Power and Place in Etruria: Volume 1
The Spatial Dynamics of a Mediterranean Civilization, 1200–500 BC

This book reconstructs political history from the spatial organization of ancient society, challenging the approach favored by classicists.

Simon Stoddart (Author)

9780521380751, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 8 October 2020

350 pages
18.5 x 26.5 x 2 cm, 0.77 kg

This volume fills a gap in the study of an important, yet neglected case of state formation, by taking a landscape perspective to Etruria. Simon Stoddart examines the infrastructure, hierarchy/heterarchy and spatial patterns of the Etruscans over time to investigate their political development from a new perspective. The analysis both crosses the divide from prehistory to history and applies a scaled analysis to the whole region between the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Arno and Tiber rivers, with special focus on the neglected region between Populonia on the coast and Perugia and the north Umbrian region adjoining the Apennines. Stoddart uncovers the powerful places that were in dynamic tension not only between themselves, but also with the internal structure constituted by the descent groups that peopled them. He unravels the dynamically changing landscape of changing boundaries and buffer zones which contained robust urbanism, as well as less centralized, polyfocal nucleations.

1. Introduction: The Challenge of Etruria
2. Analysis of the spatial dynamics of state organised societies
3. The Material constraints
4. Contrasting hierarchies of settlement
5. The spatial dynamics of settlement
6. Five regions of contrast
7. Networking and connectivity
8. Conclusions.

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP], Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Classical Greek & Roman archaeology [HDDK], Archaeology [HD], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], Humanities [H]