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Despite ample artifactual evidence for Mycenaean maritime activity, few anchorages and harbors of the Mycenaean period have been identified on Aegean coasts, and even less is known about the people and communities that inhabited them. In this paper I report on an ongoing research project that draws upon geomorphological and archaeological fieldwork; examination of images and texts in Linear B as well as the early Greek literature of Homer and Hesiod; and oral history interviews of coastal people in Greece and India. By identifying both cross-cultural patterns and culturally specific characteristics of Aegean coastal life, I aim to build a portrait of these communities and their small-scale networks of interaction with sea and land, using the concepts of “coastscapes” and “maritime small worlds.