In particular, the case studies do add significant nuance to the center-periphery model, which has been somewhat overworked. In emphasizing the significance of Chapter 1, I do not mean to detract from the rest of the text, which is devoted to case studies of various aspects of ancient colonization, and which contains much of value. I would have preferred that Malkin engaged more directly with such alternative models, not necessarily because I was unconvinced by his conceptual model, but because elucidating the relative strengths and weaknesses of the alternatives would have very explicitly underlined the benefits of the model he espouses here. Hybridity, for example, a concept which other archaeologists and ancient historians have used with some profit, is set aside because it “has too many biological connotations and, again, is obscure and as such means little” (47). I think, however, that Malkin is too quick to dismiss other theoretical models and frameworks in this chapter. This chapter should be consulted by anyone interested in the use of network analysis in studies of the ancient world. This chapter is, in my opinion, the most valuable part of the book. Identifying networks and their overlaps involves much of the more familiar historical research and reconstruction, well known to historians of antiquity” (16). Its second, and more suggestive one is an interpretation of its implications. The concept of the network, for Malkin, “is not just a metaphor but a descriptive and heuristic term…the first goal of this book is to identify the phenomenon of network formation. The first chapter is devoted to an overview of network theory with particular attention to those themes and ideas that are being utilized within the discipline of Classics. Malkin’s work meets and exceeds these lofty goals, making it a worthy volume to inaugurate what promises to be an important series. It is the first volume in a new series from Oxford, Greeks Overseas, which, according to the editors, “is dedicated to reconceptualizing the emergence of Greek communities all around the Mediterranean during the late Iron Age and the Archaic period…encompass archaeological and literary perspectives, applying new methods and theoretical approaches and bringing together old and new evidence…”(ix). Irad Malkin’s latest book, A Small Greek World, views the phenomenon of Greek colonization from the perspective of network theory, one of the new theoretical models finding traction amongst scholars of the ancient world.
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