s14
4
Published by Maney (c) European Association of Archaeologists European Journal of Archaeology 14 (3) 2011 506 REFERENCES Cruz Berrocal, M., 2011. Analogical evidence and shamanism in archaeological interpre- tation: South African and European Palae- olithic rock art. Norwegian Archaeological Review 44(1):1–20. Cruz Berrocal, M. and J. Vicent García, 2007. Rock art as an archaeological and social indicator: the neolithisation of the Iberian Peninsula. Journal of Anthropologi- cal Archaeology 26:676–697. Jones, A., 2003. Art and contestation: a review of K. Helskog, (ed.): eoretical Perspec- tives in Rock Art Research. Novus Forlag, e Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture, Oslo, 2001. Norwegian Archaeological Review 36(1):77–80. Whitley, D., 2001. Science and the sacred: interpretative theory in US rock art research. In K. Helskog (ed.), Art and Contestation Theoretical Perspectives in Rock Art Research: 130–157. Oslo: Novus Forlag. Whitley, D. and J. Keyser, 2003. Faith in the past: debating an archaeology of religion. Antiquity 77:385–393. María Cruz Berrocal Institute of Prehistory (CCHS), Spanish Higher Council of Scientific Research (CSIC), Madrid, Spain In the preface, the editors mention two main facts underlying this book. e first concerns the work of the Sherratts, who stress the importance of analysing the collapse of the Mediterranean Bronze Age system on a large scale. e second refers to the few available opportunities for scholars to meet and share information from diverse areas of the Mediterranean in order to achieve a better understanding of this large region. As well as providing such an oppor- tunity, this monograph also presents a great occasion for honouring the influential work of Andrew Sherratt whose untimely death preceded the 2006 conference, on which this book is based, only by one month. e book is exemplary in the way it fulfils the second aim of bringing together a diverse group of scholars and a wide range of topics in the study of the central and east Mediter- ranean from the thirteenth to the tenth cen- turies BC. e editors must be credited for including not only traditional approaches, such as scientific studies in climate change, ceramic studies or burial analyses, but also innovative research, such as those by Moody on domestic architecture and Lane on land ownership. e contributions also cover a wide range of areas throughout the east and central Mediterranean: seven of the articles focus on the Aegean, six on the Levant, three on Italy, two on Troy and one on Egypt, with a couple of them casting a broader view over the east Mediterranean. It is commendable that the geographical scope incorporates Italy as a staple rather than an exotic periph- ery in the study of the period, as the central Mediterranean is becoming increasingly important for the understanding of trade networks in the Late Bronze Age Mediterra- nean (Laffineur and Greco 2005). However, it is a bit disappointing that no scholar ventures into the west Mediterranean even though Vianello refers to Sicily as a western Christoph Bachhuber and R. Gareth Roberts, eds, Forces of Transformation: e End of the Bronze Age in the Mediterranean. Proceedings of an International Symposium held at St. John‘s College, University of Oxford, 25–26 March 2006 (emes from the Ancient Near East BANEA Publication Series 1, Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2009, 227 pp., 151 figs., 16 tables, hbk, ISBN 978-1-84217-332-9)
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Transcript of s14
Pub
lishe
d by
Man
ey (
c) E
urop
ean
Ass
ocia
tion
of A
rcha
eolo
gist
sEuropean Journal of Archaeology 14 (3) 2011506
RefeReNces
Cruz Berrocal M 2011 Analogical evidence and shamanism in archaeological interpre-tation South African and European Palae-olithic rock art Norwegian Archaeological Review 44(1)1ndash20
Cruz Berrocal M and J Vicent Garciacutea 2007 Rock art as an archaeological and social indicator the neolithisation of the Iberian Peninsula Journal of Anthropologi-cal Archaeology 26676ndash697
Jones A 2003 Art and contestation a review of K Helskog (ed) Theoretical Perspec-tives in Rock Art Research Novus Forlag The Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture Oslo 2001 Norwegian Archaeological Review 36(1)77ndash80
Whitley D 2001 Science and the sacred interpretative theory in US rock art research In K Helskog (ed) Art and Contestation Theoretical Perspectives in Rock Art Research 130ndash157 Oslo Novus Forlag
Whitley D and J Keyser 2003 Faith in the past debating an archaeology of religion Antiquity 77385ndash393
Mariacutea Cruz BerrocalInstitute of Prehistory (CCHS)
Spanish Higher Council of Scientific Research (CSIC)
Madrid Spain
In the preface the editors mention two main facts underlying this book The first concerns the work of the Sherratts who stress the importance of analysing the collapse of the Mediterranean Bronze Age system on a large scale The second refers to the few available opportunities for scholars to meet and share information from diverse areas of the Mediterranean in order to achieve a better understanding of this large region As well as providing such an oppor-tunity this monograph also presents a great occasion for honouring the influential work of Andrew Sherratt whose untimely death preceded the 2006 conference on which this book is based only by one month
