Mediterranean Voyages

The Archaeology of Island Colonisation and Abandonment

Helen Dawson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781611329957
• eBook ISBN: 9781315424750
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

Islands are ideal case studies for exploring social connectivity, episodes of colonisation, abandonment, and alternating phases of cultural interaction and isolation. Their societies display different attitudes toward the land and the sea, which in turn cast light on group identities. This volume advances theoretical discussions of island archaeology by offering a comparative study of the archaeology of colonisation, abandonment, and resettlement of the Mediterranean islands in prehistory. This comparative and thematic study encourages anthropological reflections on the archaeology of the islands, ultimately focusing on people rather than geographical units, and specifically on the relations between islanders, mainlanders, and the creation of islander identities. This volume has significance for scholars interested in Mediterranean archaeology, as well as those interested more broadly in colonisation and abandonment.

CHAPTER 1

ISLAND ARCHAEOLOGIES

This book is a comparative study of the archaeology of colonisation, abandonment, and resettlement of the Mediterranean islands in prehistory. Presenting an extensive and up-to-date body of evidence, it provides a pan-Mediterranean review of island data, a task last completed in the mid-1990s (Patton 1996). The considerations made over the course of the following chapters are supported by a database of 147 islands, from the Balearics in the west to Cyprus in the east, and cover some 10,000 years (from the Mesolithic to the Iron Age, with a few earlier instances).

Colonisation is a subject that has been extensively discussed in archaeology; by comparison, abandonment has received less attention, at least in the Mediterranean. Islands offer ideal case studies for exploring social connectivity, episodes of colonisation, abandonment, and alternating phases of cultural interaction and isolation. Nonetheless, distinguishing between visitation, utilisation, occupation, establishment, abandonment, and recolonisation remains a considerable challenge. How did these activities vary spatially and temporally, and what were the potential reasons behind different islands’ colonisation and abandonment processes? Any observations must be placed against the backdrop of the changing palaeogeography of the prehistoric Mediterranean, by taking into account physical changes in sea levels and in the islands’ environments, and the resulting perceptions of landscape, all contextualised within the broader scheme of reference of Mediterranean prehistory.

Three concepts have proved particularly useful in this study and underpin the key points in this book: (1) ‘island archaeology’ and its approaches designed with islands specifically in mind (e.g., ‘islandscapes’; Broodbank 2000); (2) colonisation as a process encompassing multiple activities, including (but not limited to) settlement (e.g., ‘landscape learning’ and ‘place making’; Rockman 2003); and (3) abandonment as a form of settlement ‘strategy’ and not necessarily as a failure (Nelson 2000). A principal goal of this book is to unravel the key processes and dynamics in the initial colonisation and subsequent abandonment(s) and recolonisation(s) of the islands and to present these, as much as possible, as processes of social interaction leading to ‘Mediterraneanisation’, as discussed by Horden and Purcell (2000) and by Morris (2003). It would be unrealistic to attempt this for all the islands in the Mediterranean, but it can be achieved by following the long-term histories of individual islands (up to the recent past in certain cases), highlighting the recurring yet irregular nature of these processes and teasing out meaningful parallels across time and space.

Although the structure of the study follows a conventional geographical and chronological framework, its comparative and thematical approach encourages anthropological reflections on the archaeology of the islands, ultimately focusing on people rather than geographical units, and specifically on the relations between islanders and mainlanders, highlighting the long-term development of island communities and seeking points of convergence between different periods. The book thus advances theoretical discussions in island archaeology and their relevance to Mediterranean archaeology (Broodbank 2000; Fitzpatrick, ed. 2004; Knapp 2007; Rainbird 2007), and it provides alternative explanations to colonisation paradigms prevalent in the 1980s and 1990s, expanding these to include considerations of abandonment and recolonisation.

ISLAND ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

‘Island archaeology’ can be broadly defined as a theoretical and analytical framework of comparison that recognises a number of common themes and questions relevant to islands (I am grateful to Cyprian Broodbank for this definition). In the Mediterranean, it is a growing area of research and one that, while born from approaches devised for other areas of the world, is increasingly developing its own character. Its key strengths are that it encourages productive comparisons between data and models derived from different islands and periods and that it deals with the archaeology both of isolation and of interaction (Broodbank 2000; Waldren and Ensenyat 2002; Fitzpatrick 2004; Rainbird 2004). Island archaeology aims to understand the striking diversity of island cultures and identify common underlying themes. These features set it apart both theoretically and methodologically from being merely a compiled archaeology of the Mediterranean islands.

Over the years, islands across the globe have been claimed to provide ideal ‘laboratories’ for studying ecosystems and societies (Vayda and Rappaport 1963; MacArthur and Wilson 1967; Evans 1973; 1977) and to illustrate lessons about environmental overexploitation (Bahn and Flenley 1992; Kirch and Hunt eds. 1997) and demographic change (McArthur et al. 1976; Black 1978; Williamson and Sabath 1984; Paine 1997). Recent regional studies of islands have combined a number of theoretical and practical approaches and brought detailed and synthetic focus to the subject (Patton 1996; Bass 1998; Broodbank 2000; Cooper 2002; Rainbird 2004; Costantakopoulou 2007; Phoca-Cosmetatou ed. 2011; Bevan and Conolly 2013).

