Production, Trade, and Connectivity in Pre-Roman Italy

Jeremy Armstrong and Sheira Cohen, eds., Production, Trade, and Connectivity in Pre-Roman Italy (London and New York: Routledge, 2022). 9780367631727. 

Reviewed by Ulla Rajala, Stockholm University, Sweden, email rajalaullam@gmail.com.

This volume originates from the conference “Exchanging Ideas: Trade, Technology, and Connectivity in Pre-Roman Italy,” held in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2020. Not all of the papers from the conference are published in this volume, as some appeared elsewhere, particularly in its sister volume Adoption, Adaption, and Innovation in Pre-Roman Italy.1 The authors are mainly well-established mid-career scholars.

This volume contains altogether eleven chapters and an epilogue. The first paper by Sheira Cohen and Jeremy Amstrong sets the scene by dissecting the concept of identity as being insufficient in bridging two types of evidence: historical and archaeological. They also criticise the anachronism, etic nature and regionalism of the concept of identity in the case of pre-Roman Italy. The authors propose the use of the concept of connectivity in order to explore the relationships past individuals and communities had with one another and to link past cognitive and material communities through performativity and social signalling. These relationships are to be scrutinised in the realms of material culture and economic behaviours, i.e., production, trade and use of objects, which provide a crucial source of evidence for the study of social networks and connectivities. Relationships between pre-Roman Italian communities took the form, the authors argue, of overlapping and interconnected networks which were not representative of distinct cultural areas interacting bilaterally at a certain contact point.

Christopher Smith argues in his paper, based on his keynote lecture, that the notion of assemblage can help make sense of our understanding of past economic systems and to avoid the supposed inevitability of the evolutionary scheme of New Institutional Economics (NIE) when discussing the Archaic economy. The article raises a series of points related to the volume’s core argument but is slightly disjointed. Smith emphasises the vertical structures between the community and the gods, highlighting the spiritual facets of elite practices that underpinned inequality in the communities during the long Iron Age. In order to underscore the importance of other classes, he discusses the position of craftspeople and traders (not to mention priests and augurs) in the relations between communities.

Seth Bernard’s chapter discusses the emerging specialisation on sponge iron production in northern Etruria. He presents this industry as having beneficial effects on the economy in the area but being ephemeral by being easy to replace, thus showing that the end results of connectivities do not have to be positive. Jeremy Armstrong in his chapter theorises that craftspeople producing bronze armour in pre-Roman Italy may have created their own higher-status network within and between the communities considering the high degree of skill needed in creating armour. Ted Robinson revises the earlier view that Greek and Italic communities in southern Italy in 500–300 BCE were closed societies. His main evidence comes from red-figure vase paintings from southern Italy and Sicily. The same painters worked on vessels of different clays, allowing Robinson to show a relatively high degree of mobility among the painters. Apart from using artisan mobility as a proxy for population mobility, he calls for the discussion of the politics of mobility in southern Italy.

Leah Bernardo-Ciddio assesses the similarity of pottery forms in the Salento area and Albania in the eighth century BCE and asks if these similarities were due to interaction between potters rather than the migration of Illyrians. At the core of the argumentation are the communities of practice testified by coexisting chaînes opératoires and the dynamic habitus, topics that are approached through two main methodologies in relation to two “foreign” vessel types, the bag-shaped jug and the two-handled vessel: first, the analysis of morphometric standardisation, and second, the separation of different fabric groups. The former could rule out an intermediary in the distribution network and the latter showed that the “foreign” forms were produced in the fabrics present locally in other vessel forms as well. Bernardo-Ciddio’s analysis is slightly hindered by the fact that there are no burials from Salento from this period and that she does not discuss other items originating from southern Illyria.

Cristiano Iaia’s chapter returns to bronze working and suggests that there were highly skilled bronze smiths in Early Iron Age Europe who moved between different elite groups in different regions. He presents the beginning of a warrior identity in central Italy during the Final Bronze Age in wealthy male cremation burials incorporating miniature weapons and bronze bell helmets that had central-eastern European prototypes. Later, bronze-crested helmets with central European–style bronze vessels were present in tombs with swords. These crested helmets spread to neighbouring areas and central Europe, whereas sword technologies spread from central Europe to Italy. A further example of material identities comes from the distributions of lozenge belts and suspension rings in female inhumations in the eighth century BCE; the former related to the same kind of elite craftsperson activities, whereas the latter were technologically inferior but evidence of directional social interaction from the area of origin in Latium to the areas around Caere and Capena. All in all, Iaia wants to see these symbols of identity as objects in relation to the human body and craftspeople as agents of innovation and transculturality.

