Levantine imports at Motya

Abstract

First contacts between Levantine sailors and the native peoples of Sicily do not begin with the arrival of the Phoenicians on the island. Although there is more evidence during the Iron Age, new archaeological data from Motya outline a different and more complex scenario: Levantine seamen, in fact, have sailed to the central Mediterranean since at least the 2nd millennium BC. Some Levantine imported ceramic finds from Motya dated between the 17th and the 7th century BC are presented in the following pages