FORCES OF TRANSFORMATION: THE END OF THE BRONZE AGE
IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. Edited by Christoph Bachhuber and R
Gareth Roberts
Themes from the Ancient Near East BANEA Monograph 1 and Oxbow Books, 2009. 227pp,
134 b/w figures, 7 tables. ISBN 978-1-84217-332-9 hb, £45
This ambitious volume contains 21 papers addressing issues surrounding the transition
between the later Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age in the eastern-central
Mediterranean. The volume emerged from a British Association for Near Eastern Studies
Seminar in Oxford and embraced a number of different approaches employed in the
exploration of this problematic period. The book is arranged in five sections addressing
Holocene Climate and its variability, exchange and interregional dynamics, iconography and
perception, the built environment, and the production and consumption of pottery. The papers
were presented by scholars from many different traditions and institutions, and so represent a
stimulating mix of approaches and ideas. That said, the young editors have perhaps overrespected the writing traditions and linguistic errors too much, so that one or two papers are
still in their original state of translation, and could have been edited to make them clearer and
easier to read. An ample bibliography demonstrates the breadth of scholarship but an index
might have been equally useful, simply to find one’s way around the many sites and cultures
mentioned.
But these quibbles apart, this is a stimulating volume that makes a significant contribution to
wide fields of study. The climatic issue is one of growing importance in scholarly studies of
most periods, but here, the paper by Rohling, Hayes, Mayewski and Kucera on “Holocene
climate variability..” explores the the complex and often bewildering body of scientific data
now available on rapid climate change events, including proxies from salt levels, GISP2 ice
cores and speleotherms, that begin to show how variable and unstable climate may have been
at the end of the Bronze Age in the region. As the authors say, the questionsof whether such
change really had impact on societies needs more dating precision and correlation. Jennifer
Moody’s paper on changes in vernacular architecture as a response to climatic change is an
interesting study. Minoan domestic structures are examined to show how the reduction in
ventilation, doors and verandas and other means of cooling houses appears to have been
reduced by late Minoan and early Iron Age times. Such data seems to be rather conclusive of
more uncomfortable conditions.
The second section on exchange and trade opens with a dense study of trade dynamics from
Ugarit by Bruce Routledege and Kevin McGough. They explore whether trade systems did
collapse against a model of network theory. This is a wordy paper crammed with fact and
cross reference, as well as original textual evidence. Whilst its conclusions are useful, and
probably important, the convoluted writing style hampers comprehension. In contrast, the
following study by Carol Bell on the different nature of trade systems in four distinct zones
on the Levant coast, from Syria and Lebanon together with Cyprus, is a model of clarity and
readability. In essence, Bell shows that political agendas were provoked by the fortunes of
Ugarit and Carchemish, which in turn hampered the development of northern Levant trade
that was dependent of overseas routes into Asia. Meanwhile, Phoenicia to the south and
western Cyprus avoided these hostilities, and began to develop successful maritime trade
networks at the beginning of the early Iron Age. Katya Pernia’s paper on cultural identity
and social interaction in Crete focuses on how different social, funerary and religious
practices, alongside imported exotic elements of material culture, may indicate new settlers
and traditions. Established opinion may be challenged by these indications of change, but
this paper does open an interesting debate on causes of change in the late Bronze Age.
Andrea Vianello’s paper extends discussion of networks into the western Mediterranean and
reviews the rapidly changing information relating to Helladic interaction in the west from
sites in Italy, Sicily and Sardinia. Different phases are examined and the desirability of the
Aegean pottery is assessed against the wider picture of the later Bronze Age, together with
the nature of reception of foreign and exotic goods in different societies. This theme is
reiterated by Davide Tanasi’s study of Sicily at the end of the Bronze Age where Helladic
pottery and imitated forms have long been a focus of interest. Tanasi discusses the various
imports in Sicily from Malta, Sardinia and Italy alongside the eastern material, and suggests
that as the palatial system of the Aegean collapsed, Sicilian societies sought alternative goods
via the emerging Iberian and Phoenician exchange networks. Interestingly, the split of Sicily
east and west into two distinct cultural zones seems to emerge in the 9th-10th centuries BC,
with continuing Helladic influence in the east, and Levantine in the west.
The third section on iconography and perception has two papers, one examining reliefs of
Ramesses III by Gareth Roberts, and another on representations of warfare by Angelos
Papadopoulos. Roberts focuses on the imagery of the Sea Peoples and their representation by
Ramesses III, noting their plumed headdresses in comparison to the Sherden‘s horned
headdress, representing an elite military guard also derived from the “sea” peoples.
Papadopoulos engages data from wall paintings and objects that imply battle, warfare,
warriors and ships to explore whether the collapse of the palatial system affected the nature
of iconography, once the nature of patronage changed. While much iconography was little
changed, a growth in sea battle scenes may chime with the times of Late Helladic IIIc.
The section on Built Environment – cemeteries, citadels and landscapes contains 7 papers
that each address issues of sites and their wider landscape. John Green’s paper examines
cemetery changes at Tell es-Sa’Idiyeh in Jordan and their relationship social and economic
transformations in the southern Levant in the twelfth century BC as Bronze age became Iron
Age. The same period and themes is under scrutiny in the south east Aegean by Mercourios
Georgiadis. Formerly change and flux was explained through models of migration but largescale movement may not be the reason. Instead, it is argued that nucleation of settlement and
other social pressures may affect the burial rites across the islands. Much more destructive
forces caused change in the Canaanite kingdom of Hazor, as argued by Sharon Zuckerman.