Bice Peruzzi looks at Peucetia and the possibility that its burial grounds reveal evidence for two distinct cultural areas, one along the coast and the other inland. Previous research has shown that the types of Greek vessels found in these two areas were different, with polychrome subgeometric pottery concentrated inland and monochromatic ware(s) on the coast. However, the study with modern excavation methods of four cemeteries in use ca. 525–350 BCE, two inland (Gravina di Publia and Monte Sannace) and two coastal (Rutigliano and Bitonto), show that the distribution of the monochromatic wares and the functional composition of funerary contexts were similar throughout Paucetia, with only polychrome pottery concentrating inland. The inland centres fell along a river system heading to Metapontum and road connections to Tarantum that created a social and economic network around inland Bradano.

Hilary Becker’s chapter discusses the direct and indirect evidence for markets in Etruria. Emporia and religious festivals are well documented, but more high-frequency markets are indicated by weights and their inscriptions together with excavated workshops at Gonfienti.

Christian Heitz has written an excellent short chapter on transhumance in pre-Roman southern Italy, also discussing Roman and modern transhumance in the process. In looking for the more ephemeral archaeological signs of shepherd settlement patterns, he recognises the cemetery area of Ripacandida as originating from such a community. He also interprets “princely” tombs as the result of the affluent inland economy. He also presents the remains of the meeting places (houses) at Braida di Vaglio and Torre di Satriano with their stone foundations and Greek terracotta friezes. In addition, Heitz calls for scientific study of pastoralism in order to track the movements of herds.

Sheira Cohen contemplates the relationship between identity and connectivity. She considers identity formation as dependent on an underlying lattice of connectivity that links individuals and families through multiple overlapping networks. She then discusses the role of landscape in forming a background that both restricted and allowed such connectivity to form. In this context she concentrates on long- and short-distance pastoral mobility, which created constant mobility in western central Italy. Her second point relates to institutions of connectivity and she, in addition to pointing to the importance of personal relationships and marriage, returns to the role of religion and sanctuaries in creating a neutral liminal zone or focal point for different transactions. She also underlines the fluid and contextual nature of identities through a reading of the so-called Feriae Latinae and the inclusion of the Hernici and two city states of the Volsci among the communities celebrating this religious festival alongside the Latin cities. In her conclusions, she places connectivity into dialogue with community and identity formation.

Elena Isayev, in the epilogue, reflects on perspectives raised throughout the volume in the light of a poignant moment of non-mobility during the Covid epidemic. She finds importance in the way the authors do not make connectivity into a generic catch-all but carefully assess its position in different case studies. The objects of study are not exhibitions of identity but bundles of connectivity and ultimately of human relations. She emphasises how mobility was a norm, although this has to be confirmed by scientific methods.

The volume is interesting and well-written. Irritatingly, the bibliography at the back covers the whole volume and there are no chapter-specific bibliographies in hand. I do understand the other option may replicate the references, but the joint bibliography may present a difficulty in the ebook edition, if there are no links to the end of the book and one has to scroll back and forth the whole book. The general maps are handily located at the beginning of the book; it is a pity the greyscale images blur the difference between the land and sea areas.

Considering the order of the papers, I was left wondering why the metallurgy and pottery papers were not grouped all together. Instead, one had to move from southern Italy to central Italy and from metallurgy to pottery and back while reading the papers. On the other hand, the volume both started and finished with the reminder of how religion can be seen as a regulating institution in facilitating relations. The volume was at its most interesting and lucid when discussing metalwork and transhumance, but this is partly due to my personal interest in metal extraction and long-distance movement of goods. In general, this volume uses material culture at its fullest to find answers to regional questions from new viewpoints. In any case, all of the chapters remind us of ancient Italy as a palimpsest of communities where mobility and connectivity were more a rule than an exception and where different networks merged.

Table of Contents

1. Communities and connectivities in pre-Roman Italy / Sheira Cohen and Jeremy Armstrong (1–14)
2. Enchanted trade: technicians and the city / Christopher Smith (15–32)
3. Metallurgy and connectivity in northern Etruria / Seth Bernard (33–52)
4. Hephaestus’ workshop: craftspeople, elites, and bronze armour in pre-Roman Italy / Jeremy Armstrong (53–81)
5. Potters and mobility in southern Italy (500–300 BCE) / E. G. D. (Ted) Robinson (82–98)
6. ‘The potter is by nature a social animal’: A producer-centred approach to regionalisation in the South Italian matt-painted tradition / Leah Bernardo-Ciddio (99–128)
7. Bronzesmiths and the construction of material identity in central Italy, (1000–700 BCE) / Cristiano Iaia (129–51)
8. The ‘Bradano District’ revisited: tombs, trade, and identity in interior Peucetia / Bice Peruzzi (152–69)
9. Etruscan trading spaces and the tools for regulating Etruscan markets / Hilary Becker (170–203)
10. A mobile model of cultural transfer in pre-Roman southern Italy / Christian Heitz (204–25)
11. Mechanisms of community formation in pre-Roman Italy: a latticework of connectivity and interaction / Sheira Cohen (226–43)
Epilogue: writing of connectivity at a time of isolation / Elena Isayev (244–51)

