Justin Leidwanger and Carl Knappett, Editors: Maritime Networks in the Ancient Mediterranean World
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BOOK REVIEW
Justin Leidwanger and Carl Knappett, Editors: Maritime Networks in the Ancient Mediterranean World Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2018, 272 pp, £75, ISBN 9781108429948 Matthew Harpster1 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
This edited volume consists of eight studies arranged in roughly chronological order by topic, in addition to an introductory chapter by the two editors and a final chapter to synthesize and summarize the previous essays. The introductory chapter creates a theoretical and intellectual context for the subsequent studies and establishes the goals of the book. The studies themselves take varied approaches to the use and application of network modelling and analysis. Some, like those by Evans and Rivers, are very formal and mathematical, requiring familiarity with the mechanics and statistical processes inherent to such investigations. Others, in contrast, are empirical or descriptive, illustrating the results of integrating archaeological data into network modelling. Lastly, the remaining examples are particularly historical, relying on network theory as an explanatory or heuristic device applied to past phenomena. From this reader’s perspective, one interesting result emerging from this variety of approaches is an equal variety of opinions about the applicability of network modelling and analysis to maritime movement in antiquity. While some studies are assessing different types of network approaches for studying the past, and inherently assume their usefulness, other studies evaluate network analysis as a tool and suggest that it is not always applicable to studies of past maritime movement. I found this variety of perspectives useful because I am a hedgehog. Not in the literal sense, but within Archilochus’ metaphor expanded upon by Stephen Jay Gould in his posthumous (2003) book on closing the gap between the sciences and the humanities. As Gould explains, hedgehogs work at a single intellectual topic and stay, digging and exploring repeatedly through their career. Academically, I may be persistent and tenacious, but I can also be monomaniacal. Foxes, as Gould contrasts, embody different intellectual skills—creating and dispersing novel ideas and concepts, establishing new cross-disciplinary agendas, and encouraging others to explore more deeply. The stylistic difference is not qualitative but personal and reflects varying styles of intellectual practice—intensify or & Matthew Harpster [email protected] 1
Koc¸ University, Istanbul, Turkey
123
Journal of Maritime Archaeology
diversify, as Gould writes. I’m emphasizing I’m a hedgehog, because this can be a foxy book. Not completely foxy—there are elements of the book that appealed to my nature that I’ll discuss, but there are subjects that I felt could be expanded upon more thoroughly. As this is a volume of essays about maritime networks, for example, then I want to know what a maritime network is. Yet, a definition was elusive. Within the es
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