MEGALOMANINTELLIGENCE. The Mediterranean port cities from ancient genomes to new paradigms

The Mediterranean is a unique setting and a kaleidoscopic melting pot; a calm, protected basin which thanks to its central position has for centuries been a crossroads connecting three continents; a place for meeting and exchange. The Mediterranean coasts possess an accumulation of exceptional urban places that are uniquely rich, layered and complex, and whose physical and geographical features have enabled them to play a fundamental role in the development of civilisations. The port cities around the Mediterranean are highly sophisticated artefacts of major heritage value and are the outcome of a process dating back to the beginning of time but also expressing the varied, many-sided present day as well as looking forward to the future. But the complex connotations of this urban fabric cannot simply be explained as a consequence or a product of the interaction between the morphology of the Mediterranean territory, the evolution of a single civilisation, or the result of applying different rules. More interestingly, they are the end product of contaminations and cross-fertilisations that were mainly spontaneous and peaceful and that came about thanks to the contacts, exchanges and interchanges between the various populations and cultures of the basin. Because of these processes, which took place over time and across cultures, each Mediterranean port city developed its own identity and each one is completely different from the others, whilst at the same time being undeniably and indissolubly connected to them as an inextricable part of a whole system.