Notes

1. Jeremy Armstrong and Aaron Rhodes-Schroder, eds., Adoption, Adaption, and Innovation in Pre-Roman Italy: Paradigms for Cultural Change (Turnhout: Brepols, 2023).

Discussion

1. This volume results from a conference and has a sister volume Adoption, Adaption, and Innovation in Pre-Roman Italy (Amstrong and Rhodes-Schroder 2023). Some of the articles in the sister volume also discuss connectivity. Were the creation of these two volumes a natural result of how the conference was organized? How did you decide in which volume an article was going to be? Was this selection clear from the start? How do you hope readers interact with both of these volumes and how do you envision them as talking to each other?

We did not initially plan to have two volumes for the conference, but we had so many wonderful participants and such a wide-ranging discussion over the days of the event that we felt one volume would not do justice to that. Because they emerge from the same conversation, there is naturally quite a bit of overlap. With each volume we tried to highlight the different ways in which people tackled core themes and issues. This volume took a more ‘bottom-up’ approach to connectivity, building on ideas of object biography and how material culture can provide insight into human behaviors. The other volume took a more ‘top-down’ approach with an explicit focus on cultural change over time. Certainly, some pieces could have been at home in both volumes, whereas others present diverging viewpoints on how to model the exchange of ideas and understand identity. We hope that readers will consider them as a pair that together capture the great diversity of work being done right now on pre-Roman Italy, and as indicative of how research questions and methods ultimately shape the models we create. 

2. The volume seems to be more about production and connectivity than trade. Why did you decide to keep ‘trade’ in the title and how are you defining these three terms, thereby creating differences among them?

That is a good question. Titles are so difficult because you must balance what sounds enticing with an accurate reflection of the book. The rhetorical rule of threes is strong (at least for us), and so you are hunting for the three perfect words to encapsulate the book. Connectivity is really the overall phenomenon under investigation, with production and trade as mechanisms that shape it. So trade was a distinct thread that we wanted to highlight – that comes out explicitly in some chapters (Becker, Smith) and implicitly in others (Heitz, Peruzzi, Cohen). Even the production-focused chapters are engaging with ideas of trade to a certain extent, as they push against models that overly emphasize trade in finished objects over other mechanisms. We definitely consider trade as a broad category that goes beyond just strict economic transactions and is socially embedded. Perhaps exchange would be a more neutral term? But it just sounded a little off to our ears. 

3. Considering the order of the papers, I was left wondering why the metallurgy and pottery papers were not grouped all together but one had to move from southern Italy to central Italy and from metallurgy to pottery and back again while reading the papers. Given the emphasis upon connectivity, why did you choose a regional organization rather than organize by theme (which might have created connectivity itself)? Why this order of the papers?

Another good question. We played with lots of different arrangements and landed on one which follows a sort of imagined chaîne opératoire, moving from extraction through to production to trade of finished objects and finally to use and behavior. Because of our desire to focus on the underlying human behaviours and given the prevalence of cross-crafting in antiquity, we wanted to explicitly mix metallurgy and pottery and not to create regional siloes. So, after the introduction and a broad framing chapter by Smith, we looked at extraction (Bernard), and then production and producers (Armstrong, Robinson, Bernardo-Ciddio, Iaia), and then use and trade (Peruzzi, Becker), ending with a broader focus on human mobility as a mechanism (Heitz, Cohen). It isn’t a rigid progression of course, as some papers deal with both production and use (Peruzzi and Iaia), but we felt it best captured the spirit of what we were trying to do.

Thank you for your thorough and reflective answers. The editors touch upon the organic process of editing a volume – or in this case two – based on a conference with such a wealth of excellent content and the tricky questions of naming the book and ordering its content. I am not personally attached to the rhetorical rule of three when two would do, but I definitely get the underlying mechanisms why trade was kept in the title. In addition, I like the idea of the articles being placed into a chaîne opératoire according to their content.