The Maltese Islands and the sea in antiquity

Abstract

The stretches of sea extant between islands and mainland may be observed as having primary-dual functionalities: that of ‘isolating’ islands and that of providing connectivity with land masses that lay beyond the islands’ shores. On smaller islands especially, access to the sea provided a gateway from which people, goods and ideas could flow. This chapter explores how, via their surrounding seas, events of history often led to the islands of Malta and Gozo. The timeframe covered consists of over one thousand years (circa 700 BC to circa 400 AD); a fluid period that saw the island move in and out of the political, military and economic orbits of various powers that dominated the Mediterranean during these centuries. [Excerpt]