Profumi di Rodi e a Rodi: produzione e commercio tra il IX e il VI secolo a.C.

This contribution provides an overview of the production and trade of perfumes in Rhodes between the 9th and 6th centuries BC. In the absence of literary sources, this phenomenon is reconstructed using archaeological evidence, especially perfume vessels. Archaeological contexts on the island illustrate the early circulation of Cypriot perfume vases from the beginning of the 9th century BC, followed by Phoenician ones from the end of the 8th century BC. The production of Rhodian imitations of Cypriot perfume vessels grew dramatically between the last two decades of the 8th century and the third quarter of the 7th century BC, resulting in the creation of the so-called Spaghetti-style aryballoi. Production of these vessels must originally have been started by immigrants from the eastern Mediterranean who had settled in and integrated with the population of Ialysos. These aryballoi demonstrate the commercialisation of Rhodian-produced perfumes on a Mediterranean scale. Between the last quarter of the 7th century and the 6th century BC, archaeological evidence of perfume vases shows that Rhodes was involved in a trade network that connected the cities of Eastern Greece closely with the Anatolian kingdoms and Egypt with regard to the consumption and commercialisation of exotic perfumes.