(2016) Wiersma, C.W. and Voutsaki, S. (eds.) Explaining Social Change in Aegean Prehistory. Oxbow, Oxford. (original) (raw)

The edited volume consists of the proceedings of an International Conference entitled ‘Explaining Change in Aegean Prehistory’, which was held in Groningen, the Netherlands on 16-17 October 2013. The aim of the conference was to explain processes of social and economic change from the Early Bronze Age III to the Late Bronze Age I period (ca. 2200 - 1600 BC) in the southern Aegean. The beginning of this period (the end of the EBA) witnesses a severe crisis which is followed by social regression (during the early phases of the MBA) and slow recovery and a precipitation of social change in the transition to the LBA. The focus is on the southern mainland, although we adopt a comparative approach and examine parallel (or divergent) processes in the surrounding islands and Crete. The volume starts with an introduction by the editors, where we introduce the problem, the explanation of social change in Aegean prehistory, and outline the development of the debate in the last 40 years. We also provide an outline of the book and present the main themes addressed in the various papers. The introduction is followed by 10 papers presented at the conference. The first two (Gauss & Lindblom, Rutter) address the problems of periodization and the correlation of ceramic sequence (on which the traditional chronological sub-divisions are based) with the social developments taking place in this period, i.e. the successive cycles of crisis, recovery and growth. The next paper (Weiberg) offers a new and provocative interpretation of the causes and consequences of the severe crisis at the end of the EBA. Three papers (Pullen, Wiersma, Voutsaki & Milka) examine different aspects of the evidence (pottery, architecture, funerary data) and different social practices (feasting, organization of space, mortuary practices) in order to reconstruct and interpret social, economic and cultural changes during the period under discussion. The variety of factors considered – demographic changes, reciprocal relations and sumptuary behaviour, household organization and kin structure, age and gender divisions, internal tensions, connectivity and mobility – attest to the liveliness of the debate. The emphasis is not only on the wider processes, but also on the variety of responses by different communities and social groups and even different individuals. One paper (Gorogianni & Fitzsimons) adopt a comparative approach. They examines architectural changes in one highly interconnected harbor town in the Cyclades. The last paper (Bintliff) adopts a broader geographical view and examines changing settlement systems in the Aegean and on the Greek mainland. The volume is concluded by a response by J.F. Cherry Importance to Field This volume is of interest to scholars specializing in the Aegean Bronze Age, as well as scholars researching social and material change. The Middle Bronze Age (MBA) societies in the Greek mainland have long been considered as simple, static and homogeneous, and it has long been thought that social and economic differences emerge towards the later MBA. However, recent research, presented at the Mesohelladika conference, suggests that the MBA witnesses important changes and divergent developments which are still imperfectly understood. However, our interpretation of these changes is based mostly on mortuary data. Therefore, in this volume, other spheres of life receive a systematic treatment, including houses and settlement organization, changes in material culture and shifting patterns of interaction in correlation with social change. Any discussion of the MBA has to start with a serious reconsideration of social conditions during the unstable EB III period. This period of crisis, depopulation, material poverty and increased regionalism is usually set against the preceding EBA II period, which was characterized by population growth, differentiation, prosperity and increased interaction. As a result, the EBA III period has received little scholarly attention. In this volume, various papers discuss the EBA III material culture and communities in more detail, and compare these developments to what happens during the MBA. While research in the last 30 years has rightly criticized monocausal diffusionist interpretations, we have not been able to come up with alternative explanations combining environmental factors, internal developments and shifting networks of mobility and interaction. Considerations of social change raise questions of periodization; indeed, one of the aims of the volume is to discuss whether the traditional chronological sub-divisions based on the ceramic sequence can adequately describe periods of change and increased regionalism.