NETWORKS AS RESOURCES FOR ANCIENT COMMUNITIES

When and how did networking become a resource for ancient communities? Were
these networks perceived by ancient societies and actors as a means to perform and
assert social, personal and group identities?
Covering various periods and geo-cultural areas from Iran to the western Mediterranean,
with a strong focus on classical antiquity, the papers collected here approach the
topic of network as resources in three different but interrelated thematic domains:
the interaction between societies and the natural environment (socio-natural
networks), the transmission of knowledge and habitus (networks of knowledge
and power) and religious interactions (sacred landscape). The social values that
communities attribute to the networks they are embedded in are opened up to new
interpretative layers, dynamics and scales. Looking at networks as resources changes
our perspective on both terms of the equation. On the one hand, ancient networks are
reframed in their relational and social contexts and linked to their actors’ intentions
and perceptions. On the other hand, the properties of specifi c networks, such as
fl uidity, redundancy and the strength and fragility of relationships, shed new light on
resources and resource-related socio-cultural dynamics.