“Le dur ne dure pas, seul dure le doux”

Abstract

This paper offers a detailed overview of past approaches to the world of maritime interaction in the southern Aegean during the third millennium BC, including Tsountas’ pioneering launch of the term “island cultures of the Cyclades”, Renfrew’s thought-provoking “Emergence of Civilisation” in the southern Aegean, and Broodbank’s insightful analysis of “insularity” and long-distance seafaring. Taking as its point of departure recent phenomenological approaches emphasizing a range of factors, from the notion of the seascape to bodily performances related to the sea, the central argument put forward is the need for a more integrated approach to the “maritime”, which departs from island-centred perceptions of the sea and seafaring and stresses the analytical value of concepts such as mobility, hybridity and relationality, through reference to the Early Bronze Age longboat.