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What are the principle challenges and opportunities that Mediterranean

prehistory faces today?

Introduction

This paper focusses on the modern practice of archaeology, setting aside

definitional debates of “Mediterranean” and “prehistory”. Many challenges

and opportunities for archaeology are of course global, but this paper looks at

two themes which present particular challenges and opportunities for

Mediterranean prehistory.

The first recognises inherited, politicised and appropriating narratives,

institutions and practices, an inescapable context which must be managed,

but which creates paradoxical opportunities. The second theme is the vast

amount of Mediterranean data, much of it old or under-published. The

challenge of preserving data - that previously examined, that awaiting

recording and that within the heritage industry – and of accessing new

opportunities, is often in political and economic contexts over which

archaeologists have little control.

Appropriating Narratives, a witches’ brew

Fig.1. A Mediterranean pre-historian goes to work, or maybe it just feels like

that… Source: Still from The Hurt Locker, bestpictureproject.wordpress.com.

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The Mediterranean’s history has created a treacherous web of narratives

(Fig.1). Not least among those are “objective”, male, Northern European,

academic archaeologists’ perspectives – a fair description of author, whatever

his best intentions.

It is simplistic to only blame “colonial” creations of bias, whether narratives,

definitions (some literal by creating nation states by lines on maps), or foreign

archaeological schools. Mediterranean archaeologists must face something

far more complex, layered and demanding. As Hamilakis argues (2008), post-

colonial discussions could include Greece, a “crypto-colony” (Herzfeld 2002).

The Levantine Mandates experience was varied, by country and by

community (e.g. Druze, Alawite, Copt, Jew etc.). North Africa’s freedoms

were hard-won and then hard to identify under authoritarian rule. Spanish

colonies still sit in “Morocco” and a British colony snubs Spain.

Traditions, mind-sets and the privileging of text matrix through this political

complexity. Orientalism (Said 1979; Scheffler 2003) is as pervasive and long-

lasting as colonial structures (Meskell 2000; Wengrow 2010; Fig.2). Indeed it

has perhaps its greatest impact in the US, which had no Mediterranean

colonies (Fig.3; Segal 2000). The Levantine Mediterranean in particular has an

ambivalent position, stereotyped as a source of Western inheritance, cultural

and Biblical.

A similar web has been spun by Hellenism, another Western narrative,

creating ‘barbarian’ anachronisms for prehistory by using Greco-Roman

sources (Renfrew 1980; van Dommelen 2012,396) which themselves looked

back at a crudely essentialised primitive past (Purcell 1991,31). “Combined

with the classical paradigm, that of ex oriente lux has often diverted

archaeologists’ attention away from contextual analysis of local cultures and

polities beyond the Aegean, as well as their diachronic development” (Bietti

Sestieri et al. 2002,412). Rejection of these traditions has itself created a

mini-industry of narratives, often seeking earlier temporal justifications (e.g.

Bernal 1987; van Binsbergen 1997; Bahrani 1998).

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Fig.2. Bonaparte before the Sphinx (ca.1858), Jean-Léon Gérôme. Source:

Wikipedia:French campaigns in Egypt.

Fig.3 Tympanum of the Chicago Oriental Institute, the baton of civilisation

being passed… Source: oihistory.blogspot.co.uk

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Interacting with long-standing mind-sets and colonial creations are competing

nationalist uses for prehistory, or protohistory (itself stereotyping “primitive”

prehistory). These processes twist research priorities and interpretations,

seeking validation and creating identity from archaeological narratives. This is

a global challenge (Kohl et al. 2007), but perhaps most overt in the Eastern

Mediterranean: from the focus on Iron Age “Biblical” projects in Israel

(Greenberg pers.comm.; www.alt-arch.org; Yahya 2005); to modern day

pharaohs appropriating ancient senses of superiority in Egypt (Fig.4; O’Connor

2003); to Turkish control over permits for foreign fieldwork, campaigns for

artefact repatriation and centralising bureaucracy (Bonini Baraldi et al. 2012).

Governments are making sure that the past is not seen as another country

(Lowenthal 1985).

Identity metanarratives also operate sub-nationally. This has created an

explosion in regional and local museums (Fig.5; Skeates 2005). Separatist or

autonomist political parties also manipulate prehistory (e.g. Sardinia and

Crete: Broodbank 2013,50). Origin narratives even develop locally around

archaeological sites (Robb and Pauketat 2013,30).

