The Greeks in the East. Edited by Alexandra Villing

The Greeks in the East, edited by Alexandra Villing.The Greeks in the East by Alexandra VillingReview by: Davide NadaliJournal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 70, No. 1 (April 2011), pp. 132-133Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/659045 .Accessed: 15/02/2015 16:31

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132 F Journal of Near Eastern Studies

his proposed reconstruction of what really happened during the campaign: After the split of Israel and Judah there was constant warfare between the two nations. . . .With the two states fighting, the pharaoh may have come to the aid of his vassal, Jeroboam. Attacking only Jerusalem on this campaign, Shoshenq would have weakened Judah. . . . Having persuaded Rehoboam not to attack Israel, Shoshenq returned to Egypt, leaving Jerusalem with little will or resources to fight against Jeroboam.

This book may well be an extremely important study that completely reconfigures our understand

ing and use of Shoshenq Is Triumphal Relief and the topographical list concerning his Canaanite campaign contained within it, as well as our understanding of the interactions and international relations between Egypt, Israel, and Judah during the last decades of the tenth century b.c.e. However, I suspect that many will see it instead as a nihilistic study riddled with faulty arguments, deductions, interpretations, and conclusions that should be relegated to the nearest trash bin.

The Greeks in the East. Edited by Alexandra Villing. British Museum Press Research Paper Number 157. London: The British Museum, 2005. Pp. v + 123 + 112 figs. $50.Reviewed by davide Nadali, Universit di Roma La Sapienza.

This book includes eight essays originally read at the twentyfirst British Museum Classical Colloquium, The Greeks in the East, held in 1997. Most of the papers were updated in 2002, although other contributions had already appeared elsewhere. The papers deal with the Greek phenomenon, that is, the presence of Greek people and artifacts in the East plus three essays focusing on the Bronze Age about the Minoans, Cycladic people, and Mycenaean influence and interactions. The essays reveal that not only was there no unidirectional movement toward the East, but there was an inverse movement toward the West with the East as a source of many changes and aspects of cultural transmission.

The longest and most extensive contribution concerns Bronze Age Miletus by Niemeier (pp. 136), who presents the most recent results of the 2004 excavations of Miletus from the Chalcolithic to the Mycenaean and Hittite periods, pointing out how, from the beginning, Miletus has been an important point of intersection between the West and East. Dating to the time of the Cretan New Palaces (levels MM IILM IB/II), Miletus IV is one of the most important findspots for Linear A along with the use of the Minoan weight system outside of Crete. However, the presence of most of the Minoan features in Miletus IV does not necessarily indicate a Minoan settlement in Miletus, which may be due to the diplomatic exchange of artisans and other specialists (as suggested by the studies of Muller and Collon). Niemeier suggests that Miletus may be identified with the Millawanda of the

Hittite textsMiletus passed under Hittite control and was finally destroyed at the end of the Bronze Age with a consequent reoccupation by Greeks (Greek potters and vase painters in Ionia). Miletus was thus a key city for the interchange between West and East dating back to the most ancient periods.

In the second essay (pp. 3745), Muller uses Near Eastern paintings, focusing on the case of Mari, to discuss the question of Eastern influence on the Aegean world, considering the suggested chronology for the eruption of Thera (1625 b.c. instead of 1500 b.c.) and the final destruction of Mari in the Old Babylonian period (1665 b.c. instead of 1760 b.c.). After an analysis of the themes depicted, the paintings locations in the palace, the manner of execution, and the chronology, and after taking into consideration the other few painted data on the ancient Near East, the author points out that having shared iconographic motifs is the strongest point of connection between Near Eastern painting and the Aegean data. (As is generally true for all paintings in the ancient Near East, the paintings from Mari do not use the true fresco technique as do those from Crete.) Despite the presence of shared iconographical motifs, the Mari paintings belong completely to the Near Eastern tradition, which could have influenced the Aegean world in the Late Bronze Age through the creation of an international artistic style.

