Entanglements, elite prerogatives, migratory swallows, and the elusive transfer of technological know-how into the western Mediterranean, 1000–700 BC

The creation of the urban, Classical World that during the Roman Empire finally covered for centuries the whole Mediterranean and beyond emerges as a coastal phenomenon in a period of transformation after the 12th century BC collapse in its Eastern half, representing the Late Bronze Age palatial system with its embassy trading for long-distance overseas exchange. During the Iron Age, it is accompanied by nucleation and eventually the rise of city-states in specific coastal regions of the Mediterranean. It comes with technological transmission starting with the structural use of iron in Italy and on the Iberian Peninsula from the 10th century BC onwards. Subsequently other metallurgical know-how, concepts of monumental architecture, the alphabet, metrological units and novel ceramic production techniques were introduced till around 700/600 BC. Definitely not all of these innovations became anchored everywhere, creating an elusive set of correlations steered somewhat by the rate of entanglement and centralization feasible. It surfaces along the coast with local, mostly land-locked groups and initially seafaring Phoenicians forming elite networks for exchange and stimulating local surplus production. It is the concept of the ‘swallow merchant/artisan’ that seems to prevail, circulating between home and host communities resulting in imported objects and a relatively limited output of the commodities produced during their stay abroad. Shared incentives were crucial, though the scale of involvement fluctuated considerably per territory. During the 9th century BC the rate of exchange intensified leading to ‘settled swallows’ in some regions of the Western Mediterranean and the foundation of Carthage. From ca. 800 BC onwards, Greek-speaking groups moved autonomously westwards.