Life at the Margins
This New Book Chronicle looks at ‘Life in the margins’, a subject often less studied than the more obvious cultural hot spots but one which has been gaining interest in recent studies, especially due to its application to modern challenges in marginal or border regions; for example, see the ‘Borderlands debate’ in Antiquity last August (Hanscam & Buchanan Reference Hanscam and Buchanan2023). The four books reviewed here all deliver the perspectives of people living in the margins of some sort. The first two explore the political margins of larger entities and how groups developed different strategies to successfully remain partially independent, with examples from across the Old and New World and the Near East. The third book helps to identify the new Bronze Age ‘Spačva-Lubanj’ group in eastern Croatia through exploring unusual burials at the margins of larger cultural groups.
The last book takes us to the most remote place discussed here: the monastery site of Skellig Michael off the coast of Ireland, where early Christian monks chose to live an ascetic life battling the elements. In all cases the margins studied are revealed to be more zones for contact and crucibles of change and, in the contrasting case of Skellig Michael, places where pilgrims and subsequently tourists—including Luke Skywalker—seek to recapture some of the spirituality and isolation. These types of experiences have become more and more difficult to find in our modern anytime-everywhere-connected world where many people long for some reflective time on their own. Reading these books makes one wonder if we now more than ever need these remote places away from overpowering systems, a space to think and in order to develop new ideas.
This book is an excellent starting point for researching people living in marginal (political) landscapes as it offers many ideas and perspectives. The contributions deliver a wide scope from Nubia in the fourth and third millennia BC to medieval Iceland and reaching as far as the Americas. As diverse as the time periods and landscapes of the chapters are, they all look at societies at the margins of larger states. They examine and detail the political, social and economic differences to define the character of these often less-studied areas or moments in time. A passionate and well-written Introduction by the editors guides the reader into the subject where the margins are loosely defined as places in between or on the edge of complex and large entities. But instead of the traditional centre-periphery narratives where these ancient communities in the margins are often described as more simple and passive, they are revealed here as agents that develop and defend resiliently their different lifeways. They work to sustain their autonomy from the looming neighbour so that these spaces become “crucibles of historical change” (p.3). Nine chapters deliver varied case studies of such landscapes and the book concludes with a short ‘Epilogue: Borderlandscapes’.
The first chapter by Kyle Knabb, one of the editors, presents research on the Iron Age of Wadi al-Feidh, in modern-day Jordan as a case study. In ancient times this part of the southern Levant was situated between the early states of Mesopotamia and Egypt which influenced and at times invaded it from both sides. Knabb finds that the unique geography and differing habitats led the people of this area to live in a more isolated and mobile way than the people in the agrarian states around them. Through this mobility they were able to establish and keep a certain degree of autonomy, and therefore ‘avoid state-ness’.
In the next chapter the second editor Alicia Boswell discusses the frontier area of the Sinsicap Valley in Peru, where during the Chimu Empire (AD 900–1400) encounters, exchange and coexistence between this powerful coastal polity and local groups can be studied. By adapting some of the traditions and beliefs of the stronger Chimu group, local people were also able to resist and preserve some of their own ways and maintain their own identity.
Tara Carter focuses on remote Medieval Iceland. Studies mapping economic networks across the North Atlantic, as well as small-scale island economy, describe how this marginality and self-sustainability linked with distant connections helped to lay the foundation of a state.
John Walker takes the reader to a place beyond the margins and the subject of research is the pre-Columbian earthworks in eastern Bolivia, Llanos de Mojos. The people who built these raised fields in order to use seasonal flooding and grow crops without much supervision, so called ‘escape crops’, are known today as the Mojeños. No evidence for a higher or state-like organisation or neighbouring states can be found; therefore, this Indigenous culture developed and blossomed independently.
Moving on to an ‘empty’ corner of colonial east El Salvador, Esteban Gómez highlights the oppression and exploitation of Indigenous groups but also themes of passive resistance. Some of these groups were able to find such resistance at the territorial margins, in using the colonial legal system to their own advantage, as well as keeping their Indigenous traditions alive.
Erin Smith and Mikael Fauvelle research the differences and similarities of two Indigenous groups in their social organisation with an emphasis on trade and warfare. The Chumash people, traditionally perceived as the more complex, and the Yuman-speaking people, of what is now California, both at the margins of the Mesoamerican states and Pueblo groups in the Southwest. The authors conclude that although these groups are differently organised they operate on comparable levels of complexity: the Yuman-speaking people with less hierarchy but a greater orientation towards conflict and mobility and the more settled Chumash with leading elites, as thriving producers.
