Contact and culture change in the Prehistory of Mediterranean Europe

Abstract

The historically documented importance of seafaring commerce has served as a charter for the interpretation of Mediterranean prehistory. Within the normativist framework that prevailed until recently, any similarity in the particulars of archaelogical assemblages could be proof of a commerce of ideas. By limiting the notion of commerce t0 quantifiable exchanges, processualists have argued for the autonomous development of each region within the prehistoric Mediterranean, a perhaps excessively restricted view. World-systems approaches offer the opportunity to give processual weight to intersocietal contacts, but only are successful when the social and economic structure of both center and periphery is adequately understood.