The existence of a close relationship between Mycenaean Greece and Italy is known to us through two main kinds of archaeological evidence: Mycenaean pottery found in Italy—mainly in Apulia and Siciliy, although a few finds also come from the Tyrrhenian coast (1)—and bronzes of Italian type present in Greece and Crete.
The amount of information derived from these two groups is unequal. The majority of the Mycenaean pottery found in Italy has been readily identified and has offered a sound basis for the chronology of the Italian Bronze Age cultures, but the bronzes of Italian type found in the Aegean area have often been included in a group of ‘European’ elements, for years the object of discussions and controversial interpretations (2).
The almost exclusive concentration of Mycenaean pottery in coastal sites of continental Italy and Sicily clearly indicates that it was only transported by sea, and was not used for large-scale exchanges with the populations of the inland areas (3). From the distribution map of Mycenaean pottery in Italy we can therefore see a series of fixed points—actual settlements or traces of sea-passages—but lack the possibility of identifying any kind of movement linking the Mycenaeans on the coasts with the interior and northern regions of Italy. It seems probable, on the other hand, that such movements actually took place, since some at least of the Italian-type bronzes found in the Aegean certainly were not produced in the same areas of Italy where the Mycenaean pottery is concentrated. For this reason, a close study of the distribution, cultural significance and relative chronology of these types in Italy would be important to explain their presence in the Aegean.