The book is exemplary in the way it fulfils the second aim of bringing together a diverse group of scholars and a wide range of topics in the study of the central and east Mediter-ranean from the thirteenth to the tenth cen-turies BC The editors must be credited for
including not only traditional approaches such as scientific studies in climate change ceramic studies or burial analyses but also innovative research such as those by Moody on domestic architecture and Lane on land ownership The contributions also cover a wide range of areas throughout the east and central Mediterranean seven of the articles focus on the Aegean six on the Levant three on Italy two on Troy and one on Egypt with a couple of them casting a broader view over the east Mediterranean It is commendable that the geographical scope incorporates Italy as a staple rather than an exotic periph-ery in the study of the period as the central Mediterranean is becoming increasingly important for the understanding of trade networks in the Late Bronze Age Mediterra-nean (Laffineur and Greco 2005) However it is a bit disappointing that no scholar ventures into the west Mediterranean even though Vianello refers to Sicily as a western
Christoph Bachhuber and R Gareth Roberts eds Forces of Transformation The End of the Bronze Age in the Mediterranean Proceedings of an International Symposium held at St Johnlsquos College University of Oxford 25ndash26 March 2006 (Themes from the Ancient Near East BANEA Publication Series 1 Oxford Oxbow Books 2009 227 pp 151 figs 16 tables hbk ISBN 978-1-84217-332-9)
Pub
lishe
d by
Man
ey (
c) E
urop
ean
Ass
ocia
tion
of A
rcha
eolo
gist
sReviews 507
rather than a central Mediterranean region Fulminantersquos article on Latium shows that during this period interesting processes were also taking place in areas of the Mediter-ranean further away from the large polities in the east perhaps partly as a result of the climate changes that Rohling et al present in their contribution Unfortunately however this book perpetuates the assumption that the west Mediterranean had no significant history until the Phoenician colonisation
A bigger disappointment is that the volume does not live up to its title which would lead us to believe that the book is structured around the theoretical concept of lsquoforces of transformationrsquo However the conspicuous absence of an introduction by the editors or conclusions by a keynote speaker means that the lsquoforces of transforma-tionrsquo remain undefined It also means that apart from the succinct preface the reader has little guidance with which to establish a theoretical or methodological context for the diverse contributions in the volume This is a shame as current discussions about an archaeology of the Mediterranean (Brood-bank 2010 Knapp and Blake 2005) and the nature of the first world-systems (Sherratt 2010 Stein 1999) are providing challeng-ing models for understanding the period In spite of what the title may suggest there is no explicit connection between this volume and such discussions Such lack of theoretical perspective also renders the decision of the editors to group articles by theme ineffec-tive as the relevance of these themes remains unclear to the reader are these themes the lsquoforces of transformationrsquo How do these themes connect the very different chapters in each section Instead organising the con-tributions by geographical region may have proved to be more useful for the reader
Given this lack of interpretative guide-lines the value of the book resides entirely on the articles that compose it As in any edited book the quality of the contribu-tions is variable but only Frenchrsquos three-
page description of stratigraphy at Mycenae raises doubts about its merit for publication in the volume in its present form The book is well presented and edited in an easy-to-read manner without glaring errors and in general the articles are clearly written with a good structure and with an appropriate use of relevant illustrations The placement of the bibliography at the end of the volume is the only objectionable editing decision inserting the relevant bibliography at the end of each contribution would have been much more helpful
The volume comprises 21 contributions that can be grouped based on how they approach the study of the period There are only a few articles that look at the bigger picture (Rohling et al Routledge and McGeough Bell and Lis) Rohling et al is a natural scientific paper that suggests a signif-icant cooling of the Mediterranean climate from the middle second millennium BC onwards This adds an interesting dimension to the study of the period that is rarely referred to by archaeologists The article by Routledge and McGeough is probably the most inter-esting Their analysis is centred on Ugarit but they extend their research questions to cover the organization of long distance trade and how this relates to our understanding of the end of the Bronze Age Given that their article is a profound critique of Andrew and Susan Sherrattrsquos models (Sherratt 1998 Sherratt and Sherratt 1998) it is likely that this contribution will be crucial for future discussions on the subject Bellrsquos contribution also adds much needed food for thought by presenting the broad changes in maritime trade in the east Mediterranean from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age These three articles set up some interesting questions that help to contextualise much of the information provided by the rest of the articles in the volume
