[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review]
This collected volume is the result of a series of events held by the editors between 2017 and 2020. The first, introductory chapter clearly develops the aim of the book. Even though each contribution is independent, the whole book is strongly articulated around the geographical frame of the Central and Western Mediterranean, the themes of mobility and connectivity, and a local approach underlining the specific experience and the agency of populations facing colonial dynamics, “‘against the grain’ of traditional large-scale narratives” (p.16), and challenging a long lasting historiographical tradition focused on Phoenician, Greek, and Roman material and settlements around the Mediterranean. A short historiographical section (citing almost exclusively anglophone work) situates and defines the notions of connectivity and mobility. Lastly, this chapter describes the general architecture of the book, focusing in turn on human mobility, the circulation of materials, and landscapes. Each contribution focuses on one or several case-studies. Their chronological span goes from the Bronze Age to Late Antiquity. The last part comprises three concluding chapters assessing the contribution of the present volume to the fields of ancient mobility, connectivity, and post-colonial studies.
Part I focuses on human mobility. In a stimulating chapter, Giulia Saltini Semerari presents the results of bioarchaeological analyses on long-term population dynamics in southern Italy between the Early Iron Age and the Archaic period. Based on these analyses and a long-term archaeological reflection on Mediterranean connectivity in Southern Italy, the author argues in favour of the conception of Greek colonies as ethnically heterogenous communities that attracted not only foreigners, but also indigenous people. Against the idea of a “carefully planned Greek occupation”, she considers the Greek colonies “more of an experiment in urban organization within a rapidly changing cultural and territorial landscape” (p. 47). The author gives an insightful reflection on the articulation of different sources and the complex interactions between ethnicity, culture, and material environment.
Alejandro Sinner then demonstrates that, despite a “high degree of connectivity” (p. 62) between Italy and Northeastern Hispania, the migration of persons was actually limited, and mostly concentrated in Tarraco. The author relies on several types of sources: the comparison between the distribution of Italian products and accessibility maps, epigraphical sources, and genetic material. The distinction between connectivity and mobility is clearly asserted, as well as the local perspective that allows the author to underline the specificities of Northeastern Hispania compared to other parts of the peninsula.
Linda Gosner studies the movement of persons and goods in the Iberian mining districts, especially in the south section of the peninsula, between the 2nd century BC and the 2nd century AD, mostly based on epigraphical material and onomastics. The Republican period saw population movements from Italy, especially Campania. In the Imperial period, on the other hand, population movements within the peninsula were the majority. The author raises questions about the official and informal mechanisms structuring these population movements, the circulation of information, and the connections between mining districts. She concludes that the specific connectivity of mining areas represents an “experience of empire” (p. 103), as population movements to the districts under scrutiny took place from several regions of the empire, deeply transforming rural and industrial spaces.
The chapters in Part II analyse mobility and connectivity through archaeological material, especially ceramics. Anthony Russell reflects on the notion of globalisation and the extension to which it can be used in archaeology. This conceptual and methodological issue occupies most of the chapter, with the development of three paradigms: “culture clash” (p. 117), “McDonaldization” (p. 118), and “hybridization” (p. 119). Lastly, the author gives two examples from Sicily in the 2nd millennium BC: the courtyard complex at Thapsos and Pentalica North pottery. For the author, those examples demonstrate the relevance of a “cultural hybridity paradigm” (p. 131), both inspired by foreign forms and motivated by local dynamics and needs. Since this article is oriented toward a theoretical and epistemological purpose, the examples are summarily developed.
Jeremy Hayne’s chapter analyses local interactions in the Tyrrhenian Sea between 1000 and 600 BC, focusing on “indigenous players” (p. 137). He underlines the different trajectories taken by Corsica and Sardinia, despite their geographical proximity and relations with each other, analysing in particular the settlement pattern, the architectural traditions and the ceramic material of both islands in order to examine the evolution of their social structures and connectivity.