Island archaeology is highly adaptable to the study of individual islands and archipelagos and to their relation (and comparison) with mainland cultures (cf. Anderson 2004; Renfrew 2004). The comparison of island cultures points increasingly to isolation and interaction being culturally structured features that are not necessarily fixed in time by geographical variables. Islands are convenient units of analysis that can be compared, but their geographical characteristics (e.g., size, distance, and resources) are mediated through culture-specific lenses: this can be seen in the historical trajectories of human communities on islands and archipelagos, and their alternating centrality and marginality. Technology, for example, can overcome distance and lack of resources and affect the value of resources or the perception of time.

Several specialist interests fall under the broad remit of island archaeology, such as the archaeology of expansion, colonisation, refuge, abandonment, resettlement, subsistence, and so on. Because of the comparative nature of the field, archaeologists working with islands engage with great diversity and have identified a set of analytical categories and developed an effective vocabulary (often borrowed from biogeography) to refer to these: terms such as ‘island effect’ (usually emphasising physical isolation), ‘founder effect’, ‘commuter effect’, ‘super-attractors’, ‘nurseries’, ‘stepping-stone effect’, and more recently, ‘islandscape’, ‘seascape’, and the like, which are now regularly to be found in island-related publications to explain concepts derived from island archaeology. These concepts draw on wider archaeological theories, ranging from evolutionary and ecosystem approaches to more cultural approaches, but frame broad questions within specific spatial variables and investigate whether these variables have a measurable effect on the development of culture and how this effect varies over time and space.

Island archaeology thus contributes to the study of prehistory in general, by testing questions relating to migration, colonisation, human–environmental interaction, domestication, and cultural diversification, among others, within specific parameters (those afforded by islands). This characteristic finds parallels with other specialisms employing comparative frameworks. As Anderson put it, island archaeology is ‘separable but not separate from the wider discipline’ (2004:267)—that is, island archaeological research has much to contribute to non-island-related studies of the past. Apart from framing general questions asked by prehistorians within an island setting, island archaeology is also developing its own questions. For example, how does insularity (or how do specific geographical characteristics) affect culture and vice versa? How is being/living on an island different from being/living on the mainland? How did people experience changes in palaeogeography, or what did people make of islands?

While island archaeologists are developing their own questions and vocabulary, they have also retained some generic terms borrowed from prehistory. The terms ‘colonisation’ and ‘abandonment’ are a case in point: their use is in need of refinement, as a number of rather distinct activities fall under these labels. Here lies an important potential development of island archaeology and a primary aim of this book: achieving clearer understanding of these activities through the analysis of archaeological assemblages found on islands, and identifying diagnostic remains or material correlates for each of these activities. Palaeoenvironmental data can be used effectively to understand exploration, while other data (e.g., changes in material culture) can give indications as to whether dispersal was slow and colonisation rapid, gradual, or purposive. In general, such data can help us to understand issues of settlement, adaptation, viability, population dynamics, and cultural networks. Is the colonisation or abandonment of an island different from that of other landforms?

More than thirty years have passed since Cherry (1981) first synthesised the colonisation data available at the time and formulated a theoretical and practical framework for studying colonisation in the Mediterranean islands. That initial review was followed by an update almost ten years later (Cherry 1990), but while the body of island data has continued to grow and there have been considerable advances in the theory of island archaeology, theory and practice have rarely been brought together again as equal players in the Mediterranean (most recently by Broodbank 2000). As we will see, Patton’s study favoured a theoretical approach (1996), Gaffney et al. (1997) had a more practical remit, and Bass (1998) had a regional focus, though his reach exceeded those spatial limits in terms of its theoretical framework.

The questions posed by island archaeology must be adapted to make them relevant to different settings. Empirical data and their context set the pitch as to the issues that may be addressed, leading to the identification of a series of questions that are specifically ‘Mediterranean’. Spatial analysis, for example, is a key theme of island archaeology, but it has to be customised to the configuration of the regions in question and the questions being asked. Biogeographical approaches developed for the Pacific islands must be considerably adjusted if they are to be applied effectively to the Mediterranean islands. Mediterranean configuration would suggest that island life should have developed here more readily than in areas where islands are more remote. In reality, however, this was not always the case, and the development of island life was only superficially a cumulative process. In fact, in the Mediterranean context it is impossible to discuss island colonisation without taking abandonment into consideration, since this was (and still is) a fundamental component of island life. However, despite the fact that islands were repeatedly abandoned and recolonised, there is still an imbalance in the amount of research that has gone into understanding colonisation and abandonment, the latter being largely overlooked. This discrepancy needs to be addressed.