At the opposite end of the spectrum there are several articles that express little aware-ness of the larger picture or the theoretical
Pub
lishe
d by
Man
ey (
c) E
urop
ean
Ass
ocia
tion
of A
rcha
eolo
gist
sEuropean Journal of Archaeology 14 (3) 2011508
issues concerning the study of the period This is the case for the two articles on TroyTroia by Basedow and Aslan and the one on Mycenae by French all three of which limit their relevance to scholars interested in the stratigraphy and ceramic typology of these particular sites Similarly Robertsrsquo detailed analysis of the iconography of the Year 8 reliefs at Medinet Habu would have benefited from connecting its interpreta-tion to broader discussions on the nature of the so-called lsquoSea Peoplesrsquo and their role in the changes that brought on the end of the Bronze Age (Sherratt 1998)
Most articles sit in the middle of the spectrum The majority of the contributions follow a specific corpus of archaeological data from a site or region through the end of the Bronze Age and the start of the Iron Age in order to identify major changes and continuities The success of these studies varies In many cases contributions offer a good overview of the data normally of the foreign material in a region However they tend to lack complexity in their interpreta-tions and they assume quite readily the link between material culture and economic and social history This is particularly true for those articles that focus on the regional scale Both Vianellorsquos and Tanasirsquos accounts of foreign materials and influences in south Italy and Sicily would have benefited from a more theoretically aware interpretation of the data Georgiadisrsquo descriptive account of burial practices in the east Aegean is informative but presents us with a very simplistic inter-pretation that ignores the issues arising from recovery problems and biased knowledge of the archaeological sites Moodyrsquos innovative look at domestic architecture also presents a straightforward link between climate and architecture that ignores largely the impact of human agency and obvious archaeological problems in the reconstruction of the houses from their plans Pernarsquos analysis of Crete overcomes some of the problems through the analysis of several types of evidence but
the paperrsquos aims are undercut by the short length of her contribution which impedes any meaningful discussion and interpreta-tion of the data Papadopoulosrsquo analysis of the iconography of warfare in the Aegean bucks this trend as his comprehensive analysis of several types of evidence is also matched by a careful interpretation that acknowledges the limitations of the data
These problems are more limited in the contributions that focus on particular sites Even when authors sometimes are not very specific about theoretical approaches the analyses tend to be more detailed and add much needed high quality data to debates on peoplersquos movements identities and social and economic transformations at the end of the Bronze Age This is particularly true for the carefully discussed case of Tel es-Sarsquoidiyeh by Green that approaches cautiously the study of burial data but at the same time extracts interesting information about status identity and gender In other cases the detailed studies fail to acquire such an interesting insight into the period Both Stockhammerrsquos and Laemmelrsquos fundamentally typological analyses of pottery offer thorough studies in the archaeology of Tyrins and Tel el-Farrsquoah South However such a narrow focus on typology feels insufficient to attempt the reconstruction of the history of the sites Panitz-Cohenrsquos more nuanced analysis of ceramic production offers a more convincing analysis as it overcomes the limitations of typological studies and clearly indicates the value of the site within the study of the end of the Bronze Age in the Levant Lanersquos dis-cussion of land ownerships is also a detailed and complex study that opens new valuable lines of academic enquiry Finally Lisrsquo look at hand-made pottery proves that the detailed understanding of contextual evidence and ceramic technology from individual sites can be combined at a large scale in order to identify significant broader patterns in the record of the east Mediterranean Hopefully more research will pursue in the future this
Pub
lishe
d by
Man
ey (
c) E
urop
ean
Ass
ocia
tion
of A
rcha
eolo
gist
sReviews 509
interesting interplay of data analysis at dif-ferent scales
Beyond the initial disappointment of the lack of theoretical structure given the promising title of the book readers inter-ested in the Aegean Italy and Levant at the end of the Bronze Age may find many of the case-studies to be of great interest For those more interested in the understanding of larger issues in the period some of the articles will also prove worthwhile reading which all in all make the book an interest-ing addition to studies of the period
