The diverse forms of regional connectivity in the ancient world have recently become an important focus for those interested in the deep history of globalisation. This volume represents a significant ...contribution to this new trend as it engages thematically with a wide range of connectivities in the later prehistory of the Mediterranean, from the later Neolithic of northern Greece to the Levantine Iron Age, and with diverse forms of materiality, from pottery and metal to stone and glass. With theoretical overviews from leading thinkers in prehistoric mobilities, and commentaries from top specialists in neighbouring domains, the volume integrates detailed case studies within a comparative framework. The result is a thorough treatment of many of the key issues of regional interaction and technological diversity facing archaeologists working across diverse places and periods. As this book presents key case studies for human and technological mobility across the eastern Mediterranean in later prehistory, it will be of interest primarily to Mediterranean archaeologists, though also to historians and anthropologists.
This volume presents a comprehensive review of palaeoenvironmental evidence and its incorporation with landscape archaeology from across the Mediterranean. A fundamental aim of this book is to bridge ...the intellectual and methodological gaps between those with a background in archaeology and ancient history, and those who work in the palaeoenvironmental sciences. The volume also aims to provide archaeologists and landscape historians with a comprehensive overview of recent palaeoenvironmental research across the Mediterranean, and also to consider ways in which this type of research can be integrated with what might be considered 'mainstream' or 'cultural' archaeology. This volume takes a thematic approach, assessing the ways in which environmental evidence is employed in different landscape types. It presents analyses of how people have interacted with soils and vegetation, and revisits the key questions of human culpability in the creation of so-called degraded landscapes in the Mediterranean. It covers chronological periods from the Early Neolithic to the end of the Roman period.
This volume examines the evolving role of the city and citizenship from classical Athens through fifth-century Rome and medieval Byzantium. Beginning in the first century CE, the universal claims of ...Hellenistic and Roman imperialism began to be challenged by the growing role of Christianity in shaping the primary allegiances and identities of citizens. An international team of scholars considers the extent of urban transformation, and with it, of cultural and civic identity, as practices and institutions associated with the city-state came to be replaced by those of the Christian community. The twelve essays gathered here develop an innovative research agenda by asking new questions: what was the effect on political ideology and civic identity of the transition from the city culture of the ancient world to the ruralized systems of the middle ages? How did perceptions of empire and oikoumene respond to changed political circumstances? How did Christianity redefine the context of citizenship?
Mediterranean landscape ecology, island cultures and long-term human history have all emerged as major research agendas over the past half-century, engaging large swathes of the social and natural ...sciences. This book brings these traditions together in considering Antikythera, a tiny island perched on the edge of the Aegean and Ionian seas, over the full course of its human history. Small islands are particularly interesting because their human, plant and animal populations often experience abrupt demographic changes, including periods of near-complete abandonment and recolonization, and Antikythera proves to be one of the best-documented examples of these shifts over time. Small islands also play eccentric but revealing roles in wider social, economic and political networks, serving as places for refugees, hunters, modern eco-tourists, political exiles, hermits and pirates. Antikythera is a rare case of an island that has been investigated in its entirety from several systematic fieldwork and disciplinary perspectives, not least of which is an intensive archaeological survey. The authors use the resulting evidence to offer a unique vantage on settlement and land use histories.
This open access Regional Reader describes population movement circulating within the Mediterranean area, for any reason or from any region, be them European, African, Asian or originating from any ...of the Mediterranean shores. It showcases a plurality of approaches to and applications of Mediterranean migration, contributing to a regional approach to migration studies, thereby defending this regional approach by scaling Mediterranean migration issues. This book covers a large set of questions related Mediterranean migrations to the migration research agenda, such as: market and economy, politics and policies, super-diversity and intersectionality, media, society, welfare and the environment through five main parts: Geo-political Mediterranean Relations, Governance, Policies and Politics, Mobility drivers and Agency, Cities, History and Social Transformations, and Economy and Labour Markets. This Regional Reader provides an interesting read to scholars, researchers, but also policy makers and civil society organizations’ high representatives, international foundations and institutions interested in linking the Mediterranean and migration.
This open access book makes a comparative overview of the demographic evolution of the Mediterranean populations. It addresses all the demographic issues since 1950 such as fertility, mortality, ...growth, demographic aging, and the age structure of the population. The book discusses the major demographic changes and its consequences for the Mediterranean region and describes the socio-economic and societal opportunities such as the silver economy, improvement in health of the population, and progress in education. By providing insights into the past demographic evolutions and analyzing the most recent indicators, this book constitutes an essential reference work for those who wish to better understand the major transformations that Mediterranean societies are undergoing.
