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Five minutes ago I printed out my Honours projects for this semester; I will submit them to my professor this afternoon. One project ideals with the emergence of a complex society during the Later Bronza Age on the island of Hvar, and the other deals with the development of iron working on the island of Vis. Both lie in the Adriatic Island Bridge that allows line-of-sight hopscotching for boats from the Italian coast to the Croatia. At first I planned an overview of the Adriatic/Ionian region, but it was much too ambitious given my current level of ignorance and over-extension through taking more classes than I could handle!
I get more intrigued the more I dig into this. Mycenaean remains of the Odysseus period have turned up in the shape of megalithic walls with Late Helladic III pottery sherds. The Amber Route ran from the Baltic all the way down the Adriatic, and on to Greece. So this site may have been either a Mycenaean trading outpost (they loved amber) on one of the Elektrides/Amber Islands, which is what they called the Central Croatian islands, or a local chieftain's bid for status and power, inspired by Mycenaean contacts. Two more sites turned up in Istria, at Monkodonja and Maklavan, which may be Mycenaean, although this is currently debated. With the discovery last year of a tholos tomb on Lefkada, it seems reasonable to suppose a chain of trading posts.
So, I have my work cut out for me the next many years.
ETA: I forgot to mention that said Mycenaean walls are on the island of Brac. Here, late Helladic III pottery turned up that is associated with feasting.
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