Tamar Hodos. Local Responses to Colonisation in the Iron Age Mediterranean.

Tamar Hodos. Local Responses to Colonisation in the Iron Age Mediterranean. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] TAMAR HODOS. Local Responses to Colonisation in the Iron AgeMediterranean. x+272 pages, 97 illustrations. 2006. Abingdon: Routledge;0-415-37836-2 hardback 65 [pounds sterling]. Interest in the early movements of populations in theMediterranean, and particularly in the permanent settling downconventionally called colonisation, is undergoing something of aboomlet. This despite fundamental questions about the status of thephenomenon: is Greek colonisation a series of discrete events withwell-defined ritual, political, economic and cultural forms, causes, andconsequences? What drives Phoenician expansion? Can such movements becompared with more recent colonisation founded upon empire? Recent workhas encompassed the publication of excavations and re-study of oldersites, and a thoughtful engagement with a range of theoreticalperspectives; it is often more interested in pre-colonisationpopulations, and has attempted to gauge whether modern Postcolonialthought applies to the particularities of a fundamentally differentantiquity. All this is set against an engagement with the Mediterraneanover the long term by scholars from many disciplines. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Tamar Hodos has now contributed a volume that examines the effectsof Greek and Phoenician colonisation from the perspective of thepopulations in three regions of the Mediterranean: the Levantine Le��vant?1?The countries bordering on the eastern Mediterranean Sea from Turkey to Egypt.Le coast,Sicily, and part of North Africa--in an explicitly comparativeframework. Emphasising the material culture of these areas from theeighth to sixth centuries BC, colonisation--'the permanentestablishment of nearby foreign communities' in a given territory(p. 1)--is viewed as one aspect of the Mediterranean Iron Age. Settlers'collectively identify themselves with a certain socialcoherence' which has spatial and material correlates (p. 22). Theauthor invokes the Postcolonial concept of hybridity, defined as'the active construction of local identities in contactsituations' (p. 17) and the related notion of a 'middleground' from North American North Americannamed after North America.North American blastomycosissee North American blastomycosis.North American cattle ticksee boophilusannulatus. colonial history, now widely applied toMediterranean antiquity (see for example I. Malkin's 1998 TheReturns of Odysseus and many works since). In order to facilitatecomparisons between regions and contexts, each chapter utilises the samecategories: regional communities, burial customs, religious practices,consumption patterns, artistic styles, and written voices. A shortconclusion ends each chapter and the book closes with a concise finalsummary. Hodos brings the strength of her fieldwork and research especiallyto the first and second case studies. Treatment of the Levant Levant(ləvănt`)[Ital.,=east], collective name for the countries of the eastern shore of the Mediterranean from Egypt to, and including, Turkey. , a zonethat involves both Greek and Phoenician actors from early in the IronAge, is clearly informed by her involvement at the site of Kenet Hoyokin Turkey. The complex interactions in this region among several localsocieties, and groups from the Aegean and the Levantine coast, are arich source of information for analysis. Dense description and theacademic battles that have raged (especially about the role of EuboianGreeks, key actors also in the west) are up-to-date and insightful,though they may leave the uninitiated gasping--especially as some of thesite plans and maps do not clearly illustrate what is referred to. Thesecond study provides a comprehensive and welcome update to theimportant 1999 survey by Robert Leighton Robert Leighton may refer to: Robert Leighton (prelate) (1611-1684), Scottish preacher, bishop, & academic Robert B. Leighton (physicist) (1919-1997), American academic (Sicily Before History), itselfthe first major study of pre-Greek Sicily in a generation. Once again, agreat deal of description of a very extensive archaeological recordcharacterises this section. The informed reader will find this a veryuseful picture of the current state of the field, but others may beperplexed by offhand off��hand?adv.Without preparation or forethought; extemporaneously.adj. also off��hand��edPerformed or expressed without preparation or forethought. See Synonyms at extemporaneous. mention of some features (e.g. buildings atMorgantina and Monte San Mauro, p. 108) without specific documentation.The third, North-African, case study is the least satisfying. Because ofthe lack of evidence from the Iron Age per se, the material coveredranges over a wider time span (into the Roman period) and relies muchmore on ancient sources for the earlier period. It does, however,provide a kind of counterpoint to the intense interactions andhybridisation that took place in the other regions. This book's great contribution is an up-to-date survey of theliterature and regional archaeological evidence, and serious examinationof much of the received wisdom on the dynamics of acculturation acculturation,culture changes resulting from contact among various societies over time. Contact may have distinct results, such as the borrowing of certain traits by one culture from another, or the relative fusion of separate cultures. . At thesame time, consumption, the ground upon which all studies of materialcultural are built, could have used more thorough interrogation interrogationIn criminal law, process of formally and systematically questioning a suspect in order to elicit incriminating responses. The process is largely outside the governance of law, though in the U.S. . Thecompression of the accounts of evidence will make them reader-unfriendlyfor those unfamiliar with the record. This is also true of the framingdiscourse, where terms like terra nullius and enoikismos are introducedwithout explication ex��pli��cate?tr.v. ex��pli��cat��ed, ex��pli��cat��ing, ex��pli��catesTo make clear the meaning of; explain. See Synonyms at explain.[Latin explic . Some of the categories, such as 'artstyles', retain traditional modes of description, and miss anopportunity to re-engage more thoroughly with the discourse. Theseobservations, however, arise from the stimulation offered: the choice offocus and regions, and engagement with comparative method andtheoretical perspective, makes Hodos's book a timely and veryuseful study, one that is not afraid to tackle important issues andopens new vistas. CARLA ANTONACCIO Duke University, Durham, North Carolina North Carolina,state in the SE United States. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean (E), South Carolina and Georgia (S), Tennessee (W), and Virginia (N).Facts and FiguresArea, 52,586 sq mi (136,198 sq km). Pop. , USA (Email: canton@duke.edu)