Introduction

Abstract

Abody of relatively calm waters, easy to navigate and bound by the contiguous shores of Europe, Asia, and Africa, the Mediterranean Sea has enabled extensive travels and peaceful interactions but also violent conflicts between people seeking to further trade, establish colonies, and wage wars. As a result, hybridization and exchanges have taken place between the diverse cultures, societies, and ethnicities that stretch from western Europe and the sub-Sahara to the Middle East and farther to the Indian Ocean and the Asian steppes. This remarkable interdependence between cultures that was already constitutive of the ancient Mediterranean has continued through history, turning the area into one of the planet’s most vibrant networks of human interaction.