Never Built in a Day: Contextualizing Urbanism in Iron Age Western Sicily

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Iron Age was a transformative period in western Sicily, introducing the indigenous Elymian populations to Aegean and Levantine colonists who brought their own languages, crops, technology, materials, social customs, and ritual systems. Concomitant to the arrival of these foreigners was a transformation of indigenous lifeways. We examine this transformation by comparing settlement layout, housing styles, fortification systems, population densities, and the production of pottery, textiles, and agricultural products between the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age, couched within a theory of urbanization. This transformation is interpreted as the result of local responses to broader social, political, and economic developments coupled with contact and sustained interaction with the newly arrived foreign colonists. Consequently, the Iron Age Elymi represent one case study where local responses partially aligned Elymian populations with their new neighbors, yet maintained elements of their indigenous heritage.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24827