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. Any opinions and views
expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views
of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and
should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall
not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages,
and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection
with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content.
This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial
or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or
distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. 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,