In December of 2016, the University of the Aegean's Department of Mediterranean Studies held a symposium in Rhodes on the topic of "Religion, Politics, and Culture in the Mediterranean from the 8th to the 6th Centuries BC." The conference was organized by the Aegean Egyptology group and Laboratory of the Ancient World of the Eastern Mediterranean and was directed by Panagiotis Kousoulis. Today, the journal is very pleased to finally publish a few of those works in this special volume.