The physical elements and social make-up of islands are inseparable features, but their meanings have to be taken apart and then reassembled if they are to be fully gauged. Mediterranean islands offer a wide spectrum of physical and cultural elements that combine to create the diversity that characterises this region. At the same time, some regular features can be identified, and it is on these that this study focuses first. Geographical and environmental data thus provide the first port-of-call in this study and present the setting (both in terms of restrictions and opportunities) for understanding the unfolding of the processes being investigated. The geographical scope of the study is at first pan-Mediterranean, but once common Mediterranean underlying features are identified, the book moves on to address why island regions developed in either similar or different ways, by focusing on increasingly fine scales of enquiry, highlighting variations and similarities within the processes, at a regional scale and then at the level of individual islands.

This study is also conducted at different chronological levels. The overall chronological breadth of the analysis encompasses prehistory from the end of the Pleistocene to the Iron Age. This scope takes into account many colonisation and abandonment events and processes, from the first time that human presence is recorded on any island to the time when it is documented on most of them. It is, of course, rare that the development of an island can be followed through a period of ten thousand years, but by combining data from different islands, regional patterns do emerge over long time periods, while the data from the individual islands afford a series of snapshots of the making of such patterns. This book thus investigates what colonisation and abandonment processes entail in different spatial and temporal settings, and whether, and to what degree, sequences of colonisation and abandonment in separate parts of the Mediterranean are interconnected. Their chronological and spatial variations (often within the same archipelago), and potential reasons behind these, are also explored, and suggestions are made with regard to social interaction between different island regions (both in the short and long terms).

Cherry (2004:236) claimed that, because of the vastness of the data now available, ‘syntheses of Mediterranean prehistory as a whole are [thus] rare (e.g., Trump 1980; Patton 1996), and generally disappointing’. The comment is partly justified, as these studies have taken on the immense task of amalgamating human histories spanning several millennia and therefore succumb to ‘ex cathedra generalization’ (Cherry 2004:243). The validity of the very idea of ‘Mediterranean archaeology’ has been criticised recently, and there has been a reaction to archaeological studies that consider the region on a macro-scale, often adopting a so-called top-down approach. Instead, it is argued that ‘research on any topic in a specific Mediterranean context’ is to be preferred to ‘all-encompassing Mediterranean-wide studies’ (Catapoti 2007: 201). This kind of research can promote understanding at the detailed and local scale; however, it can result in excessive fragmentation and in the proliferation of specialist studies with tenuous links to the bigger picture. The present study aims to overcome this impasse using both top-down and bottom-up approaches: it focuses on individual islands in order to identify overarching themes and questions while recognising there is also a great deal of divergence, as seen from specific case studies and as is to be expected given the scale of the study. There is a huge amount to be learnt from comparing the histories of individual islands and conceptualising the Mediterranean as a ‘unique cultural zone’ (e.g., Blake and Knapp 2004). This book, then, strives to differ from previous syntheses by making a contribution to the discourse of Mediterranean prehistory through a study of specific aspects of island life. It aims to provide a theoretical framework for comparison between island regions to oppose the increasing ‘segmentation and hyperspecialisation’ of Mediterranean studies that Cherry (2004) equally stigmatises.

This work addresses the changing nature of colonisation and abandonment in the Mediterranean islands by making the most of switching between different scales of enquiry. The sources of the data used to support this investigation are necessarily highly eclectic, as they are derived from archaeological publications that date from the start of the twentieth century to the present day. This is interesting in its own right, as it affords an insight into how island studies have evolved in this area over the past century. However, it also presents several challenges and can be frustrating, as the data were originally collected and interpreted according to different research agendas and thus may be lacking in some aspects that would be useful to this project. While this study cannot always offer a full picture of the processes under examination in discrete areas, individual parts do concur to create a coherent whole, thanks to the wide spatial and chronological scope. Capitalising on all the evidence available is important if we are to clarify the dynamics behind the development of island societies, which in turn will provide crucial elements to understanding a wholly Mediterranean way of life.

Island archaeology is an evolving subject, comprising as it does several kinds of archaeologies: new theoretical frameworks are developing, and more data are becoming available as research continues to progress also in other fields, allowing researchers to address old and new questions in different ways. This plurality is an asset for its practitioners. Archaeological emphasis continues to shift, and views alter over the relationship between humans and the environment, a relationship that is problematic in some ways and still changing today, as seen by the abandonment of several small Mediterranean islands in the present. Archaeologically, ‘Mediterraneanisation’ can be traced back to the Bronze Age and possibly earlier, but in fact it is still ongoing, as people in this region continue t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Dedication
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1: Island Archaeologies
• Chapter 2: The Mediterranean: Physical and Cultural Spaces
• Chapter 3: Theories of Colonisation
• Chapter 4: Island Colonisation in the Western Mediterranean
• Chapter 5: Island Colonisation in the Eastern Mediterranean
• Chapter 6: Redefining Island Colonisation
• Chapter 7: Theories of Abandonment
• Chapter 8: Islands in Time
• Chapter 9: Mediterranean Voyages
• References
• Index
• About the Author