Manning/Critical Approaches, 9. Middle Bronze Age Sicily

As an island, Sicily would seem to be a natural unit of study, despite its size and proximity to the Italian mainland. Examination of particular historical periods, however, reveals internal east-west cultural and economic cleavages that render an island-wide account of those periods problematic. This is evident from the Late Bronze Age through the Middle Ages and can be argued for periods before and after as well. One period that is touted as a moment of some measure of cultural unity is the Middle Bronze Age, when most of the island appears, from the local ceramics, to belong to the Thapsos archaeological culture. This paper uses social network analysis to argue that the island was as culturally fragmented in the Middle Bronze Age as it would be in later periods.