Local Experiences of Connectivity and Mobility in the Ancient West-Central Mediterranean - (Volume 18) - Linda R. Gosner

Local Experiences of Connectivity and Mobility in the Ancient West-Central Mediterranean - (Volume 18) - Linda R. Gosner

8. A Shotgun Wedding? Culture Mixing as Phoenician Mercantile Strategy in the Bay of Cadiz (ca. 800-600 BC)

Local Experiences of Connectivity and Mobility in the Ancient West-Central Mediterranean - (Volume 18) - Linda R. Gosner

Antonio Saez Romero [+-]
University of Seville
Antonio Saez Romero is Assistant Professor of Archaeology at the University of Seville (Spain), and his research focuses on Phoenician-Punic economies, and in particular maritime trade, pottery studies, and experimental archaeology. His doctoral dissertation (University of Cadiz, 2014) addressed the post-Archaic to early Roman maritime-oriented economy of Gadir through the study of amphorae and a significant set of pottery workshops and fish-processing sites. He has been involved in fieldwork and projects in Portugal, Morocco, Gibraltar, Italy, and Greece, and is currently conducting research related to Punic trade and amphoras in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean.
Philip Johnston [+-]
Independent Scholar
Philip Johnston is an independent scholar and entrepreneur currently living in Southeast Alabama. His academic research sits at the intersection of historical archaeology, archaeometry and postcolonial theory. His doctoral dissertation (Harvard University, 2015) used chemical and petrographic analysis of ceramics to outline a ‘colonial economic history’ of the Iron Age in the Bay of Cadiz. His fieldwork and writing focus on the Bronze and Iron Ages in the Levant, Spain, and Sardinia with an emphasis on the Phoenician diaspora.

Description

Our paper examines the evidence for rapid hybridization that marks the earliest phases of Phoenician presence in the Bay of Cadiz in c. 800-600 BC. As early as 700 BC, we argue, a local culture had already appeared that was no longer Phoenician or Iberian, but already gadirita. To support this, a wide array of evidence is examined, including ceramic production, domestic and funerary architecture and consumption patterns, as well as genetic data. Drawing on postcolonial thought and direct historical analogies from other Semitic cultures, we suggest that the social developments in the Bay of Cádiz were not just side effects of culture contact, but part of an intentional strategy of cultural mixing that was deployed by Phoenicians as a means of improving their economic prospects in the Iron Age Bay of Cadiz.

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Citation

Romero, Antonio Saez ; Johnston, Philip. 8. A Shotgun Wedding? Culture Mixing as Phoenician Mercantile Strategy in the Bay of Cadiz (ca. 800-600 BC). Local Experiences of Connectivity and Mobility in the Ancient West-Central Mediterranean - (Volume 18). Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 185-211 Mar 2024. ISBN 9781800504387. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=44210. Date accessed: 21 Nov 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.44210. Mar 2024

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