RefeReNces
Broodbank C 2010 Braudelrsquos Bronze Age In O Krzyszkowska (ed) Cretan Offerings Studies in Honour of Peter Warren British School at Athens Studies 18 33ndash40 Athens British School at Athens
Knapp AB and E Blake 2005 Prehistory in the Mediterranean the connecting and corrupting Sea In E Blake and AB Knapp (eds) The Archaeology of Mediterranean Pre-history 1ndash23 Oxford Blackwell
Laffineur R and E Greco (eds) 2005 Emporia Aegeans in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean Proceedings of the 10th Inter-national Aegean Conference 10e Rencontre eacutegeacuteenne internationale Athens Italian School of Archaeology 14ndash18 April 2004 Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory Liegravege and Austin Universiteacute de Liegravege Histoire de lrsquoArt et Archeacuteologie de la Gregravece Antique and University of Texas Aegaeum 25
Sherratt S 1998 lsquoSea peoplesrsquo and the economic structure of the late second millennium in the eastern Mediterra-nean In S Gitin A Mazar and E Stern (eds) Mediterranean Peoples in Transition Thirteenth to Early Tenth Centuries BCE 292ndash313 Jerusalem Israel Exploration Fund
Sherratt S 2010 The Aegean and the wider world some thoughts on a world-systems perspective In WA Parkinson and ML Galaty (eds) Archaic State Interaction The Eastern Mediterranean in the Bronze Age 81ndash106 Santa Fe School for Advanced Research
Sherratt AG and S Sherratt 1998 Small worlds interaction and identity in the Ancient Mediterranean In EH Cline and D Harris-Cline (eds) The Aegean and the Orient in the Second Millen-nium Proceedings of the 50th Anniversary Symposium Cincinnati 18-10 April 1997 329ndash343 Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory Liegravege and Austin Universiteacute de Liegravege Histoire de lrsquoArt et Archeacuteolo-gie de la Gregravece Antique and University of Texas Aegaeum 18
Stein GJ 1999 Rethinking world-systems power distance and diasporas in the dynamics of interregional interaction In NP Kardoulias (ed) World-System Theory in Practice Leadership Production and Exchange 153ndash178 Lanham Rowman amp Littlefield Publishers Inc
Borja Legarra HerreroSchool of Archaeology and Ancient History
University of Leicester UK
The Punic agricultural model of Carthage was considered by the Romans as highly efficient much before the diffusion of Magorsquos treaty on agronomy Almost any written source mainly of military origin tried to spread the view that the Carthag-
inians would never ran short of agricultural products This propaganda has also been assumed as a fact by modern research and the number of projects devoted to test this model has been very scarce This book offers recent and high quality information about
Peter van Dommelen and Carlos Goacutemez Bellard eds Rural Landscapes of the Punic World (London and Oakville Equinox Publishing Ltd 2008 284 pp 82 illustr hbk ISBN 978-1-84553-270-3)
Pub
lishe
d by
Man
ey (
c) E
urop
ean
Ass
ocia
tion
of A
rcha
eolo
gist
sReviews 507
rather than a central Mediterranean region Fulminantersquos article on Latium shows that during this period interesting processes were also taking place in areas of the Mediter-ranean further away from the large polities in the east perhaps partly as a result of the climate changes that Rohling et al present in their contribution Unfortunately however this book perpetuates the assumption that the west Mediterranean had no significant history until the Phoenician colonisation
A bigger disappointment is that the volume does not live up to its title which would lead us to believe that the book is structured around the theoretical concept of lsquoforces of transformationrsquo However the conspicuous absence of an introduction by the editors or conclusions by a keynote speaker means that the lsquoforces of transforma-tionrsquo remain undefined It also means that apart from the succinct preface the reader has little guidance with which to establish a theoretical or methodological context for the diverse contributions in the volume This is a shame as current discussions about an archaeology of the Mediterranean (Brood-bank 2010 Knapp and Blake 2005) and the nature of the first world-systems (Sherratt 2010 Stein 1999) are providing challeng-ing models for understanding the period In spite of what the title may suggest there is no explicit connection between this volume and such discussions Such lack of theoretical perspective also renders the decision of the editors to group articles by theme ineffec-tive as the relevance of these themes remains unclear to the reader are these themes the lsquoforces of transformationrsquo How do these themes connect the very different chapters in each section Instead organising the con-tributions by geographical region may have proved to be more useful for the reader
Given this lack of interpretative guide-lines the value of the book resides entirely on the articles that compose it As in any edited book the quality of the contribu-tions is variable but only Frenchrsquos three-
