Crafting Communities into Contact

Abstract: Stamp and cylinder seal amulets have long factored into debates on the nature of east Mediterranean interconnectivity during the late third to early second millennium BCE. This lecture presents new research identifying and contextualizing the widespread appearance of a glyptic koine—and thus shared visual language—in the Aegean, Egypt, and the Levant alongside new manufacturing techniques, shared material choices, and the development of emergent writing systems with (semi)-pictographic scripts, arguing for sustained interaction and a new focus on the role of skilled labor in the making of an east Mediterranean exchange system.