Catherine Steidl studies the connectivity between coastal and inland sites of the Northwestern Mediterranean. Greek or Phoenician material arrived at those inland settlements not directly, but through the intermediary of coastal sites. From this situation of connectivity, she reflects on the notion of community and questions the various identities of the communities of Northwestern Mediterranean. She argues that collective identity mostly expresses itself at the scale of the settlement: the culturally mixed communities of coastal settlements had an identity distinct of that of inland settlements. This approach allows nuance in the opposition between colonisers and indigenous populations by taking into account the specific conditions of connectivity of each settlement.
The chapter by Antonio Saez Romero and Philip Johnston develops a thorough case study of the “cultural mixing” (p. 186) at work in the Bay of Cadiz in the context of the diffusion of Phoenician culture. The authors first criticise the diffusionist model, according to which the Phoenician bicameral kiln and fast potter’s wheel were progressively adopted from South to North of the Iberian peninsula due to their technological superiority. Based on a study of the Bay of Cadiz, they develop a more complex model, rethinking in particular the connection between technology and culture: adopting a new technology doesn’t mean adopting a new culture. However, technology encapsulates more than just efficiency; it also reflects social practices. After assessing the contacts and technological transfers in the Bay of Cadiz, they identify four intertwined processes at play: Phoenician mercantile strategies; resistance and conservatism from indigenous populations; adoption and improvisation; and a culture of imitation common to the whole Mediterranean world, according to the authors.
Part III deals with “landscapes of connectivity and mobility”. David Stone aims to reevaluate the connectivity of the Maghrib in the wider Mediterranean world. The author points out the historiographical weight of the colonial period: the level of complexity of the indigenous population of the 1st millennium BC was underestimated, while the impact of ancient colonial powers was considered essential for the social development and the integration of the region into wider communication networks: hence, the conception of the Maghrib as a series of islands isolated from one another and from the Mediterranean, profoundly modified and made dynamic by Phoenician occupation. In opposition to this conception, the article identifies and studies three markers of social complexity and connectivity in the indigenous populations prior to Phoenician colonisation: burial practices, fortifications, and feasting. The interest of postcolonial approaches is here demonstrated by the approach of both historiography and archaeological data.
The chapter by Jessica Nowlin considers the question of connectivity for a rural, mountainous hinterland, a change from approaches mainly centred on urban spaces intensely implicated in Mediterranean trade. The article studies the effects of connectivity within communities and its regional variations. The argument relies on two case studies: the archaeological material of the necropolis of Campovalano and Fossa in the Apennines. Concordance analysis (that is, a statistical study of the collocation of types of material) allows the author to identify patterns of consumption. In Campovalano, new practices of funerary banqueting are associated with local ceramics. In Fossa, ceramic material imported from Etruria is adapted to a persistent tradition of libation and food offerings. There is no direct connection between the settlements of the Apennines and the Eastern Mediterranean, but new material and practices circulated through the Etruscans, along routes across the Apennines. The author rejects the opposition between “open” urban, coastal societies, and supposedly “closed” rural, mountainous ones, underlining constant processes of adaptation and choice. This solid and interesting chapter could have benefitted from a more detailed geographical description of the territory under consideration and more detailed maps in order to articulate more thoroughly the reflections on pottery and circulations.
Catalina Mas Florit analyses the links between connectivity, social transformations, and settlement patterns in the Balearic Islands from the Roman period to Late Antiquity. These islands are known for their slingers who operated in the Phoenician and Roman armies. The island of Ebessus (modern Ibiza) appears as an intermediary between the Balearic Islands and the rest of the Mediterranean. This chapter specifically focuses on the evolutions of the settlement patterns on Mallorca and Menorca. The author observes that, despite variations in the density of rural occupation and settlement patterns over the centuries, ancient Talayotic settlements constitute a persistent territorial fabric that was reactivated during the periods of densest rural occupation. During Christianisation, rural churches were erected in strategic locations, either near the coasts or inside the islands on major road axes. For the author, the link between churches and circulation axes favoured the spread of Christianity. Despite its interest, the article lacks a precise archaeological map showing the evolution of the settlement pattern to support the argument.
