Mediterranean Urbanization 800-600 Bc

by Osborne, Robin; Cunliffe, Barry

• ISBN13: 9780197263259
• ISBN10: 0197263259
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-02-02
• Publisher: British Academy

Summary

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 for the first time a systematic discussion of the beginnings of urbanization across the Mediterranean, from Cyprus through Greece and Italy to France and Spain. Leading scholars in the field look critically at what is meant by urbanization, and analyze the social processes that lead to the development of social complexity and the growth of towns. The introduction to the volume 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. Wide ranging in its geographical coverage, this volume will be essential reading for scholars and students of archaeology, settlement studies, the archaic period and geographers interested in the history of urban forms.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables	vii
Notes on Contributors	xi
Preface	xiii
List of Abbreviations	xv
Urban Sprawl: What is Urbanization and Why does it Matter?	1	(16)
Robin Osborne
The Early Iron Age Urban Forms of Cyprus	17	(28)
Maria Iacovou
Forms and Processes: Some Thoughts on the Meaning of Urbanization in Early Archaic Greece	45	(26)
Francois De Polignac
Robin Osborne
Urbanization in Etruria	71	(20)
Tom Rasmussen
The Beginnings of Urbanization in Rome	91	(22)
Christopher Smith
Early Urbanization between 800 and 600 BC in the Pontine Region (South Lazio), the Salento Isthmus (Apulia), and the Sibaritide (Northern Calabria)	113	(30)
Peter Attema
Urban Foundations? Colonial Settlement and Urbanization in the Western Mediterranean	143	(26)
Peter Van Dommelen
Urbanization and Spatial Organization in Southern France and North-Eastern Spain during the Iron Age	169	(18)
Dominique Garcia
Robin Osborne
Mainake: the Legend and the New Archaeological Evidence	187	(16)
Maria Eugenia Aubet
Mary Turton
The Culture of Urbanization in the Mediterranean c. 800--600 BC	203	(30)
Corinna Riva
Village to City: Staples and Luxuries? Exchange Networks and Urbanization	233	(16)
Lin Foxhall
Statics and Dynamics: Ancient Mediterranean Urbanism	249	(24)
Nicholas Purcell
Index	273