Kaq'ru Ha lies in the foothills of the Maya Mountains in southern Belize and, in the Classical Maya period, was at the margins of the Maya world. Claire Novotny looks at the level of adaption and the selection of new traditions that the people in this borderland chose to take on from the Maya heartland, in order to connect to the distant centres of the latter.
Meanwhile, focusing on Africa, Scott MacEachern researches the Wandala people of the Sahel zone (AD 1500–1900) and challenges the view that this group were just slave traders. The results show the Wandala as part of a more nuanced world of Islamic and non-Islamic groups that existed together and influenced each other in the marginal landscape.
The final chapter takes the reader to the fifth/fourth millennium BC Egypt and Nubia. Elena Garcea looks at the relationship between these two regions of the Nile Valley, as each developed distinct subsistence systems. These systems resulted in different ways of living and societies but were, especially in these early times, very much intertwined and they fuelled each other's developing complexity. This interpretation makes Nubia an active partner and not, as traditionally seen, a mere bystander.
These wide-ranging case studies are not easily comparable, but all highlight the importance of the geography of these borderlands and show that unique lifeways and identities can emerge from these perceived marginal places, sometimes with a long-term historical impact. The authors all succeed in shifting our focus and delivering a new perspective from within these ‘borderlandscapes’.
The second volume in this NBC is similar in topic to the previous one but investigates a much closer temporal and spatial span: the Bronze and Iron Ages of the Near East. The book is the outcome of a conference held in October 2019 at Brown University, Rhode Island, USA, and written and edited during the difficult times of the Covid pandemic.
Sara Mohr and Shane Thompson as editors open the discussion in their introduction ‘Notes in the margins’ and advocate to change the view from traditional centre-periphery studies to more open-minded perspectives and looking from the margins themselves outward. The varied case studies also reveal a strong independence and sense of identity of the people in the margins and turn them into actors and not simply those acted upon. These places in the shadow of the Egyptian and Hittite empires became often crucial areas of sociopolitical change. The editors also stress the importance of combining archaeological and textual sources to gain a deeper understanding. Although the contributions include archaeological evidence, at least in part, the interpretative influence of ancient texts remains overwhelmingly dominant in this volume. Eric Trnka closes the book with ‘Reflections from the margins’ and incorporates the themes of the contributions with further thoughts on how the study of margins can be brought fruitfully forward by the change of traditional frameworks such as the core-periphery theories. Eight chapters deliver detailed studies on places and people in the margins.
The scene of the first case study by Avraham Faust is Late Bronze/Iron Age Canaan (1300–1100 BC). The shift from indirect to stricter direct control by Egypt over Canaan lowlands in the thirteenth century BC led to a settlement surge in the highlands and ultimately to the forming of a highland kingdom, an area that before was only sparsely settled. While this topic is much discussed in past studies, Faust adopts a different angle and looks at how identities become visible and distinguishes then between lowland (more Egyptian) and marginal highland identities. Only in the material record of the Iron Age do sharp boundaries become apparent and deliver evidence for an independent highland kingdom with its own ideologies, the forebearers of the biblical Israelites. In Chapter 3 Alexander Ahrens reviews the depth of affiliation during the Bronze Age between northern Levantine elites and their imperial neighbours. The latter never managed to dominate this region fully and it remained a connection point for trade and contact between the empires. The relationship with Egypt is the main focus, and Ahrens details many aspects of the affiliation with the Levantine elites. He shows that their ‘central’ place in between, and choice of adopting some Egyptian ways but keeping some of their own, should be interpreted as an independent position not a mere ‘Egyptianization’. Through studying religion and symbolism, Valeria Turriziani explores how the Egyptians perceived the centre and the margins and the meaning of their borders. Their worldview incorporates the political state territory as well as the mythical border of the cosmos and the chapter explores how these two worlds were interrelated. Ellen Morris, on the other hand, investigates the more worldly marginal habitats within Egypt and at its fringes—such as marshes, deserts and mountains—illuminating the special position of the people who lived in these areas.
