigan. She has published on exchange, mobility, craft technologies, and economy in the Bronze Age Aegean, especially in the Cycladic islands. She is involved in several ongoing projects focused on northern Kea in the Cyclades, including study of material from legacy excavations at Kephala and Ayia Irini, as well as the Kea Archaeological Research Survey.