The next essay, by Collon (pp. 4751), concludes the analysis of the Bronze Age with discussions on the transmission of iconographical motifs, decorations of goods, and architectural techniques via trade relation


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Book Reviews F 133

ships and exchange. After analyzing the construction techniques of the Mycenaean citadel at Tiryns and the contemporary Hittite capital Boazky, the author raises the intriguing question of the possible existence of traveling teams of stonemasons. It is interesting to think of a possible international circuit of traveling artisans crossing the Near East in contact with different cultural realities like the Aegean world.1

The following three essays deal with the time period more properly considered to be Greek. The first essay, by Lemos (pp. 5360), uses pottery analysis to reconstruct the relationships between Euboea and the East, noting that the earliest Greek pottery in the East dates back to the second half of the tenth century b.c. This pottery was probably transported by the Euboeans after having developed a strong trade network in Greece as well. However, in the following period (from 900 to 850 b.c.), the number of Greek vases found in the East decreases. This seems to be the result of Phoenician presence in the trade network due to Assyrian presence in the Levant. Then from 850 to 750, the importation of Greek vases increased considerably with a strong exchange between the Euboeans and the Levantines. As previously, the Assyrians determined the change; this time, however, the Assyrians were involved in the East, confronting the Urartian problem. The data analyzed by Lemos point out that the relationship between West and East shifted with a double direction, toward the West and the East at the same time.

The following two essays, by Lehmann (pp. 6192) and Ashton and Hughes (pp. 93103), are based on

1 On this see C. Zaccagnini, Patterns of Mobility among Ancient Near Eastern Craftsmen, JNES 42 (1983): 24749.

the pottery from the site of Al Mina, and focus on the relationships between Anatolia, inner Syria, the Levant, and the Aegean world. Thanks to chemical analyses, they distinguish the local and imported ceramic typologies. The port of Al Mina is thus shown to have been an important import/export center, where the high quality of the local productions may indicate that the potters were Greeks.

The last two essays by Williams (pp. 105114) and Curtis (pp. 11523) deal with the jewelry production in Phokaia, Lydia, Cyprus, and the Achaemenid world and with Greek influence on Achaemenid art and architecture. Williamss essay retraces the common iconographical motifs and working techniques of the jewelry. He points out distinction difficulties and discusses the circulation of goods (together with artisans?). Curtiss essay treats influence on Persian art and architecture. Although Greek influence is clearly recognized and can be proven in stoneworking and building techniques, it is difficult to recognize in the minor arts. Iranian and Mesopotamian (from Assyria) influence can be more reasonably suggested.

The results of these essays add to our understanding of the ancient world by speaking of the relationships between the Greeks and the East instead of the Greeks in the East. As has already been pointed out, some essays focus on the inverse tendency of an Eastern influence on the Western Aegean world with documented shifts in relationships from both West to East and East to West. Although the contributions collected in this volume are valuable and of high quality, a more extensive introduction linking the essays and data analysis would have helped the reader.

Enemies of Civilization: Attitudes toward Foreigners in Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China. By Muchou Poo. SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture. Edited by Roger T. Ames. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005. Pp. xviii + 211 + 13 figs. $81.50 (cloth), $25.95 (paperback).Reviewed by eva voN dassow, University of Minnesota.

This is a very disappointing book. Its theme is pregnant with possibility: Muchou Poo sets out to compare ancient Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Chinese attitudes toward foreigners, concepts of self and other, and notions of civilized versus barbarian, an intrinsically interesting project that automatically inspires one to consider homologies and divergences among the three regions named in the title. The authors claim to have conceived this project with a view

to illuminating modern ideas of foreignness, and the genesis of prejudice, evokes the prospect of wrestling with yet larger humanistic issues than those of understanding our ancient past. That he would do this, moreover, as a Chinese trained in the West on the subject of Oriental studies (Preface, p. xii) raises the expectation of a truly novel approach to ancient Near Eastern history, one informed, perhaps, by the deep intellectual tradition of Chinese historiography. And


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The Greeks in the East. Edited by Alexandra Villing