Making cities is a compelling piece of the complex puzzle of ancient urbanism. The volume is a timely overview of early towns and their economical complexity across the Eastern, Central and Western Mediterranean during the first half of the first millennium BC. The title, recalling Tim Ingold's (Reference Ingold2013) work, refers to a functional definition of urbanism: “what a city does” (p. 2), instead of ‘what a city is’, and moreover what is required to plan, build and maintain a city, ‘what a city creates’ and which material agency is involved.
The book is neatly organised geographically, starting with seven chapters on mainland Greece and the Aegean (Part I), followed by 11 focusing on the Italian peninsula and Sicily (Part II). The third part deals with the Western Mediterranean, including Sardinia, southern France and Iberia. A brief glimpse of Central Europe is offered in the chapter by Fernández-Götz and Grömer. In their Introduction, the editors situate the reader in terms of the theoretical background and agenda of this volume, which is more than simply a compendium of ongoing excavation and landscape projects on Mediterranean early urbanism. The contributors were asked to challenge the role of production and consumption during the process of settlement nucleation and societal articulation, the results of which are nicely reflected on in Smith's conclusion.
Rather than trying to summarise each chapter, I will instead emphasise some general interpretive trends that structure the volume. The first, obviously, is urbanisation itself, or “the urban as a question” (p. 409). How a town is defined in archaeological terms, how it was formed and what are its main features are some of the key research questions explored throughout the book. The theoretical background refers mainly to previous works by Michael E. Smith and others, allowing most of the authors to reject a simplistic check-list approach and instead to critically evaluate dimensions, density of occupation, population estimates, nucleation processes, formalisation of social roles and the construction of self-aware communal identities.
A specific issue addressed by some authors is the agency of Bronze Age ‘indigenous’ predecessors during the urbanisation process, especially in contexts of Greek or Phoenician colonisation. In other words, how can post-colonial archaeology interpret the local response to external stimuli, without excluding continuity and independent internal trajectories? This entails discussion on gradualism versus discontinuity (for example: Kotsonas; Fernández-Götz & Grömer, and Gailledrat), with the careful use, or even rejection, of terms such as ‘tribal’, ‘proto-urban’ or ‘pre-state’ that could imply old-fashioned evolutionary and primitivist approaches.
In some cases, site formation is explained through the classical model of synoecism (Corinth), relying on the analysis of burial displacement (Veneto, Vulci, Tarquinia and Sardinia). A few chapters explore alternative models, such as ‘low-density’ urbanism, polyfocal organisation (Perugia) and the clustering of sparse, non-urban communities (Poggio Civitate).
The physical and symbolic presence of boundaries, enclosures and fortifications is rightly stressed for Corinth, Este and Padua, Muro Leccese, Western Sicily and Sant Jaume, as they are monumental and strategic landmarks. Within the urban space, the articulation of self-conscious political decisions is explored through the analysis of public buildings in Azoria, Rome (the Comitium and other structured spaces), or in the ‘Block 5’ building at La Bastida de les Alcusses.
Temples and other cultic buildings are also recognised as key features of the materialisation of an early polis identity, as they served as multifunctional loci for the urban community. This is shown by excavated case-studies in mainland Greece, Veneto, Etruria and Sicily, which provide evidence for hoarding, feasting and calendar activities.
The core of this volume, however, is the study of different modes of production and consumption inside and outside the urban sites. Towns are perceived both as consumers and producers, and the interdependence—or entanglement—between the rural and the urban world is stressed by many authors. Regarding modes of production, the variety of solutions is shown by cases where workshops are mainly domestic (Padua) or placed outside the urban settlement (Prinias). The brilliant essays on Padua and on Poggio Civitate provide detailed micro-analysis of artisanal activities and their chaîne opératoire, exploring the social aspects of the producers. Moreover, Nijboer's thought-provoking chapter addresses the (rather underestimated) role of itinerant, seasonal and cyclical craftsmen (the so-called ‘swallow potters’), seen as the true “agents of stylistic and technological transformation” (p. 315), recognised also by Perkins (Chapter 17), while Riva (Chapter 16) critically reassesses the notions of ‘gift economy’ and commodity exchanges.
In terms of production and exchange, amphorae are highlighted in many chapters for their economic and social value, their role in cross-cultural trade and their agency during the urbanisation process (Riva; Roppa & Madrigali, and others). Another recurrent item is the pithos; the remarkable study by Perkins, based on formal and analytical data collection, explores the multiple uses and re-uses of this storage and production vessel (as, for example, rainwater storage, well heads, kiln mouths, ovens and furnaces), suggesting its different contextual roles and powerful material agency both in urban and rural social environments.
The final theme concerns the human agents behind the urbanised economy. Here, the reader might notice some gaps in the theoretical approaches throughout the volume. In the framework of this book the crucial questions are: Who promoted and led the urbanisation process, and who owned and controlled the modes of production?
While some chapters consider alternative social models, such as egalitarianism (Zagora) and decentralised authority (Crete), with evidence of non-elite dwellings sometimes suggested (Poggio Civitate), most chapters follow an elitism paradigm, focusing (almost exclusively) on ‘aristocracies’, ‘local nobility’ and ‘privileged class’. Several authors affirm that the upper classes controlled the circulation of people, infrastructures (Gambacurta; Carosi & Regoli; Meo; Gailledrat), taxation (Smith; Riva), and, to a lesser extent, knowledge (Nijboer). The Etruscan aristocracy led the ‘agricultural revolution’ (Perkins), while in Iberia, the elites—also viewed as a ‘house society’ (Ruiz-Gálvez)—firmly controlled transformation activities and the means of production. In other words, ‘prestige goods theory’ and ‘attached craft production’ theories seem to find supportive material evidence in Etruria, Veneto and Iberia.
Although in some regions the hierarchical model seems undisputable, I do believe that exploring alternative and less pyramidal social paradigms (Currás & Sastre Reference Currás and Sastre2020; Thurston & Fernández-Götz Reference Thurston and Fernández-Götz2021) could provide a more nuanced and inclusive view of ancient societies. I wonder, for example, if certain cases of destruction by fire (Poggio Civitate, Muro Leccese), along with systematic obliteration of aristocratic symbols of power, could be interpreted as the outcome of uprisings and violent acts of resistance or rebellion.
Reaching far beyond traditional accounts and classicist idealised paradigms, this well-produced volume brings together much useful fieldwork data and some thought-provoking insights for a better understating of early urbanism around the Mediterranean Sea. Together with recent literature on ‘early cities’ in Europe and beyond (e.g. Zamboni et al. Reference Zamboni, Fernández-Götz and Metzner-Nebelsick2020; Gyucha & Salisbury Reference Gyucha and Salisbury2022), this volume should be a milestone publication on early urbanism.
