Browse

Urban life as we know it in the Mediterranean began in the early Iron Age: settlements of great size and internal diversity appear in the archaeological record. This collection of essays offers a systematic discussion of the beginnings of urbanization across the Mediterranean, from Cyprus, through Greece and Italy, to France and Spain. Scholars in the field look critically at what is meant by urbanization, and analyse the social processes that lead to the development of social complexity and the growth of towns. The introduction to the book focuses on the history of the archaeology of urbanization and argues that proper understanding of the phenomenon demands loose and flexible criteria for what is termed a ‘town’. The following eight chapters examine the development of individual settlements and patterns of urban settlement in Cyprus, Greece, Etruria, Latium, southern Italy, Sardinia, southern France, and Spain. These chapters not only provide a general review of current knowledge of urban settlements of this period, but also raise significant issues of urbanization and the economy, urbanization and political organization, and of the degree of regionalism and diversity to be found within individual towns. The three analytical chapters which conclude this collection look more broadly at the town as a cultural phenomenon that has to be related to wider cultural trends, as an economic phenomenon that has to be related to changes in the Mediterranean economy, and as a dynamic phenomenon, not merely a point on the map.

This volume brings together a series of case studies of spatial configurations of power among the early medieval societies of Europe. The geographical range extends from Ireland to Kosovo and from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean world and brings together quite different scholarly traditions in a focused enquiry into the character of places of power from the end of the Roman period into the central Middle Ages. The book's strength lies in the basis that it provides for a comparative analysis of the formation, function and range of power relations in early medieval societies. The editors' introductory chapter provides an extended scene setting review of the current state of knowledge in the field of early medieval social complexity and sets out an agenda for future work in this topical area. The regional and local case studies found in the volume, most of them interdisciplinary, showcase detailed studies of particular situations at a range of scales. While much previous work tends to focus on comparisons with the classical world, this volume emphasises the uniqueness of early medieval modes of social organisation and the need to assess these societies on their own terms.

Re-excavating Jerusalem: Archival Archaeology is concerned with the archaeology and history of Jerusalem. It is a story of ongoing crises, of adaptations, inheritance and cultural transmission over many centuries under successive rulers, where each generation owed a cultural debt to its predecessors, from the Bronze Age to the modern world. It is not a summary history of occupation over four millennia, but rather a reflection of events as revealed in a major programme of archaeological excavation conducted by Dame Kathleen Kenyon in the 1960s, which is still in process of publication. The excavation archive has an ongoing relevance, even though knowledge of the city and its inhabitants has increased over the decades since then, revealing fresh insights to set against contemporary work. The preservation of such archives has great importance for future historians. Among topics addressed are the nature of a dispersed settlement pattern in the 2nd millennium BC; a fresh look at the vexed problems of the biblical accounts of the work of David and Solomon and the development of the city in the 10th and 9th centuries BC; the nature of the fortifications of the town re-established by Nehemiah in the 5th century BC; some evidence of the Roman occupation following the almost total destruction of the city in AD 70; and an exploration within the Islamic city during the 12th to 15th centuries. The latter illustrates the endless interest in Jerusalem shown by the outside world.