page description of stratigraphy at Mycenae raises doubts about its merit for publication in the volume in its present form The book is well presented and edited in an easy-to-read manner without glaring errors and in general the articles are clearly written with a good structure and with an appropriate use of relevant illustrations The placement of the bibliography at the end of the volume is the only objectionable editing decision inserting the relevant bibliography at the end of each contribution would have been much more helpful
The volume comprises 21 contributions that can be grouped based on how they approach the study of the period There are only a few articles that look at the bigger picture (Rohling et al Routledge and McGeough Bell and Lis) Rohling et al is a natural scientific paper that suggests a signif-icant cooling of the Mediterranean climate from the middle second millennium BC onwards This adds an interesting dimension to the study of the period that is rarely referred to by archaeologists The article by Routledge and McGeough is probably the most inter-esting Their analysis is centred on Ugarit but they extend their research questions to cover the organization of long distance trade and how this relates to our understanding of the end of the Bronze Age Given that their article is a profound critique of Andrew and Susan Sherrattrsquos models (Sherratt 1998 Sherratt and Sherratt 1998) it is likely that this contribution will be crucial for future discussions on the subject Bellrsquos contribution also adds much needed food for thought by presenting the broad changes in maritime trade in the east Mediterranean from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age These three articles set up some interesting questions that help to contextualise much of the information provided by the rest of the articles in the volume
At the opposite end of the spectrum there are several articles that express little aware-ness of the larger picture or the theoretical
Pub
lishe
d by
Man
ey (
c) E
urop
ean
Ass
ocia
tion
of A
rcha
eolo
gist
sEuropean Journal of Archaeology 14 (3) 2011508
issues concerning the study of the period This is the case for the two articles on TroyTroia by Basedow and Aslan and the one on Mycenae by French all three of which limit their relevance to scholars interested in the stratigraphy and ceramic typology of these particular sites Similarly Robertsrsquo detailed analysis of the iconography of the Year 8 reliefs at Medinet Habu would have benefited from connecting its interpreta-tion to broader discussions on the nature of the so-called lsquoSea Peoplesrsquo and their role in the changes that brought on the end of the Bronze Age (Sherratt 1998)
Most articles sit in the middle of the spectrum The majority of the contributions follow a specific corpus of archaeological data from a site or region through the end of the Bronze Age and the start of the Iron Age in order to identify major changes and continuities The success of these studies varies In many cases contributions offer a good overview of the data normally of the foreign material in a region However they tend to lack complexity in their interpreta-tions and they assume quite readily the link between material culture and economic and social history This is particularly true for those articles that focus on the regional scale Both Vianellorsquos and Tanasirsquos accounts of foreign materials and influences in south Italy and Sicily would have benefited from a more theoretically aware interpretation of the data Georgiadisrsquo descriptive account of burial practices in the east Aegean is informative but presents us with a very simplistic inter-pretation that ignores the issues arising from recovery problems and biased knowledge of the archaeological sites Moodyrsquos innovative look at domestic architecture also presents a straightforward link between climate and architecture that ignores largely the impact of human agency and obvious archaeological problems in the reconstruction of the houses from their plans Pernarsquos analysis of Crete overcomes some of the problems through the analysis of several types of evidence but
the paperrsquos aims are undercut by the short length of her contribution which impedes any meaningful discussion and interpreta-tion of the data Papadopoulosrsquo analysis of the iconography of warfare in the Aegean bucks this trend as his comprehensive analysis of several types of evidence is also matched by a careful interpretation that acknowledges the limitations of the data
