This article was downloaded by: [Dr Susan Oosthuizen] On: 04 November 2014, At: 08:28 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Landscape History Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rlsh20 Reviews a b c d Louise Steel , J. N. Postgate , Jorrit M. Kelder , Harold Mytum , e f g h Candace Rice , Stephen G. Upex , Rebecca J. Sweetman , David Petts , i j b k Jeremy Haslam , Andrew Rogerson , Susan Oosthuizen , Bob Silvester , l b m b Della Hooke , Chris Briggs , Katy Layton-Jones , Samantha Williams , n o p q Christopher Taylor , Linda Hall , Jane Briscoe , David Brown , Jeff r s t u v Oliver , Matthew Bristow , Katie Campbell , Ann Coats , Steffie Shields , w b x b Don MacLeod , Charles Turner , Patrick Duffy & N. James a University of Wales, Trinity St David b University of Cambridge c University of Oxford d University of Liverpool e University of Edinburgh f Warmington g University of St Andrews h Durham University i University of London j Norfolk County Council Historic Environment Service k Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust l University of Birmingham m University of Leicester n Pampisford o Vernacular Architecture Group p Institute of Archaeology, UCL q Downham Market r University of Aberdeen s Victoria County History t University of Buckingham u University of Portsmouth v Association of Gardens Trusts w University of Glasgow x NUI Maynooth Published online: 03 Nov 2014. To cite this article: Louise Steel, J. N. Postgate, Jorrit M. Kelder, Harold Mytum, Candace Rice, Stephen G. Upex, Rebecca J. Sweetman, David Petts, Jeremy Haslam, Andrew Rogerson, Susan Oosthuizen, Bob Silvester, Della Hooke, Chris Briggs, Katy Layton-Jones, Samantha Williams, Christopher Taylor, Linda Hall, Jane Briscoe, David Brown, Jeff Oliver, Matthew Bristow, Katie Campbell, Ann Coats, Steffie Shields, Don MacLeod, Charles Turner, Patrick Duffy & N. James (2014) Reviews, Landscape History, 35:2, 81-116, DOI: 10.1080/01433768.2014.981397 Downloaded by [Dr Susan Oosthuizen] at 08:28 04 November 2014 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01433768.2014.981397 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. 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Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions 83 Downloaded by [Dr Susan Oosthuizen] at 08:28 04 November 2014 REVIEWS therefore cannot be seen as practical measures taken to protect external wall faces, which is generally assumed to be the origin of sculptured slabs round the external walls of Syrian temples (e.g. Aleppo or Ain Dara). Of course in gateways, as at Carchemish, the stone wainscots are useful (as the very word implies) to protect the sidewalls from projecting axle hubs. Students of landscapes may not find as much to interest them as they might hope. The North Mesopotamian ‘landscape’ is discussed in Chapter 2, and Chapter 3 is entitled ‘The Land of Aššur: the making of Assyrian landscapes’. For the author, landscapes include cities, and he bundles the state’s efforts to repopulate the countryside in with the new foundation or refoundation of capital cities and the carving or erection of commemorative sculptures as part of a package of territorial organisation. This seems a bit forced at times: some of the rock reliefs or stelae were way beyond the boundaries of territory the kings were claiming to rule directly and cannot be tied to some all-embracing process of landscape reformation. In the centuries between the Late Bronze Age and the formation of the fully fledged Neo-Assyrian empire an earlier network of urban centres was succeeded by a more dispersed pattern of villages. For centuries Assyrian kings make a point of describing their deliberate program of rural renewal (p. 73), but for Harmanşah such initiatives were merely joining the bandwagon: the ‘Assyrian state’s appropriation of this settlement trend as a policy of territorial organization, labor investment, and political control’ (p. 81). The inadequacies in the archaeological record for settlement in the Jazirah in the Early Iron are acknowledged (e.g. pp. 356), but the chronological resolution of ceramics recovered from surface survey is not yet sufficient to determine whether given settlements were established by newly sedentary Arameans or as part of a centralised initiative of the Assyrian state. It seems equally possible that the dispersed village pattern was a direct result of state intervention, and not something which would have emerged independently. On p. 32, where the environmental nature of the North Mesopotamia plains is described, one misses the recognition that strong centralised control can override the environmental parameters which make the marginal fringes of the rain-fed regime unsustainable by single small settlements relying year in year out solely on their unpredictable harvests, but manageable as part of a politically directed economy. The author has not been well served by the copy editor(s): there are not infrequent grammatical solecisms and faulty word choices, and in places an apostrophe appears where the author must have requested a dotted t (t. ). He is however up-to-date and impressively well read — the bibliography occupies one-third of the entire book (116 pages). University of Cambridge J. N. POSTGATE A Small Greek World. Networks in the Ancient Mediterranean (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2013). By Irad Malkin. 