The topic of the congress anthology Keimelion is the consumer behaviour
of the Aegean elite population, including strategies such as conspicuous
consumption, through the period of the Mycenaean palace states to the
post-palatial period and the new formation of the Greek world in the
first millennium B.C. New interpretations of the Homeric epics as well
as the numerous archaeological finds of recent years have promoted an
increased understanding of the elite population of these periods. Among
other things, this group defined itself through conspicuous consumption
in order to distinguish itself as elite from the rest of the population
and their neighbours. At the same time these elitist strategies were
used to secure the following of the common people, and in diplomacy, to
display prominence and establish international contacts.