These problems are more limited in the contributions that focus on particular sites Even when authors sometimes are not very specific about theoretical approaches the analyses tend to be more detailed and add much needed high quality data to debates on peoplersquos movements identities and social and economic transformations at the end of the Bronze Age This is particularly true for the carefully discussed case of Tel es-Sarsquoidiyeh by Green that approaches cautiously the study of burial data but at the same time extracts interesting information about status identity and gender In other cases the detailed studies fail to acquire such an interesting insight into the period Both Stockhammerrsquos and Laemmelrsquos fundamentally typological analyses of pottery offer thorough studies in the archaeology of Tyrins and Tel el-Farrsquoah South However such a narrow focus on typology feels insufficient to attempt the reconstruction of the history of the sites Panitz-Cohenrsquos more nuanced analysis of ceramic production offers a more convincing analysis as it overcomes the limitations of typological studies and clearly indicates the value of the site within the study of the end of the Bronze Age in the Levant Lanersquos dis-cussion of land ownerships is also a detailed and complex study that opens new valuable lines of academic enquiry Finally Lisrsquo look at hand-made pottery proves that the detailed understanding of contextual evidence and ceramic technology from individual sites can be combined at a large scale in order to identify significant broader patterns in the record of the east Mediterranean Hopefully more research will pursue in the future this
Pub
lishe
d by
Man
ey (
c) E
urop
ean
Ass
ocia
tion
of A
rcha
eolo
gist
sReviews 509
interesting interplay of data analysis at dif-ferent scales
Beyond the initial disappointment of the lack of theoretical structure given the promising title of the book readers inter-ested in the Aegean Italy and Levant at the end of the Bronze Age may find many of the case-studies to be of great interest For those more interested in the understanding of larger issues in the period some of the articles will also prove worthwhile reading which all in all make the book an interest-ing addition to studies of the period
RefeReNces
Broodbank C 2010 Braudelrsquos Bronze Age In O Krzyszkowska (ed) Cretan Offerings Studies in Honour of Peter Warren British School at Athens Studies 18 33ndash40 Athens British School at Athens
Knapp AB and E Blake 2005 Prehistory in the Mediterranean the connecting and corrupting Sea In E Blake and AB Knapp (eds) The Archaeology of Mediterranean Pre-history 1ndash23 Oxford Blackwell
Laffineur R and E Greco (eds) 2005 Emporia Aegeans in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean Proceedings of the 10th Inter-national Aegean Conference 10e Rencontre eacutegeacuteenne internationale Athens Italian School of Archaeology 14ndash18 April 2004 Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory Liegravege and Austin Universiteacute de Liegravege Histoire de lrsquoArt et Archeacuteologie de la Gregravece Antique and University of Texas Aegaeum 25
Sherratt S 1998 lsquoSea peoplesrsquo and the economic structure of the late second millennium in the eastern Mediterra-nean In S Gitin A Mazar and E Stern (eds) Mediterranean Peoples in Transition Thirteenth to Early Tenth Centuries BCE 292ndash313 Jerusalem Israel Exploration Fund
Sherratt S 2010 The Aegean and the wider world some thoughts on a world-systems perspective In WA Parkinson and ML Galaty (eds) Archaic State Interaction The Eastern Mediterranean in the Bronze Age 81ndash106 Santa Fe School for Advanced Research
Sherratt AG and S Sherratt 1998 Small worlds interaction and identity in the Ancient Mediterranean In EH Cline and D Harris-Cline (eds) The Aegean and the Orient in the Second Millen-nium Proceedings of the 50th Anniversary Symposium Cincinnati 18-10 April 1997 329ndash343 Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory Liegravege and Austin Universiteacute de Liegravege Histoire de lrsquoArt et Archeacuteolo-gie de la Gregravece Antique and University of Texas Aegaeum 18
Stein GJ 1999 Rethinking world-systems power distance and diasporas in the dynamics of interregional interaction In NP Kardoulias (ed) World-System Theory in Practice Leadership Production and Exchange 153ndash178 Lanham Rowman amp Littlefield Publishers Inc
Borja Legarra HerreroSchool of Archaeology and Ancient History
University of Leicester UK
The Punic agricultural model of Carthage was considered by the Romans as highly efficient much before the diffusion of Magorsquos treaty on agronomy Almost any written source mainly of military origin tried to spread the view that the Carthag-
inians would never ran short of agricultural products This propaganda has also been assumed as a fact by modern research and the number of projects devoted to test this model has been very scarce This book offers recent and high quality information about
Peter van Dommelen and Carlos Goacutemez Bellard eds Rural Landscapes of the Punic World (London and Oakville Equinox Publishing Ltd 2008 284 pp 82 illustr hbk ISBN 978-1-84553-270-3)
Pub
lishe
d by
Man
ey (
c) E
urop
ean
Ass
ocia
tion
of A
rcha
eolo
gist
sEuropean Journal of Archaeology 14 (3) 2011508
issues concerning the study of the period This is the case for the two articles on TroyTroia by Basedow and Aslan and the one on Mycenae by French all three of which limit their relevance to scholars interested in the stratigraphy and ceramic typology of these particular sites Similarly Robertsrsquo detailed analysis of the iconography of the Year 8 reliefs at Medinet Habu would have benefited from connecting its interpreta-tion to broader discussions on the nature of the so-called lsquoSea Peoplesrsquo and their role in the changes that brought on the end of the Bronze Age (Sherratt 1998)
