The networks of this volume's title are not those derived from formal social network analysis, but rather a heuristic vehicle employed in the same way as by Irad Malkin (Reference Malkin2011) in A small Greek world: networks in the ancient Mediterranean. Here, the concept of connectivity builds on Peregrine Horden and Nicholas Purcell's (Reference Horden and Purcell2000) The corrupting sea and pays homage to Cyprian Broodbank's (Reference Broodbank2013) The making of the Middle Sea. The book contains 11 chapters: an introduction, plus nine case studies and a conclusion. Eight of the chapters originate from a conference held at the University of Chicago's Franke Institute for the Humanities in January 2018.
In their thoughtful Introduction, Jonathan Osborne and James Hall touch upon many of the difficulties related to the study of the early first millennium BC in the Eastern Mediterranean, including the uneven distribution of evidence and the ‘ethnicising’ tendency present in the research field. They also define the four themes around which the volume is structured. First is the acceptance of the need for multiple explanatory mechanisms to account for connectivity in the Eastern Mediterranean, admitting that a single explanation cannot ever cover all variability. The second is the emphasis on human agency and the avoidance of environmental determinism, even if the editors accept that knowledge of geographical contexts is inadequate. The third theme is the wish for a deeper focus on the circulation of more mundane material and short-distance, small-scale, irregular exchange transfer, rather than long-distance, high-status trade. The final topic is the expansion of the traditional geographical scope of study beyond the Aegean and Levant to include Egypt, Mesopotamia and Phrygia. These themes are all picked up in the chapters that follow.
Carolina López Ruiz's chapter sets out to counter those who consider the Phoenicians to be an etic category of the Greek imagination. Making the case using consistencies grounded in language and writing, religion and art, López Ruiz argues the category is real, even if composed of peoples divided between multiple city states. One of the highlights of the volume is Catherine Kearns's chapter on rural consumption and trade in Archaic Cyprus. Using survey material from two projects, Kearns discusses connectivity and supply networks in the hinterland of Amathus, showing how rural populations intentionally chose or rejected different types of pottery from city-dwellers, revealing social boundaries and diverging value systems.
In the next chapter, Marian Feldman discusses high-status Phoenician bowls—objects that the volume as a whole attempts to move beyond. Feldman contests the concept of style and introduces ideas of heterogeneity and fluidity in the creation and exchange of the bowls, with an emphasis on social processes. This chapter argues that despite the high status of these objects, lower status agents were integral to their production and exchange, potentially through cabotage. Feldman concludes that the impossibility of provenancing the original production area of these vessels reflects Horden and Purcell's (Reference Horden and Purcell2000) and Broodbank's (Reference Broodbank2013) ‘Mediterraneanism’; such fragmentation provides a good basis for a new, bottom-up analysis of these vessels. Next, Sarah Morris introduces the concept of minor transnationalism, and draws attention to non-dominant populations that had an influence in cross-cultural traffic and the creation of new cultural forms. Here, Morris raises the case of mercenaries, focusing on interesting material from the north Aegean.
The late arrival of the Greeks, and the non-arrival of the Phoenicians, to the Black Sea forms the basis of the chapter by Susan Sherratt. Potential reasons include Phrygian hostility and the Lydian need for silver as an impetus for the founding of Sinope, by Miletus, as the first Greek outpost there. The following chapter, by John Papadopoulos, juxtaposes the well-known sites of Knossos, Lefkandi and Athens with sites in the north Aegean, where the cemeteries of Torone and others provide material from the Phoenician sphere, as well as material from Phrygia in the north. Papadopoulos neatly points out how this is a sign of the ‘in-betweenness’ of the area during what Broodbank (Reference Broodbank2013) terms the ‘dark ages’.
Ann Gunter highlights the importance of the figure of Mita/Midas of Phrygia in relations between the Anatolia, the Levant, the Middle East and the Greek world, and how material connections, especially in the form of fibulae, can be found both in the Neo-Assyrian area and at Greek shrines. The importance of this chapter lies in its discussion on the chronological span of these Phrygian contacts and different modes of acquiring and using these artefacts. Meanwhile, in his chapter, Brian Muhs presents evidence for the material contacts between the Levant and Egypt between the ninth and seventh centuries BC, demonstrating the longevity of interaction.
The book's best and most thought-provoking chapter is by Tamar Hodos, who takes a close look at globalisation and how well suited it is as an explanatory vehicle of Mediterranean connectivity. Globalisation emphasises simultaneously shared sets of practices at the cross-cultural level, with variability among local participating groups. This is exactly the scenario found with the Phoenician bowls, for example. It is the globalising paradox that embodies both a sense of ‘one-placeness’ and an increased awareness and sensitivity to differences. Hodos shows how eight trends in globalisation are reflected in the Iron Age Eastern Mediterranean, using various chapters from the book as examples. Hodos convinces at least this reader that globalisation research has value in studying such complex connectivity.
In the volume's final chapter, Michael Dietler lists six ‘provocations’, though these feel less like provocations and more like issues on which the authors generally agree. The first of these is scale and the idea that viewing the evidence and ideas at different scales leads to different interpretations; this suggests the need constantly to shift our scale and perspective. The second provocation is connectivity, as an ‘Ityology’, which presents a fashionable but abstract vagueness. The third provocation relates to networks, which Dietler discusses in the terms of Agent-Network Theory and critics their use; the latter has had limited impact in Mediterranean archaeology, as reflected in the contents of this volume as a whole. Provocation number four is network analysis and what Dietler calls a “ghost of functionalism” (p. 243), and he is correct, as network science relates more to New Archaeology than post-processual archaeology. The fifth provocation concerns boundaries and borders, which Dietler identifies as unfashionable, but reminds us, even if not directly addressed, that they continue to exist. The final provocation is colonialism and Mediterranean connectedness. Here, Dietler is vexed by the pan-regional unity or identity suggested for the Mediterranean, due to it being a common core motif in imperialistic and nationalistic discourse. A critical reflection is required from the researchers of the region to incorporate the perspectives of both the colonised peoples and those beyond the colonial sphere.
In sum, this is an interesting volume with engaging discussions on various modes of connectivity. The chapters are well written, supported by some good illustrative material, and effectively address the four themes set out in the introductory chapter, leaving the best to last.
