The conference Intercultural Contacts in the Ancient Mediterranean
(ICAM) was organised in 2008 by the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in
Cairo. While Mediterranean contacts in archaeology are a popular topic
in Europe, it was the first time this theme was addressed in Egypt. The
conference aimed to discuss theoretical and methodological issues
related to the study of intercultural contacts in archaeology on the one
hand, and to present actual case-studies of such contacts on the other.
In the present volume, thirty-five contributions deal with intercultural
contacts all over the Mediterranean from the Levant to Spain and from
Egypt to Greece, from prehistory up to the Hellenistic period. They are
presented in six sections: Theory and methodology, Identifying
foreigners and immigrants, Material evidence for contact, Maritime trade
and sea ports, Influences in iconography, ideology and religion, and
Administration and economy.