L'ambra nel mondo minoico. Contesti archeologici e immaginario sociale

This paper aims to investigate the archaeological context and the chronology of the amber items in Minoan Crete. Following the discovery of an EM Tholos Tomb at Porti, Mesara Plain, in 1909 the Italian scholar Angelo Mosso identified some elements made of a resinous yellow brittle material, postulating that the Minoans knew real amber since a pre-Palatial period. However, chemical analysis has shown that the earliest evidence of amber artefacts in Minoan Crete is closely connected to the Mycenaean presence in LM II - III. The cemeteries around Knossos (Sellopoulo, Isopata, Gypsades) give evidence of the circulation of imported amber items among the burials of high-status individuals. The study focuses on the most recent chemical investigation in order to reconstruct the «Amber Routes» from Western Mediterranean, Northern Europe and Aegean. Finally, a specific part is about the possible significance of these objects, their symbolic value as rank- or status-markers. Studi in