Introduction: On the Margins? Thinking through "Marginal" Landscapes in the Holocene Mediterranean

This special issue of JEMAHS originates from a session at the 2017 European Archaeology Association (EAA) conference in Maastricht, the Netherlands, that sought to reflect critically on the question of marginality across landscapes and to foster a more explicitly comparative and empirical approach to using case studies drawn from the Mediterranean Holocene. It was organized by Peter Tomkins (University of Sheffield) and myself, as we were both seeking ways to improve our engagement with and understanding of the lifeways that played out through time on the "margins." In our specific cases these were the uplands in inland Crete and southwest Turkey (Fig. 1). We were struck as much by the sheer quantity of evidence out there as by the comparative absence of engagement with the concept of marginality within the eastern Mediterranean, especially compared to the scholarly attention that zones of higher agricultural productivity attract (Fig. 2). The sites within these "heartlands" exhibit more elements of high-end social complexity (e.g., population density, monumentality, etc.), attracting more research than sites on the "margins" (more ephemeral, smaller, and less obtrusive). Furthermore, data from the margins is much more based on archaeological surveys and thus more limited, than data from the heartlands, where high-resolution information is much more at hand thanks to excavations.

Yet, it was clear to us that archaeological patterns of the heartlands did not represent the full story; rather, they need to be understood within the context of what happened in the margins. For instance, time periods that left no traces in the heartland plains were represented in the marginal highlands, and the other way round. Or, alternatively, similar patterns of increase and decrease of settlements were observed between these landscapes. Therefore we felt that there was much to be gained from developing a more explicitly multi-regional, multi-temporal, and multi-environmental comparative perspective on the question of landscape marginality in the Mediterranean. Judging by the high level of interest from potential contributors to the session and the lively discussions that took place once we came together, it seemed that our assessment was shared by many scholars. The next logical step was to prepare the conference papers for final publication, of which this JEMAHS special issue is the result.

Marginality is not a new concept, and it features in many disciplines such as ecology and human geography, but also in our own field of archaeology (Blaikie and Brookfield 1987; Coles and Mills 1998; Young and Simmonds 1999). Although marginality is often rather vaguely defined, a clear definition is essential in order to clarify the specific interpretations and perceptions that are intended, whether

Fig 1.

The mountainous landscape of the western Taurus mountains in southwest Turkey. Recently the Sagalassos Project has initiated survey research efforts on the highlands themselves to explore the human-environment interactions in more marginal landscapes. (Photo by B. Vandermeulen and D. Veys; courtesy of the Sagalassos Archaeologicial Research Project.)

Fig 2.

A typical intermountain plain area within the western Taurus mountains of the Burdur Region, southwest Turkey. Late Prehistoric research has mainly focused on the lowlands without considering and exploring the other landscape units. (Photo by R. Vandam; courtesy of the Sagalassos Archaeologicial Research Project.)

we are addressing ecological, economic, social, and/or spatial marginality (Blaikie and Brookfield 1987; Young and Simmonds 1999). The paper by Helen Dawson in the present volume provides a good overview of the concept of marginality and of the varying meanings and interpretations of the term within different fields. As pointed out by Bebermeier et al. 2016, no common approach to marginality has been developed in archaeology, probably due to the complexity and relativity (see below) of the subject. Each of the contributions to this special JEMAHS issue represents a different approach to the concept of marginality; many attempt to deconstruct it in some way or other. On the basis of the session discussions and the articles presented here, several recurring themes with regard to marginal landscapes in the Mediterranean may be highlighted, which...