The Mediterranean basin was a multicultural region with a great diversity of linguistic, religious, social and ethnic groups. This dynamic social and cultural landscape encouraged extensive contact ...and exchange among different communities. This book seeks to explain what happened when different ethnic, social, linguistic and religious groups, among others, came into contact with each other, especially in multiethnic commercial settlements located throughout the region. What means did they employ to mediate their interactions? How did each group construct distinct identities while interacting with others? What new identities came into existence because of these contacts? Professor Demetriou brings together several strands of scholarship that have emerged recently, especially ethnic, religious and Mediterranean studies. She reveals new aspects of identity construction in the region, examining the Mediterranean as a whole, and focuses not only on ethnic identity but also on other types of collective identities, such as civic, linguistic, religious and social.
Subaltern studies, the study of non-elite or underrepresented people, have revolutionized the writing of Middle Eastern history. Subversives and Mavericks in the Muslim Mediterranean represents the ...next step in this transformation. The book explores the lives of eleven nonconformists who became agents of political and social change, actively organizing new forms of resistance—against either colonial European regimes or the traditional societies in which they lived—that disrupted the status quo, in some cases, with dramatic results. These case studies highlight cross-border connections in the Mediterranean world, exploring how these channels were navigated. Chapters in the book examine the lives of subversives and mavericks, such as Tawhida ben Shaykh, the first Arab woman to receive a medical degree; Mokhtar al-Ayari, a radical Tunisian labor leader; Nazli Hanem, Kmar Bayya, and Khiriya bin Ayyad, three aristocractic women who resisted the patriarchal structures of their societies by organizing and participating in intellectual salons for men and women and advocating social reform; Qaid Najim al-Akhsassi, an ex-slave and military officer, who fought against French and Spanish colonial expansion; and Boubeker al-Ghandjawi, a nearly illiterate trader who succeeded, though his diverse connections, in establishing important relations between the Moroccan sultan and the representative of the British government. Although based on individual and local perspectives, Subversives and Mavericks in the Muslim Mediterranean reveals new and unrecognized trans-local connections across the Muslim world, illuminating our understanding of these societies beyond narrow elite circles.
A keen analysis of the impact of European regionalism in the Mediterranean, focusing on the politics of representation and constructions of identity. The Mediterranean - as a region, as an area of EU ...policy and as a place on the fringe of a rapidly integrating Europe - has been a theoretically under-researched area. Containing empirical research on Greece, Malta and Morocco, this theory-led investigation into the political effects of the Mediterranean's symbolic geography, complements work done on the constitution of entities such as nations, Europe and the West.
The Politics of Regional Identity draws on the field of critical IR and critical geopolitics to examine both the theoretical and empirical manifestations of these changing geopolitical images and discourses.
This book will be of great interest to all students and scholars of politics, international relations and the European Union.
'Not only a nice contribution to the new field of symbolic geography. It is also a contribution to the movement within the discipline of international relations back to the broad tradition of social science understood as a unitary undertaking that transcends narrow empirical specialisation.' - The Sunday Times
'This book is indispensable both for those who are interested in how discursive constructivism is applied to a specific case(region), and for those who are interested in knowing more about the EU's concrete policies towards the Mediterranean.' - Millennium Review
'The author has tremendous factual knowledge about the EU's institutional development and concrete policies towards the Mediterranean, and she succeeds in presenting knowledge in a coherent and comprehensive manner.' - Ulla Holm, Danish Institute for International Studies
Foreword 1. Introduction 2. Regionalism in IR – theoretical overview 3. Understanding EU hegemony. Levels of Economic development between North and South and the EU’s Mediterranean policies 4. EU Foreign policy as a discursive practice of the Mediterranean 5. Discursive practices of the Mediterranean from Greece, Malta and Morocco. A comparative analysis 6. Which "Mediterranean"? A Comparison of discursive practices from the EU and the case studies 7. Conclusion
In this major new study, the history of the French and British trading empires in the early modern Mediterranean is used as a setting to test a new approach to the history of ignorance: how can we ...understand the very act of ignoring - in political, economic, religious, cultural and scientific communication - as a fundamental trigger that sets knowledge in motion? Zwierlein explores whether the Scientific Revolution between 1650 and 1750 can be understood as just one of what were in fact many simultaneous epistemic movements and considers the role of the European empires in this phenomenon. Deconstructing central categories like the mercantilist 'national', the exchange of 'confessions' between Western and Eastern Christians and the bridging of cultural gaps between European and Ottoman subjects, Zwierlein argues that understanding what was not known by historical agents can be just as important as the history of knowledge itself.
