The study of mobility in archaeological perspective is at an interesting juncture. Old models of population movement attributing cultural change to large-scale migrations of ethnic groups have been widely critiqued for decades. Meanwhile, current scientific approaches are renewing the fashion of assigning archaeological populations to genetic/ethnic groups and seeking out their geographical origins. Connectivity is now most often seen as a timeless and transcendent aspect of Mediterranean society even though the textures of difference in connectivity over time and space are quite evident in the archaeological record. Saro Wallace's book, beginning with a keen observation of such cruxes, sets out to take stock of where the field of archaeology stands in assessing the nature and impact of movement. Wallace places the Aegean at the center of her book, and case studies consider movement in five discrete episodes: Final Neolithic / Early Bronze Age (3500–2300 BC); the eighteenth to sixteenth centuries BC; the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1600–1200 BC); the postpalatial period (ca. twelfth century BC); and the Early Iron Age (ca. 1200–1000 BC).
The premise of the book is well constructed. Wallace confronts an acute problem in archaeological interpretation. Humans and things can move around for a variety of reasons, at many scales, and via an array of mechanisms. All are difficult to divine from the archaeological record, although we can perceive that things did indeed move. Undoubtedly correct is Wallace's view that a single overarching theory could never explain or properly model all the attendant social, cultural, and economic processes, and the material presented supports this conclusion. Although many periods of Aegean antiquity are characterized by significant movements of ideas, things, and people, Wallace successfully demonstrates how distinctly these movements articulated with society across the periods under study. It is difficult to disagree with the conclusion offered in the end—that each case of evidence for movement needs to be appreciated as complex and interpreted contextually on its own, with a strong sense of the role of human agency involved. However, although the author raises sharp critiques of other scholars’ laboriously constructed (and constructive) interpretive frameworks, little is offered in the way of a productive, actionable alternative beyond appreciating that things are complicated.
The book is undermined in places by interpretations of Aegean Late Bronze Age states without an adequate evidentiary basis. For example, it is asserted that Aegean Late Bronze Age states “depended on control of the maritime sector” (p. 324), something for which there is no concrete evidence in the archaeological or textual records. Elsewhere, the appearance of Linear B texts at Knossos in the Late Minoan II period is raised as evidence for Crete's adherence to an “adapted mainland-oriented/mainland-innovated” prestige culture (p. 261). But given that the Knossian archive is dated considerably earlier than any from the mainland, the script could be plausibly interpreted as a Cretan invention later imitated on the mainland rather than the reverse.
A lack of terminological clarity makes it difficult to follow the discussion throughout. Movements are regularly described in terms of scale and intensity, but the author's understanding of the distinctions between large-scale, small-scale, intense, scattered, and other movements is never explicitly defined. This will likely frustrate readers aiming to assess the core argument that links different kinds and scales of movement to different impacts on society. Likewise, objects, people, and ideas are variably described as “Crete-based,” “Crete-linked,” “Cretan-type,” “Cretan-resident,” and “Cretanising,” among others, leaving the reader to guess at what any of these terms aims to convey, and what the essential differences among these many categorizations are.
These two shortfalls make the substantive chapters of the book difficult to parse by Aegean specialists and non-Aegeanists alike. More careful editing of the text might have mitigated these issues. More disappointing for a volume so rich in illustrations is the quality and deployment of those illustrations, often in ways that do not usefully clarify or advance the argument. For example, an image of the Palaikastro kouros (Figure 5.5) is called out with a discussion of the destruction of the site where it was discovered, but the text refers only to the smashing of (architectural) complexes, not objects, leaving the reader perplexed about the relevance of the figure (with an enigmatic caption of “acc ritual figurine”). Others fail to illustrate the intended subject (e.g., Figure 6.18, a landscape view meant to show a fortification). Maps are generally inadequate: Figure 6.13 omits half of the 92 numbered sites in the southern Levant, and an insertion at site 11 for the numbered sites of Greece has resulted in sites 12–50 having been associated with the wrong places (Mycenae for Sparta, Corinth in the Bay of Volos, etc.).
Despite such issues, readers familiar with the Bronze Age Mediterranean will find much of interest to them in this book. There is indeed a great deal of relevant and fascinating material presented in the text, and the author should be applauded for synthesizing such a large volume and wide range of evidence in a relatively concise package. Travellers in Time is rooted in an excellent and timely idea: to reevaluate discussions around movement in archaeology based on a series of data-rich case studies. In doing so, it makes a strong case that reflexive attentiveness to context is always necessary for archaeologists evaluating the important issue of mobility in the past.