To so capture the ability to create prehistoric narratives undermines the

colonial hegemony of the foreign archaeological schools but it is not an

encouragement for best practice or - based as nationalist policies often are on

tourist receipts - a balanced research agenda. The debate over narrative is

not academic in the Mediterranean (S.Sherratt 2005; Herzfeld 1995). Often all

of these biases come together in daily life.

Equally challenging for prehistorians are those modern Mediterranean

populations who do not engage with prehistory, often preferring to date their

identities from Christian or Islamic introductions (e.g. Malta: Sant Cassia

1999). The access to prehistory is incredibly uneven across the region (Fig.5).

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Fig.4. Hosni Mubarak, latterday pharaoh. Mural in Cairo. Source: AP

Photo/Emilio Morenatti (accessed 30/10/2013).

Fig.5. Number of museums in Mediterranean countries in 2001. Source:

Skeates 2005,309.

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Fig.6. The ‘Venus of Malta’, interpreted as a ‘fertility Goddess’. Clay figurine

from Hagar Qim temple, 3500–3000 B.C. Source: Rountree 2001,19.

Last but not least of the appropriators (certainly by number of adherents) are

the narratives of ‘goddess worshippers’ and similar (Rountree 2001; Talalay

2000). Engagement is possible (Hodder 2000), yet these narratives are as

potentially essentialising of Mediterranean prehistory as Orientalist

stereotypes, as well as being empirically questionable.

That we recognise all of these dynamics is the first step to doing valid work in

Mediterranean prehistory and thus realising the many opportunities that we

have. These challenges are generated by the fact that Mediterranean

prehistory matters and has done for at least two hundred years (Fig.2). The

Mediterranean is central to history far beyond its boundaries and relative to

its size (Broodbank 2013,26).

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The explicit debates and the application of post-colonial theory should allow

us to take apart stereotypes and identities (and not just those created by

overt colonialism), creating relational views of the past (Gosden 2007,170).

The “Mediterranean” itself can help as a concept, a diverse unity (Horden and

Purcell 2000). By highlighting connection and commonality, a Mediterranean

prehistory can challenge essentialist modes of thought and exclusive

nationalist practices.

The challenges are not insuperable. Spanish prehistoric archaeology is a fine

example of vibrant recent practice (e.g. Chapman 1990;2008; Aranda et al.

2009; Zilhao et al. 2010). Spain may be marginal in Orientalist discourse, yet it

shares the typical narrative palimpsest of the Mediterranean. Spain is the site

of many Islamic treasures, has its own much longer post-colonial history and a

recent focus on multiple narratives to move away from authoritarianism

(Gonzalez-Ruibal 2007). There is no part of the Mediterranean which can be

disconnected from this web of past connections and narratives but the

challenge can be risen to. Paradoxically, this requirement of reflexivity can

generate opportunities for more ethically and theoretically informed practice.

Data: Collection, Destruction, Preservation

The range of methodologies available to Mediterranean prehistory is vast, on

land and in the sea. No doubt non-exhaustively, they include, with examples:

standing remains (Kolb 2005); climatic data including palynology (Rosen 2007;

Roberts et al. 2001); excavations, including ‘big digs’ (Tringham 2003);

imagery (Shea 2003); geophysics (Sarris and Jones 2000); oceanographic

survey (Ballard 2008); maritime excavation and shipwrecks (Pulak 1998);

survey (Cherry 2003); seafaring analysis (Farr 2006); aerial photography

(Kennedy and Bewley 2009); geology and commercial mineral analyses

(Woodward 2009); GIS and satellite imagery (Bevan 2002); virtual reality

(Jablonka et al. 2002); some text in the precocious east; and ethnography

(Horden and Purcell 2000:463-84).

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This vast data resource is fragmented and uneven. Locally this often reflects

the traditional preoccupation with palace and tomb (Bevan 2002,217) or

survey methodologies not being standardised (Cherry 2003,146; Elefanti et al.

2011). Many excavations are early, and poorly published. North Africa west of

the Nile Delta remains underexplored (Shaw 2003; Broodbank 2013,36-

40,265-268). Conservation, fieldwork and publication are restricted with

much of the basin under austerity budgets (e.g. Kennedy 2012).