Most articles sit in the middle of the spectrum The majority of the contributions follow a specific corpus of archaeological data from a site or region through the end of the Bronze Age and the start of the Iron Age in order to identify major changes and continuities The success of these studies varies In many cases contributions offer a good overview of the data normally of the foreign material in a region However they tend to lack complexity in their interpreta-tions and they assume quite readily the link between material culture and economic and social history This is particularly true for those articles that focus on the regional scale Both Vianellorsquos and Tanasirsquos accounts of foreign materials and influences in south Italy and Sicily would have benefited from a more theoretically aware interpretation of the data Georgiadisrsquo descriptive account of burial practices in the east Aegean is informative but presents us with a very simplistic inter-pretation that ignores the issues arising from recovery problems and biased knowledge of the archaeological sites Moodyrsquos innovative look at domestic architecture also presents a straightforward link between climate and architecture that ignores largely the impact of human agency and obvious archaeological problems in the reconstruction of the houses from their plans Pernarsquos analysis of Crete overcomes some of the problems through the analysis of several types of evidence but
the paperrsquos aims are undercut by the short length of her contribution which impedes any meaningful discussion and interpreta-tion of the data Papadopoulosrsquo analysis of the iconography of warfare in the Aegean bucks this trend as his comprehensive analysis of several types of evidence is also matched by a careful interpretation that acknowledges the limitations of the data
These problems are more limited in the contributions that focus on particular sites Even when authors sometimes are not very specific about theoretical approaches the analyses tend to be more detailed and add much needed high quality data to debates on peoplersquos movements identities and social and economic transformations at the end of the Bronze Age This is particularly true for the carefully discussed case of Tel es-Sarsquoidiyeh by Green that approaches cautiously the study of burial data but at the same time extracts interesting information about status identity and gender In other cases the detailed studies fail to acquire such an interesting insight into the period Both Stockhammerrsquos and Laemmelrsquos fundamentally typological analyses of pottery offer thorough studies in the archaeology of Tyrins and Tel el-Farrsquoah South However such a narrow focus on typology feels insufficient to attempt the reconstruction of the history of the sites Panitz-Cohenrsquos more nuanced analysis of ceramic production offers a more convincing analysis as it overcomes the limitations of typological studies and clearly indicates the value of the site within the study of the end of the Bronze Age in the Levant Lanersquos dis-cussion of land ownerships is also a detailed and complex study that opens new valuable lines of academic enquiry Finally Lisrsquo look at hand-made pottery proves that the detailed understanding of contextual evidence and ceramic technology from individual sites can be combined at a large scale in order to identify significant broader patterns in the record of the east Mediterranean Hopefully more research will pursue in the future this
Pub
lishe
d by
Man
ey (
c) E
urop
ean
Ass
ocia
tion
of A
rcha
eolo
gist
sReviews 509
interesting interplay of data analysis at dif-ferent scales
Beyond the initial disappointment of the lack of theoretical structure given the promising title of the book readers inter-ested in the Aegean Italy and Levant at the end of the Bronze Age may find many of the case-studies to be of great interest For those more interested in the understanding of larger issues in the period some of the articles will also prove worthwhile reading which all in all make the book an interest-ing addition to studies of the period
RefeReNces
Broodbank C 2010 Braudelrsquos Bronze Age In O Krzyszkowska (ed) Cretan Offerings Studies in Honour of Peter Warren British School at Athens Studies 18 33ndash40 Athens British School at Athens
Knapp AB and E Blake 2005 Prehistory in the Mediterranean the connecting and corrupting Sea In E Blake and AB Knapp (eds) The Archaeology of Mediterranean Pre-history 1ndash23 Oxford Blackwell
Laffineur R and E Greco (eds) 2005 Emporia Aegeans in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean Proceedings of the 10th Inter-national Aegean Conference 10e Rencontre eacutegeacuteenne internationale Athens Italian School of Archaeology 14ndash18 April 2004 Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory Liegravege and Austin Universiteacute de Liegravege Histoire de lrsquoArt et Archeacuteologie de la Gregravece Antique and University of Texas Aegaeum 25
Sherratt S 1998 lsquoSea peoplesrsquo and the economic structure of the late second millennium in the eastern Mediterra-nean In S Gitin A Mazar and E Stern (eds) Mediterranean Peoples in Transition Thirteenth to Early Tenth Centuries BCE 292ndash313 Jerusalem Israel Exploration Fund