Part IV consists of three concluding chapters highlighting the different theoretical strands of the volume. In chapter 12, Peter van Dommelen and Miguel Ángel Cau Ontiveros offer two “vignettes” (p. 298) that “highlight multiscalar connectivity at work” (p. 297): a Balearic embassy directly going to the Roman power to ask for peace during the Second Punic War; and the Sardinian rebellion led by Hampsicoras, a local leader with Punic connections. These two examples show the collusion of local and global scales. The rest of the contribution summarises the different chapters of the book, underlining the interest in articulating local and global perspectives.
Chapter 13 follows the same pattern. After restating the major historiographical moments constituted by Braudel’s work and Horden and Purcell’s The Corrupting Sea (2000), Tamar Hodos and Carolina López-Ruiz summarise the articles with an emphasis on the importance of balancing scales, and the pertinence of the western Mediterranean framework adopted by the book.
Lastly, in the general conclusion, editors Gosner and Hayne underline the “new directions” (p. 321) followed in the book, especially the use of DNA and bioarchaeological data and the precautions involved. They also evoke the darker aspects of connectivity: violence, predation, damages caused to different cultures, especially in the context of the Roman conquest, should be part of the reflection on concepts like hybridity and globalisation. They advocate for an archaeological approach to mobility and connectivity that can account for the complexity of local scales.
As a whole, the book raises interesting questions and gathers recent perspectives on ancient Mediterranean mobility and connectivity, shifting from the sole point of view of the colonisers to take into consideration the indigenous populations and their agency, as well as considering the complex manifestations of connectivity at different scales and in various local contexts. The contribution of postcolonial studies is significant. However, certain chapters tend to offer rather developed theoretical considerations without elaborating as much on the concrete archaeological and historical data. The different papers each tend to reaffirm the methodological and conceptual statements of the volume, which gives a convincing coherence to the whole, but can also sound repetitive. The material and editorial quality of the book is high, and each chapter benefits from clear illustration, even though one might wish for more precise maps in the third section, that would indicate in particular fluxes of communication and circulation axes and not only the location of sites mentioned. In conclusion, the volume will be of interest for those concerned with the geographical and chronological areas covered in it, but it also serves as a compendium of recent archaeological approaches to the concepts of mobility and connectivity.
Authors and titles
- Linda R. Gosner and Jeremy Hayne, Moving Forward: Archaeologies of Connectivity and Mobility
Part I: Human Movement, Mobility, and Migration
- Giulia Saltini Semerari, Mediterranean Connectivity in Southern Italy: Datasets, Methods, and Theory
- Alejandro G. Sinner, Human Mobility between Italy and Northeastern Hispania during the Late Republican Period
- Linda R. Gosner, Mining, Movement, and Migration in the Industrial Landscapes of Roman Iberia
Part II: Material Interactions and Connections
- Anthony Russell, A Lower-Case ‘g’ globalized World? Examining Three Paradigms of Culture Contact in Middle and Late Bronze Age Sicily
- Jeremy Hayne, ‘The Missing link’? Sardinia, Corsica, and Italy: Their Connections in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages
- Catherine Steidl, The Business of ‘Becoming’: Connectivity, Trade, and Community Formation in the Northwest Mediterranean
- Antonio Saez Romero and Philip Johnston, A Shotgun Wedding? Culture Mixing as Phoenician Mercantile Strategy in the Bay of Cadiz (ca. 800–600 BC)
Part III: Landscapes of Connectivity and Mobility
- David L. Stone, Isolation and Connectivity: The Maghrib and the Mediterranean in the 1st Millennium BC
- Jessica Nowlin, At the Margins of ‘Orientalization’: Funerary Ritual and Local Practice in Apennine Central Italy
- Catalina Mas Florit, Intra and Inter-island Connectivity in the Balearic Islands in Antiquity
Part IV: Breaking Boundaries, Moving Forward
- Peter van Dommelen, Miguel Ángel Cau Ontiveros, Local Heroes: Alternative Histories of the Western Mediterranean
- Tamar Hodos, Carolina López-Ruiz, Local Experiences and Global Connections: Finding the Balance
- Linda R. Gosner, Jeremy Hayne, A Place for the Local