A Companion to Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean

A Companion to Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean presents a comprehensive collection of essays contributed by Classical Studies scholars that explore questions relating to ethnicity in the ancient Mediterranean world.

• Covers topics of ethnicity in civilizations ranging from ancient Egypt and Israel, to Greece and Rome, and into Late Antiquity
• Features cutting-edge research on ethnicity relating to Philistine, Etruscan, and Phoenician identities
• Reveals the explicit relationships between ancient and modern ethnicities
• Introduces an interpretation of ethnicity as an active component of social identity
• Represents a fundamental questioning of formally accepted and fixed categories in the field

Notes on Contributors ix

Acknowledgments xv

1 Ethnicity: An Introduction 1
Jeremy McInerney

2 Ethnicity and Language in the Ancient Mediterranean 17
Harald Haarmann

3 Mediterranean Archaeology and Ethnicity 34
A. Bernard Knapp

4 Ethnicity and World-Systems Analysis 50
Thomas D. Hall

5 Ancient Ethnicity and Modern Identity 66
Johannes Siapkas

6 Bronze Age Identities: From Social to Cultural and Ethnic Identity 82
Kristian Kristiansen

7 Networks and Ethnogenesis 97
Anna C. F. Collar

8 Ethnic Identities, Borderlands, and Hybridity 112
Gary Reger

9 Hittites and Anatolian Ethnic Diversity 127
Trevor R. Bryce

10 Hybridity, Hapiru, and the Archaeology of Ethnicity in Second Millennium

BCE Western Asia 142
Ann E. Killebrew

11 Ethnicity in Empire: Assyrians and Others 158
Geoff Emberling

12 Achaemenids, Royal Power, and Persian Ethnicity 175
Jennifer Gates-Foster

13 Nubian and Egyptian Ethnicity 194
Stuart Tyson Smith

14 The Study of Greek Ethnic Identities 213
Nino Luraghi

15 Ethnicity and Local Myth 228
Angela Ganter, née Kühr

16 Autochthony in Ancient Greece 241
James Roy

17 Ethnicity and the Stage 256
Efi Papadodima

18 Ethnos and Koinon 270
Emily Mackil

19 Messenia, Ethnic Identity, and Contingency 285
Alexander Thein

20 Ethnicity and Geography 298
Philip Kaplan

21 Black Sea Ethnicities 312
Gocha R. Tsetskhladze

22 Greeks and Phoenicians in the Western Mediterranean 327
Corinne Bonnet

23 Herodotus and Ethnicity 341
Rosaria Vignolo Munson

24 Ethnicity and Representation 356
S. Rebecca Martin

25 Ethnicity: Greeks, Jews, and Christians 376
Aaron P. Johnson

26 Greek Ethnicity and the Second Sophistic 390
Adam M. Kemezis

27 Ethnicity and the Etruscans 405
Nancy T. de Grummond

28 Romans and Jews 423
Erich S. Gruen

29 Romans and Italians 437
Gary D. Farney

30 Roman Elite Ethnicity 455
Parshia Lee-Stecum

31 Ethnicity in Roman Religion 470
Jörg Rüpke

32 Ethnicity and Gender 483
Kathryn Lomas

33 Ethnicity in the Roman Northwest 497
Ursula Rothe

34 Lucanians and Southern Italy 514
John W. Wonder

35 Who Are You? Africa and Africans 527
Brent D. Shaw

36 Becoming Roman Again: Roman Ethnicity and Italian Identity 541
Valentina Follo

37 Goths and Huns 555
Walter Pohl

Index 569

"Overall, this 'companion' is a successful one. It offers a wide introduction to the many aspects of ethnicity in the ancient world. The chapters are well written and additional suggestions on further reading are helpful. The book is well suited to undergraduate and graduate reading lists; it is also a valuable tool for the general reader."
—Jesper Majbom Madsen, Orbis Terrarum

THE EDITOR

Jeremy McInerney is the Davidson Kennedy Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. He is the author of The Cattle of the Sun (2010) and The Folds of Parnassos (1999).

A COMPANION TO ETHNICITY IN THE ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN

EDITED BY JEREMY MCINERNEY

In recent years, ethnic conflicts and "ethnic cleansing" have become all-too familiar topics in the news and have focused renewed academic attention on the subject of ethnic identity. A Companion to Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean presents a comprehensive collection of essays that explore questions relating to ethnicity and cultural identity in the societies of the ancient Mediterranean world.

Featuring contributions from a wide range of Ancient Studies scholars and specialists from around the world, chapters span diverse civilizations ranging from ancient Egypt and Israel, through Greece and Rome, and into Late Antiquity. Essays explore modern theories of ethnic identity formation and reveal the perennial complexity of questions relating to ethnicity. A discussion of ethnicity by ancient and modern writers also offers a vector of interpretation vital to the understanding of many foundational cultures.

Scholarly and thought-provoking, A Companion to Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean offers extraordinary insights into the roots of ancient ethnic identities and their links to the modern world.