Turning north to Anatolia and examining the territorial perception of the Hittite Old Kingdom to the Empire (c. 1650–1190 BC), Alvesi Matessi utilises material culture, such as seals, and textual evidence to highlight shifts in administrative strategies from an urban network with a few main centres towards the formation of regional provinces. Daniel Fleming draws the focus to the margins of the Hittite kingdom during the Late Bronze Age and the city of Emar on the banks of the River Euphrates in northern Syria. Emar has been researched in the past as a peripheral space but here it is viewed from within. For Emar, the position between larger powers resulted in innovation and, rather than becoming part of the Hittite kingdom, it served as an autonomous border guard against the Assyrians.
Peter Dubovský researches the lesser-known kingdom of Suḫu and the use of titles in people's names by its elites in contacts and relationships with the Assyrian Empire. The nuanced study of textual and linguistic details reveal that the Suḫian elites strived to differentiate themselves from the powerful entities around them. The social landscape of Iron Age Timnah, in modern Israel, is the topic of Mahri Leonard-Fleckman's chapter. The archaeological evidence is examined and compared with the many biblical sources, to provide a more contextualised view of these texts, which are through this work identified as an outsider's view describing this marginal area. The author critically observes how the texts have influenced the interpretation of the archaeological record and asserts that, although Timnah has been claimed by many different groups, it retained a level of social independence.
Rather than viewing from the perspective of the powerful entities around them, this thought-provoking volume invites the reader to look at often well-known areas from within the marginal societies. This approach reveals the more independent identity of the people living in these margins, which in turn have neither clear nor fixed boundaries but are more of a contact zone between groups.
The volume Mediating marginality is the outcome of more than eight years of excavation on the site of Purić-Ljubanj in Eastern Croatia by an international collaboration of the local Stjepan Gruber Museum in Županja, Southampton University and National Taiwan University and many affiliated students who undertook their summer school here. This Bronze Age cemetery, with an estimated 100-plus burial mounds, lies in the Spačva Basin and has not seen much research in the past, mainly for political and economic reasons. The book is beautifully illustrated, incorporating a site report as well as an exploration into the wider landscape of the county of Vukovar-Syrmia. It highlights a previously unknown distinct cultural group that lived in the margins of well-studied groups around them. A new perspective is added to the material culture with thoughts and ideas on the performances undertaken and skills needed to produce the pots and build the tumuli.
The book is organised in six chapters and begins with the research history and the geological surveys that led to an excavation strategy. This is followed by a chapter placing the site in the wider context of the cultural groups around them and detailing the finds and features of the Belegiš and the West-Serbian variant of the Vatin group. Chapter 3 makes up the largest part of the volume and describes the results of the excavation, especially the finds from the three excavated tumuli with multiple burials, pottery assemblages, human cremations and animal bones. The tumuli are between 19 and 22.5m in diameter with a surviving height of 2–2.7m, and have multiple cremation burials, some in pits. Tumulus 3 remains only partly excavated. They are dated through radiocarbon on bones and charcoal and through comparative pottery typologies. Through careful interpretation, a detailed sequence of events can be distinguished for each tumulus. This reveals insights into the mortuary practices and demonstrates that the tumuli were not built in one go, but changed and grew in size with more burials over time. For instance, all three have one or more layers of burnt clay, which are interpreted as funerary platforms. Tumuli 1 and 3 appear to be earlier, emerging in the Middle Bronze Age and being used into the Late Bronze Age; the tumuli were therefore active for hundreds of years, and in one case almost for 800 years. Chapter 4 looks beyond the archaeological record and combines geology and raw material resources to illuminate the redistribution and use of material and shows how well the people of Purić-Ljubanj used the modest resources around them. The level of skill and performance that was put into making the pottery and the tumuli is also assessed. This last part is discussed further in the following chapter ‘The scales of performance at Purić-Ljubanj: assembling the cemetery, the landscape, and the dead’. The tumuli were built to be highly visible in the landscape, and in the wider area of the Spačva Forest 19 more sites with burial mounds were found. Mounded sites in this region are highly uncommon and “can give evidence for place-based identity formation in this region in the Bronze Age” (p.125). Further to the mounds there were no metal finds or personal grave goods present with the burials, which also sets them apart from the surrounding groups. The cremated bones of humans and animals in the burials were also scattered and lacked a consistent burial practice; most cremations contain only partial representation of individual bodies. In addition, the pottery was very fragmented. Together this is interpreted as the “creation of a new collective identity of the deceased” (p.127) rather than individual ancestors. The final chapter brings together the excavation results and the authors' reflections on the meaning of marginality and the self-identity of the Bronze Age people of the Spačva-Ljubanj group. The book concludes with ideas for future research at the site and wider area.