Sherratt S 2010 The Aegean and the wider world some thoughts on a world-systems perspective In WA Parkinson and ML Galaty (eds) Archaic State Interaction The Eastern Mediterranean in the Bronze Age 81ndash106 Santa Fe School for Advanced Research
Sherratt AG and S Sherratt 1998 Small worlds interaction and identity in the Ancient Mediterranean In EH Cline and D Harris-Cline (eds) The Aegean and the Orient in the Second Millen-nium Proceedings of the 50th Anniversary Symposium Cincinnati 18-10 April 1997 329ndash343 Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory Liegravege and Austin Universiteacute de Liegravege Histoire de lrsquoArt et Archeacuteolo-gie de la Gregravece Antique and University of Texas Aegaeum 18
Stein GJ 1999 Rethinking world-systems power distance and diasporas in the dynamics of interregional interaction In NP Kardoulias (ed) World-System Theory in Practice Leadership Production and Exchange 153ndash178 Lanham Rowman amp Littlefield Publishers Inc
Borja Legarra HerreroSchool of Archaeology and Ancient History
University of Leicester UK
The Punic agricultural model of Carthage was considered by the Romans as highly efficient much before the diffusion of Magorsquos treaty on agronomy Almost any written source mainly of military origin tried to spread the view that the Carthag-
inians would never ran short of agricultural products This propaganda has also been assumed as a fact by modern research and the number of projects devoted to test this model has been very scarce This book offers recent and high quality information about
Peter van Dommelen and Carlos Goacutemez Bellard eds Rural Landscapes of the Punic World (London and Oakville Equinox Publishing Ltd 2008 284 pp 82 illustr hbk ISBN 978-1-84553-270-3)
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sReviews 509
interesting interplay of data analysis at dif-ferent scales
Beyond the initial disappointment of the lack of theoretical structure given the promising title of the book readers inter-ested in the Aegean Italy and Levant at the end of the Bronze Age may find many of the case-studies to be of great interest For those more interested in the understanding of larger issues in the period some of the articles will also prove worthwhile reading which all in all make the book an interest-ing addition to studies of the period
RefeReNces
Broodbank C 2010 Braudelrsquos Bronze Age In O Krzyszkowska (ed) Cretan Offerings Studies in Honour of Peter Warren British School at Athens Studies 18 33ndash40 Athens British School at Athens
Knapp AB and E Blake 2005 Prehistory in the Mediterranean the connecting and corrupting Sea In E Blake and AB Knapp (eds) The Archaeology of Mediterranean Pre-history 1ndash23 Oxford Blackwell
Laffineur R and E Greco (eds) 2005 Emporia Aegeans in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean Proceedings of the 10th Inter-national Aegean Conference 10e Rencontre eacutegeacuteenne internationale Athens Italian School of Archaeology 14ndash18 April 2004 Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory Liegravege and Austin Universiteacute de Liegravege Histoire de lrsquoArt et Archeacuteologie de la Gregravece Antique and University of Texas Aegaeum 25
Sherratt S 1998 lsquoSea peoplesrsquo and the economic structure of the late second millennium in the eastern Mediterra-nean In S Gitin A Mazar and E Stern (eds) Mediterranean Peoples in Transition Thirteenth to Early Tenth Centuries BCE 292ndash313 Jerusalem Israel Exploration Fund
Sherratt S 2010 The Aegean and the wider world some thoughts on a world-systems perspective In WA Parkinson and ML Galaty (eds) Archaic State Interaction The Eastern Mediterranean in the Bronze Age 81ndash106 Santa Fe School for Advanced Research
Sherratt AG and S Sherratt 1998 Small worlds interaction and identity in the Ancient Mediterranean In EH Cline and D Harris-Cline (eds) The Aegean and the Orient in the Second Millen-nium Proceedings of the 50th Anniversary Symposium Cincinnati 18-10 April 1997 329ndash343 Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory Liegravege and Austin Universiteacute de Liegravege Histoire de lrsquoArt et Archeacuteolo-gie de la Gregravece Antique and University of Texas Aegaeum 18
Stein GJ 1999 Rethinking world-systems power distance and diasporas in the dynamics of interregional interaction In NP Kardoulias (ed) World-System Theory in Practice Leadership Production and Exchange 153ndash178 Lanham Rowman amp Littlefield Publishers Inc
Borja Legarra HerreroSchool of Archaeology and Ancient History
University of Leicester UK
The Punic agricultural model of Carthage was considered by the Romans as highly efficient much before the diffusion of Magorsquos treaty on agronomy Almost any written source mainly of military origin tried to spread the view that the Carthag-
inians would never ran short of agricultural products This propaganda has also been assumed as a fact by modern research and the number of projects devoted to test this model has been very scarce This book offers recent and high quality information about
Peter van Dommelen and Carlos Goacutemez Bellard eds Rural Landscapes of the Punic World (London and Oakville Equinox Publishing Ltd 2008 284 pp 82 illustr hbk ISBN 978-1-84553-270-3)
