Production, Trade, and Connectivity in Pre-Roman Italy

Book excerpt: This book explores the complex relationship between production, trade, and connectivity in Pre-Roman Italy, confronting established ideas about the relationships between people, objects, and ideas, and highlighting how social change and community formation is rooted in individual interactions. The volume engages with, and builds upon, recent paradigm shifts in the archaeology and history of the ancient Mediterranean which have centred the social and economic processes that produce communities. It utilises a series of case studies, encompassing the production, trade, and movement of objects and people, to explore new models for how production is organized and the recursive relationship between the cultural and the economic spheres of human society. The contributions address issues of agency and production at multiple scales of analysis, from larger theoretical discussions of trade and identity across different regions, to context-specific explorations of production techniques and the distribution of material culture across the Italian peninsula. Production, Trade, and Connectivity in Pre-Roman Italy is intended for students and scholars interested in the archaeology and history of Pre-Roman and Early Republican Italy, but especially production, trade, community formation, and identity. Those interested in issues of cultural interaction and material change in the ancient Mediterranean world will find useful comparative examples and methodological approaches throughout.