Colonial Engagements in the Global Mediterranean Iron Age

Abstract

The application of globalization theory to colonial contexts in recent years has emphasized articulations of the colonized and the colonizers. For the Mediterranean Iron Age, focus has been upon expressions of local (colonized) identities, and of regional variabilities of the overseas Greeks and Phoenicians; any attention to the engagements that the Greeks and Phoenicians had with one another during this time has been solely contrapositive in the framing of arguments. The present study examines the background to this circumstance before addressing specifically the engagement between these global cultures on a Mediterranean-wide scale during the period of their overseas foundations. Regarded from the perspective of a globalization framework, the common sets of practices and shared bodies of knowledge reveal a deep complexity of intercultural contact during the Iron Age, reminding us that cultures should never be considered in isolation.