The territories of the Adriatic and the Ionian area were separated from each
other both from a political and a cultural point of view. Because of this
circumstance, they represent a suitable area for the study of commercial and
cultural exchange. This meeting of cultures generated mutual influences and cultural
osmosis in various ways and at different times, and was linked to different
historical and geographical contexts, which nevertheless sometimes generated similar
results. Recent archaeological research allows us to assume that sanctuaries and
sacred places are suitable contexts in which these phenomena can be analysed, as
they were places in which large amounts of people gathered and centres of cultural
mediation that were involved in economic and political interests. The contributions
collected in this book consider these issues from different points of view and
include studies on historiography, material culture and numismatics. The case
studies of the northern Adriatic area are located on the western shore, and in
particular in the area of the ager Gallicus and of Picenum, with a particular focus
on the period that precedes and witnesses the structuring of the Roman domination of
this territory (3¿rd / 2¿nd century BC). The case studies in the southern Adriatic
and Ionian area focus on Apulia and the area of Illyria and Epirus between the
Archaic era and the beginning of the Roman age (4¿th to 1st century BC).
