Histria antiqua, Vol. 21 No. 21, 2012.
Original scientific paper
Navigation along Caput Adriae or Navigation Around the World?
Martina BLEČIĆ KAVUR
orcid.org/0000-0002-7626-6484
; Sveučilište u Rijeci Filozofski fakultet u Rijeci Sveučilišna avenija 4 51 000 Rijeka, Hrvatska
Abstract
“Our sea has a major advantage, in all senses, over the other seas”, Strabo wrote, “and we should start from it”
(Geographica II, 57). Navigation on the Mediterranean, ‘our sea’ or the ‘great’ sea of Herodotus, enabled the bridging
of smaller or larger gaps between physical and cultural distances, the linking of socially and ideologically different
worlds, and the moving closer to recent and different achievements, thus creating a cultural and historical image of
the first large cultural Mediterranean koiné in the vast concept of the Old World.
Different forms of communication and exchange, investigation and adventure, particularly those involving great
distances, started as early as the 3rd millennium BC. Later, they were organised and better structured, particularly
in the Late Bronze Age. During this ‘first golden European era’, the astonishing technological advances consequently
led to new achievements in communications. The exchange of metals became highly important. Their supply conditioned
the forming of so-called global connectivity, which, with its rituals of perennial arrivals, departures and
constant returns, particularly marked the cultures in the area of Caput Adria and its hinterland.
Caput Adria is at the top of the largest sea in the Mediterranean, the sea which penetrates deepest into the
European continent. The rivers connected with this sea continued their journey beneficially, and on equal terms
mediated in the conjunction of the universal and regional, which manifested itself in the broad cultural koiné of the
Mediterranean and continental areas of Europe.
Archaeological sources of cognitively interpreted material, primarily clothing and personal attire, prestigious or
exotic items, of which more will be said in this paper, confirm that ‘our’ sea truly provided a great advantage in the
past as it does in the present.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
102007
URI
Publication date:
1.8.2012.
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