Some unstable countries may remain so or are having sites destroyed: the

Lebanon (Naccache 1998); Syria (Cunliffe 2012) and Libya (Bennett and Barker

2011). Importantly, “the identity-bound nature of contemporary wars is

linked to an increased incidence of cultural property destruction” (van der

Auwera 2012,49). Data destruction is not only the product of conflict. Long-

standing local and colonial looting (Galanakis 2012;2013; Gill and Chippindale

1993) serving the art market (Fig.7), and more (or less) legitimate museum

collecting (Skeates 2005) have unhealthy roles.

A CYCLADIC MARBLE RECLINING FEMALE FIGURE NAME-PIECE OF THE SCHUSTER MASTER, EARLY CYCLADIC II, CIRCA 2400 B.C.

Price Realized $16,882,500 (Set Currency)

Estimate $3,000,000 - $5,000,000

Sale Information

SALE 2364 — ANTIQUITIES INCLUDING PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF

MAX PALEVSKY

9 DECEMBER 2010, NEW YORK, ROCKEFELLER PLAZA

Fig.7. The power of the market, even if unprovenanced works

would achieve a fraction of this price, the appeal is obvious in

an extended recession. Source:

http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/ancient-art-antiquities/a-

cycladic-marble-reclining-female-figure-name-piece-5385394-

details.aspx accessed 26/11/13.

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This hampers our ability to create meaningful ontologies across projects and

crafts. If Mediterranean prehistory is to be understood as the overlaying and

interweaving of networks (Broodbank 2013; Knappett 2011), then having so

many under- or unpublished nodes is to our detriment (Fig.8).

Fig.8. The spread of the Neolithic ‘package’ across the Mediterranean. The

process cannot yet be replicated for want of data on the southern coast. Of

equal concern are the broad bands of apparent stasis, perhaps also data

driven. Source: Broodbank 2013,185.

Property and infrastructure development and environmental degradation are

even more destructive (e.g Meinesz et al 1991). Blondel’s co-evolution of

Mediterranean ecology and society requires a balance that we may have lost

(2006). There seems to be no consistent record for much grey literature this

generates (for its potential see Bradley 2007 in UK), yet exciting discoveries

and opportunities flow from commercial work. Valencina de la Concepcion

and Makryalos are two examples of rescue projects which developed into

major redefinitions of regional prehistory (Figs.9,10).

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Fig.9. Plan of the excavations at Makriyalos, Greece, either side of a major

road, which have altered our understanding of the Greek Neolithic. Source:

Pappa et al 2013,78.

Fig.10.

Valencina de

la Concepcion

outlined

under its

modern

urban

context.

Source: Costa

Caramé et al

2010,88.

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The long tradition of archaeological fieldwork means that the Mediterranean

suffers acutely the global issue of technology-led terminology: Neolithic,

Bronze Age, etc. (Sherratt 2007) and from notions of type-sites, which may

turn out to be atypical or which particularise otherwise valid groupings (e.g.

Tuleilat Ghassul: Rowan and Golden 2009,10). Further, the precocity of larger

scale societies in the region means that dynastic terminologies also confuse

(Broodbank 2013,14).

Access to Mediterranean sites involves multiple challenges. Restriction on

permits is an extension of the nationalist agendas (above). As fundamental is

the value of land near the Mediterranean. Where I dug recently near Paphos,

the site, somewhat smaller than a football pitch, would cost USD250,000

(Crewe pers.comm.). The project is only made possible by long-term access

offered by an absentee landowner.

Conclusion

Of course many archaeologists around the world would kill for such problems!

Challenges are well balanced by opportunities. The richness and time-depth

of Mediterranean material culture may globally be without parallel; its

preservation generally remarkable. The long historiography offers

opportunities to ‘visit’ sites now destroyed by development or to revisit sites

without the expense of fully reopening them.

Conflict and economic fragility, some of it perhaps structural and long-term,

mean that what remains to be explored is under terrible threat. Much of that

conflict, and the political upheavals that remain mostly peaceful, is intricately

woven with national, regional, religious and ethnic identities, many with

narratives from prehistory as foundational elements. By working within that

environment we will become more ethically focussed. By working within

policy and funding parameters we will focus our research questions. There

may be clouds in our azure Mediterranean sky but silver linings abound.

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