Here the construction and destruction of ritual and cultic buildings or “religious crisis
architecture” opens interesting debate on what the actual agents of destruction really were for
Hazor. Destruction is the theme continued by Elizabeth French in her study of Mycenae and
its changing spatial use. The 1200 BC destruction was followed by repairs and some new
town planning, and this leads French to consider what kind of governance was at work during
this post-palatial but not post-catastrophic phase. Ideas of continuity are picked up by
Michael Franklin Lane in his paper on the land allocation tradition of the Mycenaeans. From
the linear B texts land tenure descriptions it is suggested that similar land tenure was
maintained in Archaic and Classical Greek times, following the tradition of strips of land,
cultivation methods and productivity. Such traditions and scale seems to have been exported
with the Greeks to the west. Such ideas remain contentious however, and Lane argues for
testing of the model through modern survey methods. Francesca Fulminante takes the debate
of territory and land west to central Italy and the growth of Latium Vetus during the late
Bronze and Early Iron Ages and applies weighted Voronoi diagrams to the emerging
settlement system. This shows the emergence of the major centres around Rome over the 8th6th centuries BC. Troy like Rome remains a perpetual focus of research interest, and recent
reassessment of old excavations forms the discussion of Maureen Basedow’s exploration into
the Iron Age transition at the site, the data of which was massively excavated away by
Schliemann and Blegen. Searching out the Iron Age proves to be difficult, and opens a much
wider debate about all the dating and phasing of this iconic site.
The last section deals with social implications for the production and consumption of pottery,
a favourite subject for research in the eastern Mediterranean and near east. Troy again
surfaces in Carolyn Aslan’s study of transitional pottery between Bronze and Iron Age.
Blegen’s phasing is again called into question from the new data from recent fieldwork,
whilst ideas of new populations and traditions arriving in Troy after the end of the Bronze
Age may explain the stylistic and functional changes identified in the pottery. The
relationship between handmade and burnished pottery and change is raised by Bartołolemiej
Lis in his study of ceramics at the end of the Bronze Age in the eastern Mediterranean. Handmaking was a break in the Mycenaean ceramic tradition and could represent foreign
influences and general economic upheaval. The favourite old sites are undoubtedly still the
stuff of research, and a paper on the change in the social meaning of pottery at Tiryns by
Phillip Stockhammer adds to earlier papers in the book making use of classic type sites. Here
the discussion focuses on the southern Argolid work over recent decades. The conclusion is
the after the 1200 BC “catastrophes” potters had to satisfy different and new clientele and
exerted themselves to make finer pottery for the new emerging elites, changing former taste
and style. Sabine Laemmel focuses her discussion on the pottery of the Levant at much the
same period, and the content of tombs from Tell El-far’ah and what these may reveal about
the transition between the final Bronze and the early Iron Ages. Imported vessels from
Cyprus and Greece were included with Levantine forms and other material culture (faience,
bronze, plaques, scarabs, arrowheads and so on) but continuity was significant. Indeed,
change over what might be otherwise a turbulent period is shown in terms of burial material
to be long-lasting and demonstrate deeply entrenched networks of exchange and production.
The final paper by Nava Panitz-Cohen develops this theme with a study of pottery production
over the transition from Tel Batash in Israel. Production at the site extended from the 17th to
the 6th centuries BC, and so enabled a long-term understanding of pottery manufacture in the
region in relation to the documented changes of social, economic, ideological and political
processes. From household production in the earlier-middle Bronze Age to more highly
organised systems employing greater production employing wheels and kiln firing under
Egyptian control in the final Bronze Age, different forms and technologies reflected wider
processes and ideas.
So what of this volume – brimming with new debate about long-established data sets and
classic sites and cultures? Clearly a useful focus is the transition between Bronze Age and
Iron Age, but rather than question if indeed these designations are still useful, the scholars
here move swiftly into their rich data. So rich in fact, that although there are useful
comparisons made, more basic, and perhaps more “prehistoric” debate about the very
technology, the dating, phasing, nature of society itself is somewhat brushed aside. This type
of approach is what distinguishes east from west Mediterranean scholarship in many ways.
The Hellenic-Oriental world and its scholarship is so complex and replete with detail that first
principles are barely dealt with. Many of the papers and the editors in particular, pay tribute
to Andrew and Susan Sherratt and their immense contribution to debate on the eastern
Mediterranaean. But unlike the Sherratts’ who have provoked wider discussion at a European
and West Asian level, not enough of these papers are really doing that. Perhaps this is simply
because space is limited and the scholars are young, but establishment ideas need even more
thorough critique and re-examination to move this vast machine of scholarship focused on the
late Bronze Age and the Helladic-Levantine into a new gear. There are good hints of it here
developing into something richer for the future.
Caroline Malone,
Queen’s University Belfast
April 2012
“The views expressed in this review are not necessarily those of the Society or the Reviews
Editor”