Islanders: The Making of the Mediterranean

An analysis of island identities and culture in the ancient Mediterranean. Accompanying an exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, this book explores island identities in the ancient Mediterranean, questioning how the insularity of being of an island affected and shaped art production and creativity, architectural evolution, and migrations. It extends beyond the ancient, incorporating current discourses on island versus mainland cultural identities, in contemporary Art and other disciplines. In this book, fifty unique archaeological objects--most never displayed before outside Cyprus, Crete, and Sardinia-- tell exceptional stories of insular identity over 4000 years. The movement of people and episodes of migration between islands and their surrounding mainlands is also explored, through architecture, material culture, crafts, and technologies present in the Mediterranean islands. Islanders brings together research findings from scientific fields within archaeology.