Dietler, Michael (2005).  Consumption and Colonial Encounters in the Rhône Basin of France:  A Study of Early Iron Age Political Economy. Monographies d’Archéologie Meditérranéenne, 21. Lattes, France: CNRS.

 

This book, a published version of the author's doctoral dissertation, provides a detailed analysis of the earliest phase of colonial encounters between indigenous Celtic-speaking peoples of the Rhône basin of Mediterranean France and alien merchants and colonists from Etruria and Greek city states. It examines the archaeological evidence for patterns of cross-cultural consumption during the Early Iron Age and the entangling effects that this process initiated. It also examines relations between Mediterranean France and the much more politically centralized societies of the Hallstatt region at the northern end of the Rhône valley, offereing a critical assessment of the evidence for the popular hypothesis of Greek trade to this region. This was the first study to offer a detailed analysis of the connections among indigenous societies in Provence, Languedoc, and the Hallstatt area and the first book in English on the Iron Age archaeology of this region to appear in over three decades. In addition to the study of consumption and its effects, the book also offers a gazetteer of archaeological sites (both settlements and funerary sites) of the region that provides English syntheses of data culled from a vast array of obscure regional journals dating back to the 19th century.

 

Contents:

 

PREFACE

 

INTRODUCTION

        Issues and Goals

        The Structure of the Volume

        Definition of the Region of Study

 

1.  A REVIEW AND CRITIQUE OF PRIOR STUDIES

        Background

        The Route of Trade

        The Agents of Trade

        The Content and Volume of Trade

        The Effects of Trade

        Summary

 

2.  CHRONOLOGY

        Introduction

        Regional Chronologies: Problems

        Regional Chronological Framework

        Inter-Regional Correlations

 

3.  MEDITERRANEAN IMPORTS

        Introduction

        Transport Amphoras

           Etruscan Amphoras

           Punic Amphoras

           Ionian Amphoras

           Miscellaneous Greek Amphoras

        Fine-Wares

           Bucchero Nero

           Ionian Fine-Ware

           Attic Black-Figure and Black-Gloss

           Corinthian and Miscellaneous Greek Fine-Ware

        Metalwork

           Metal Vessels

           Weapons

           Clothing Ornaments

        Summary

        

4.  COLONIAL-AND-HYBRID CERAMICS

        Introduction

        Massaliot and Ionio-Massaliot Amphoras

           Fabrics and Production Locus

           Forms and Chronology

           Patterns of Distribution

        Pseudo-Ionian Ceramics

           Forms

           Decoration

           Techniques

           Modal Patterns

           Patterns of Distribution

        Grey-Monochrome Ware

           Forms

           Production Groups

           Decoration and Technique

           Patterns of Distribution

 

5.  FUNERARY PATTERNS

        Introduction

        Phase 1

        Phase 2

        Social Analysis

 

6.  SETTLEMENTS

        The Nature of the Data

        Site Selection

        Ramparts

        Architecture and Settlement Stability

        Settlement Organization

        Regional Settlement Patterns

 

7.  THE SUBSISTENCE ECONOMY AND CRAFT PRODUCTION

        Subsistence Production

        Craft Production and Resource Exploitation

           Metal

           Ceramics

 

8.  COLONIAL INTERACTION AND POLITICAL ECONOMY

        Indigenous Consumption and Mediterranean Culture

        Drinking, Political Economy,and Social Change

           Ethnographic Studies

           Social Aspect

           Economic Aspect

           Political Aspect

           Change and Acculturation

        Mediterranean Wine and Early Iron Age Political Economy

        Patterns of Trade and Exchange

        Colonial Interaction and Relations of Dependency

 

9. EPILOGUE

 

Annexe 1: Site Lists

 

Annexe 2: Site Summaries

 

References Cited

 

Abstracts