234 × 156 mm. 306 pp. 21 b/w illustrations. ISBN 978 0 1993 1572 7. Price £19.99. The series ‘Greeks Overseas’, according to the series editors, ‘presents a forum for new interpretations of Greek settlement in the ancient Mediterranean ... [and] … seeks to undermine the divide between colonial and metropolitan Greeks’. In the first book in this series, which is under review here, Irad Malkin does exactly that. Malkin’s main argument is that the dispersal of the Greeks during the age of colonisation (the eight to sixth century B.C.E.) did not hinder the formation of Greek civilisation, but rather that it forged Greek identity (and indeed various regional identities). He is not the first to suggest this, but the novelty of this book lies in the introduction of network theory to the debate. Chapter 1 provides an introduction of network theory, a method that has already been applied in various other disciplines, including biology and information technology. Malkin suggests that, much like the modern World-Wide Web, the isles and shores were part of a multi-directional and decentralised network, with a number of ‘nodes’ (often important settlements, but occasionally also communal sanctuaries near anchorages, such as the altar of Apollo Archegetes near Naxos on Sicily) serving as the main corridors of contact between the various regions. Malkin supports his views by means of various case studies in the next five chapters. Downloaded by [Dr Susan Oosthuizen] at 08:28 04 November 2014 84 In Chapter 2, the relation between Phaselis, Gela and Akragas (three poleis on Rhodes) and their overseas connections with Naukratis in Egypt are analysed. Overseas connections led to a high level of cooperation, reflected in the foundation of a port settlement at Vroulia, which apparently served as a trading entrepot for the three Rhodian poleis. As overseas contacts further developed and intensified, collaboration between the Rhodian poleis gradually formed a shared ‘Rhodian’ identity: this is especially evident at the Hellênion at Naukratis, where Rhodes is listed as a single polis in the royal charter of Amasis (Herodotos 1.114). Malkin argues that cult was an especially strong catalyst for the formation of Greek identities, not only at Naukratis, but also in other areas of the Greek world. In Chapter 3, Malkin suggests that the formation of a pan-Sikeliote identity amongst the Greek settlers on Sicily was the result of network connections focusing on the sanctuary of Apollo Archegetes. This sanctuary, Malkin argues, served as a hub in a network that connected the Sicilian colonies to the temple of Apollo at Delphi. Whilst this is certainly possible, the existence of such a network and the existence of theoroi (sacred ambassadors sent to represent their polis at the Games) pre-dating the (re)organisation of the Pythian Games in the sixth century remains hypothetical. The importance of cult in the formation of Mediterranean wide networks is further explored in Chapter 4. By focusing on the syncretism between (Greek) Herakles and (Phoenician) Melqart, Malkin describes how Greeks, Phoenicians and Elymians on Sicily found a cultural (and to some extent, ethnic) middle ground, and how various Greek and Phoenician networks could overlap. Chapter 5 focuses on Phokaian networks in the western Mediterranean, and on how the sudden influx of a large number of Phokaian settlers (fleeing their home-city in the advance of the Persian army) in 545 B.C.E. disrupted the balance of power between the Phokaians at Alalia and the neighbouring Etruscans, leading to the naval battle near Alalia and the subsequent Phokaian evacuation of Corsica, and resulting in the creation of distinct Carthaginian, Etruscan and Greek spheres of influence. Chapter 6 further explores the role of cult (especially the Phokaian form of the cult of LANDSCAPE HISTORY Artemis of Ephesos) in the formation of various overlapping (local, regional, subethnic, and Greek) identities. A seventh, concluding, chapter usefully reviews the arguments for Malkin’s main thesis, that Greek civilisation was the product of the colonisation period, and that it was the distance between the various Greek centres, and their connectivity, that forged Greek identity. On the whole, this reader found this argument convincing, despite the fact that some aspects remain (necessarily) speculative. The book could have profited from a somewhat wider approach to network theory, focusing not only on predetermined Greek coastal centres, but also on other hypothetical networks, such as the distribution of specific artefacts. Regardless of these details, Malkin has written a thought-provoking and very readable book, which introduces a promising new method to the study of Greek colonisation and identity. University of Oxford JORRIT M. Kelder Iron Age Hillforts in Britain and Beyond (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2012). By D. W. Harding. 234 × 156 mm. 352 pp. 52 b/w illustrations, 16 colour plates. ISBN 978 0 1996 9524 9. Price £83.00. This book has been written by one of that illustrious generation of major British academics who pushed forward Iron Age studies in Britain and Europe, who now in their recent retirement are still contributing to the discipline. This book is a distillation of a career-long interest in hillforts, and whilst the title implies wide-ranging comparison it is primarily concerned with Britain, with some discussion of Irish sites and occasional comparisons with key selected continental sites. The author struggles with the validity and usefulness of hillfort definitions, as have all other recent scholars, both in terms defining hillforts as a whole and the value of any internal classification. What appears a simple site category soon dissolves into a nebulous collection which at the boundaries requires neither hills nor anything resembling fortification but, on the basis that we all can reasonably understand what is largely included,