Debating Orientalization

Orientalism has variously been considered a cultural phenomenon, revolution, movement, or outdated concept of an exotic "Other." In a volume derived from a multidisciplinary forum on the subject held in 2002 at St. John's College, Oxford--while the editors were researching cultural exchange in Etruria and Sardinia, Riva (Mediterranean archeology, U. College London) and Vella (classics and archeology, U. of Malta) introduce this issue and related debates. Ten papers attempt to clarify "Orientilizing" by treating topics including approaches to constructing historical periods, methodologies, and the diversity and power relations of hybrid cultures influenced by Oriental ideas and material culture. Illustrations include study site maps and artifacts. Distributed in North America by David Brown Book Co. Annotation c2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Corinna Riva is Lecturer in Mediterranean Archaeology at University College London. Her research interests cover Iron Age Italy and the 1st millennium BC in the Central Mediterranean. Since 2002, she has been co-director of the Upper Esino Valley Survey (Marche, Italy). She has published articles on Etruria, Adriatic central Italy and co-edited (with G. Bradley and E. Isayev) Ancient Italy: Regions without Boundaries (Exeter University Press, 2008). Her own book The Urbanization of Etruria (Cambridge University Press) was published in 2010. Nicholas C. Vella is Senior Lecturer in Department of Classics and Archaeology at the University of Malta. His current research interests focus on the study of connectivity in the central Mediterranean at the end of the 2nd millennium BC, and on the development of archaeological traditions in the Mediterranean in the inter-war period. He co-directs two excavation projects in Malta and is co-director of the Belgo-Maltese Malta Survey Project. He is the co-editor (with Josephine Crawley Quinn) of Identifying the Punic Mediterranean (British School at Rome, forthcoming).