The cultural identity of the Ionian Islands during the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age was shaped by a variety of factors, not least by their geographical position at the north-western fringes of the Aegean world. Through the scrutiny of all the categories of archaeological evidence - tombs and cemetaries, settlements and artefacts (pottery, weapons, tools, jewellery) - Christina Haywood reconstructs the archaeological profile of a region whose character in prehistory alternated between cultural vitality and openness to long-distance connections, on the one hand, and provincialism and isolation, on the other.