During the Early Iron Age and the Archaic period, the central Mediterranean was the scene of revolutionary changes and rapid development within the various cultural entities of Italy, Sardinia, and Sicily. It was this region that saw Greek settlement in South Italy and Sicily, Phoenician colonization in Sicily and Sardinia, and the beginnings of trade and contact between the cultures of the region and those of the East, with a subsequent exchange of technology, material, and ideas. The purpose of this study is twofold. Firstly, it centres upon a database of imported material in the Italian peninsula, Sardinia, and Sicily dating from approximately 800 to 500 BC, which has been constructed in order to study trade in this region. The database upon which this work is founded stands at a little over 50,000 objects. Making a database of imported objects into the central Mediterranean region, and undertaking a study of the methodology dealing with the statistical problems of such an endeavour, is an attempt to rectify a few of the shortcomings of past scholarship. It is the basis for a re-examination of the problem of the beginnings of trade and contact. The second major intention of this study reflects the necessity to ensure that applied theory remains embedded in data, and the potential for Iron Age and Archaic data, if handled appropriately, to form a fertile theoretical bed. The primary purpose of this work is to expand the range, the transparency and the flexibility of data not only for the short-term reason of admitting new questions, but also with the longer view of strengthening the soundness of applied theory in this field. Over and above the evaluation of current ideas and the illumination of new ones, this study is an open demonstration of the utility of databases of archaeological material as a tool for further research.

This book highlights the diversity of current methodologies in Classical Archaeology. It includes papers about archaeology and art history, museum objects and fieldwork data, texts and material culture, archaeological theory and historiography, and technical and literary analysis, across Classical Antiquity.

"Using a wide range of epigraphic, archaeological, numismatic, and literary evidence, Northern Italy in the Roman World traces the evolution of Northern Italy from the Bronze Age to Late Antiquity and examines how the Roman state dramatically changed the region. This study on a much-neglected part of the Roman world uses northern Italy as a case study for examining the impact of the Roman empire on areas that it controlled. The book finds that while levels of Roman intervention varied considerably over time, the Roman state greatly influenced both local and transregional developments. This influence is shown to be pervasive and reflected in material ranging from loom weights to social networks and from ritual horse burials to the careers of writers"--

This innovative book uses social network analysis to trace the origins of pre-Roman Italian peoples from their earliest exchange networks.

Drawing on an impressive range of archaeological and textual sources and a nuanced understanding of biases, this book offers a valuable reappraisal of the enigmatic Phoenicians. The Phoenicians is a fascinating exploration of this much-mythologized people: their history, artistic heritage, and the scope of their maritime and colonizing activities in the Mediterranean. Two aspects of the book stand out from other studies of Phoenician history: the source-focused approach and the attention paid to the various ways that biases—ancient and modern—have contributed to widespread misconceptions about who the Phoenicians really were. The book describes and analyzes various artifacts (epigraphic, numismatic, and material remains) and considers how historians have derived information about a people with little surviving literature. This analysis includes a critical look at the primary texts (classical, Near Eastern, and biblical), the relationship between the Phoenician and Punic worlds; Phoenician interaction with the Greeks and others; and the repurposing of Phoenician heritage in modernity. Detailed and engrossing, The Phoenicians casts new light on this most enigmatic of civilizations.