Great Migrations

Mobility, Displacement and Material Culture in the Ancient World

Peter van Dommelen

ARCH 0725 S01 (CRN 16330)
MWF 10.00-10.50, Rhode Island Hall, Room 008

Migrations are the stuff that (pre)history has been made of, because people have moved over shorter and longer distances since early prehistory, and they continue to do so today. While past migrations are often associated with marauding hordes, in reality a very broad range of different types of migrations occurred and in this course we explore a wide variety of mobility and migration.

The Mediterranean is no exception and for classical and later times, written sources bear direct witness to migrations from for instance mainland Greece to the South Italian and Sicilian shores. We are therefore in no doubt whether migrations took place. They clearly did. This course begins by tracking some of the largest and most momentous displacements and movements around the Mediterranean, from earliest prehistory to the Middle Ages, exploring ‘famous’ migrations like the Phoenician diaspora, Greek colonization, Roman veteran settlement, the ‘Sea Peoples’ and Visigoth invasions; subsequently, attention will shift to more low-key forms of migration and mobility such labor and pastoral mobility, the Assyrian trade diaspora and the ‘port Jews’.

As it is surely no exaggeration to claim that migrations were the stuff that (pre)history was made of, there is ample reason to examine migration in more detail across time and across space and to explore how we may approach migration in the archaeological record. In some cases, classical texts and ancient inscriptions may simply tell us that people have moved and in other scientific skeletal analysis can demonstrate the people had grown up in other places than where they were buried. Overall, we will explore the consequences of migration for both migrant and host societies.

This course is about exploring the diversity and complexity of connectivity, mobility and migration in the past, both recent and distant, and about investigating the many dimensions of these broad processes. We will survey a wide range of migrations and social and economic situations in order to highlight the social and economic dimensions of migration and mobility of, within and between communities.

Practical Information

Instructor: Peter van Dommelen (peter_van_dommelen@brown.edu)
Office hours: Wed, 11-12 am and Fri, 11-12 am - Rhode Island Hall, room 009 (basement)
Course Blog: http://blogs.brown.edu/arch-0725-s01/
Text Books:

Howard, C. 2012: Transnationalism in Ancient and Medieval Societies: The Role of Cross-Border Trade and Travel. MacFarland & Co: Jefferson, NC and London. required
Bellwood, P. 2013: First Migrants: Ancient Migration in Global Perspective. Chichester and Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell. recommended

ARCH0725 Fall14 S01 Great Migrations: Mobility, Displacement and Material Culture in the Ancient Mediterranean