The Trapeza cemetery near Aigion: its western connection in a diachronic perspective

In this contribution some results from the recent fieldwork at the Mycenaean chamber tombs cemetery of the Trapeza of Aigion are presented; in particular the occupation of Tomb 1 is contextualised within a period ranging from the 15th to the 11th century BC. The re-use of the tomb in the Post-palatial period, after the critical date of 1200 BC, seems to have coincided with a time of expansion and cultural vitality of the small community of the Trapeza, most probably as a consequence of the increasing importance of the Corinthian Sea in the east–west-oriented relationships on a Mediterranean scale. The diachronic perspective adopted in this study permits us to focus on an intense Aegean–Adriatic interaction during the last phase of burial occupation in LH IIIC Late/SM or advanced Italian Final Bronze Age. The study of the pottery in its context reveals a phenomenon of convergence in the field of ritual practices and symbolic behaviours, implying social exchange and mobility of both ideas and people along the Adriatic and Ionian seas.