Aegean Economic Networks, Navigation Routes and the Mobility of Cults and Sanctuary Development, c.800 - 30 BCE

Abstract

This thesis uses social network analysis (SNA) from a dataset compiled herein based on evidence of ancient commercial exchange and sanctuary development, including artefacts and ancient textual sources supported by ongoing scholarship, to identify and construct economic and religious networks for the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic Periods. Applying navigation software and the modern sailing experience to these constructed networks, adjusted for changes in sailing technology and the maritime environment, recreates the trading routes that fulfilled the above commercial exchanges and propelled the transmission and diffusion of cults within and from outside Aegean communities, and sanctuary development, along with other factors, including seascape, politics and mythology. This research's significant findings and originality include identifying, illustrating, and mapping Aegean-wide economic networks, central places, connected communities, and trade navigation routes, and correlating their development with the mobility of cults and sanctuary development, particularly at remote coastal locations, which are considered in detail at case study sites. The findings also contribute to, complement and challenge theoretical network scholarship and the debate on the structure of the ancient economy.