The results gained from the detailed excavations are used in an excellent way to identify and illuminate new burial practices and help this newly emerging cultural group to take shape in the scholarship. The book highlights how marginal areas between larger and seemingly more visible groups can hold unknown surprises. As with the volumes discussed above, a pattern evolves that shows the people living in these margins are independent, even if affiliated to powerful entities around them. The fresh approaches of interpretation and understanding of skill and performance at the site are a welcome addition to the usual investigations of burial sites. Hopefully, this stimulating book will provide momentum for future research in this understudied area.
This hefty and exceptionally beautiful book is devoted to the presentation of a comprehensive account of the natural history, archaeology, history, folklore and heritage of the Skelligs, a group of small, rugged islands (or rather rocks) off the west coast of County Kerry, Ireland. The islands, often described as the most impressive remote monastery of early Christian times, became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1996. The research was undertaken by a large group of scholars from diverse fields under the umbrella of University College Cork, with John Crowley and John Sheehan as lead editors.
Looking at the table of contents, the reader is prepared for a multifaceted journey around the islands featuring: geology, flora and fauna on land and in the sea; the beginnings of monastic life in Ireland and especially on Skellig Michael; the archaeological remains of early medieval Skellig Michael and its surroundings; the Vikings in Ireland; spirituality, saints and the Archangel Michael; exploring the medieval times through old maps; pilgrims; pirates; placing a lighthouse on the island; the folklore and place names of Skellig Michael; and rather unexpected topics such as ‘The Skelligs in French writing’ and ‘Folklore and the night sky’. These many chapters are supported by inserted ‘boxes’ offering insights on certain research, such as the Hereford Mappa Mundi or drystone oratories; as well as case studies such as on puffins or ‘The Lady Nelson wreck from 1809’. ‘Reflections’ and thoughts on Skellig Michael of people who have visited and found inspiration and ‘Skellig profiles’, memories of people who have lived or worked on the island in the recent past add a personal touch. One first wonders if such a wide range and mix of topics can work under one cover, but rest assured that it does!
In early medieval times, possibly as early as the fifth/sixth century, the first monks undertook the perilous journey in small boats, only 12km from the Inveragh coast but across the often forceful Atlantic waters, and built the first huts on the higher points of the rocks. As a first measure for safe access to the top, the difficult endeavour of building steep staircases was initiated to secure the passage up and down to the small landing coves and allow a more permanent settlement. These steps built and maintained over a long time are still visible as long imposing flights of drystone steps, leading the visitor to the top. Many of the buildings are intact today, others in ruins or with visible foundations. The main monastery lies about 180m above sea level and consists of two terraces with long drystone walls, two oratories, a church, seven beehive cells so-called clochauns, a latrine, a cemetery and further smaller structures. On the highest point of the island at 218m sits the so-called South Peak Hermitage, but it was possibly used more as a retreat during the day than a permanently inhabited space. The craftmanship of the drystone buildings is outstanding and the effort to erect them in this remote place and adverse weather conditions must have been immense. It is unknown when exactly the monastery was founded here, but written sources mention a Viking attack in the ninth century and its dedication to the Archangel Michael from the tenth century onwards. The monastery was inhabited until the twelfth/thirteenth century and was by then an established place of pilgrimage until at least the sixteenth century. In the nineteenth century, the building of a lighthouse brought new occupants to the rock. The one point of criticism of this book is the absence of a detailed chronology, which may be due to difficulties in dating the structures, and readers must assemble a timeline for the events on the island from the different chapters. Skellig Michael's past has, however, lived on in the folklore of the nearby shores and in recent times through increasing tourism.
The impact that Skellig Michael had on people's lives in the past as in the present shines through in most contributions, including the foreword and acknowledgements. Whatever the original monks were trying to find here on the edge of the world—nearness to God, spirituality, peace, inspiration—it still can be found if one is willing to look. No short review can do justice to this monument of a book. The title The book of the Skelligs is fitting, but the book is also so much more as it looks far over the shores of these remote and otherworldly islands and sets them within a much larger frame of Ireland and beyond. Not a book to read in one sitting but to come back to over and over. You will always find some new topic to explore, photographs to enjoy and the opportunity to dive into the deep history of Skellig Michael and its stunning landscape that was formed, and is still contested by, the elements.
This list includes all books received between 1 September 2023 and 31 October 2023. Those featuring at the beginning of New Book Chronicle, however, have not been duplicated in this list. The listing of a book here does not preclude its subsequent review in Antiquity.
