This chapter illustrates and interprets the transformation of Segesta. More than any other Indigenous settlement in Sicily, this site was rapidly transformed in the span of about a century from a small community into a true polis, equal to its colonial Greek counterparts. The focus is on two of the three sacred areas of Segesta dating to Archaic and Classical periods, namely the sanctuary extra moenia of Contrada Mango and the sacred area of the North Acropolis, where a dialectic between Indigenous traditions and colonial innovation played out.

Archaeological evidence offers an insight into the relationships between the Indigenous settlements and Greek colonies of central and western Sicily, in particular Himera, Selinunte and Agrigento. Three main phases are outlined from the second half of the seventh to the first half of the sixth century BCE; from the second half of the sixth into the first decades of the fifth century BCE; and from the second quarter to the end of the fifth century BCE. These mark a gradual path of acceptance by and assimilation with the Greek colonial world, which includes moments of economic and cultural development as well as phases of profound crisis.

The so-called Tomb of the Diver is a fifth-century stone cist tomb from Paestum/Poseidonia famous for its painted depictions of a young man diving and a symposium. While both the style and iconography of the images have strong Greek connotations, the tomb as a whole is no less deeply rooted in the local social and cultural environment of Iron Age Campania. This burial testifies to the richly diverse and multicultural nature of the late Iron Age societies that lived in South Italy and that included Etruscans, Lucanians, Oinotrians, and Greeks, to name but the principal communities.

The Iron Age and the Archaic period were a period of profound transformations in Sicily: Greek and Phoenician colonial settlers interacted with the Indigenous communities of the hinterland and played a key role in processes of change that also involved daily social and economic life.

This chapter presents the archaeological evidence from three settlements in western Sicily, dating from between the early Iron Age and the late Archaic period: Monte Maranfusa, in the middle Belice valley; Makella, located in the Eleuterio valley; and the small settlement on the Castello della Pietra in the lower Belice valley.

This chapter examines the Aliseda Hoard discovered in southwest Spain in 1920, where it has long and widely been valued as an icon of Orientalizing goldsmithing. The original context is undocumented, and the jewelry has variously been associated with an aristocratic female burial, a hoard or a sanctuary. Renewed research allows us to reinterpret the hoard as the ‘keimelion’ of the house or aristocratic lineage of Aliseda, where it was buried in a ritual area. This was a place for celebrating spring between the seventh/sixth and fifth centuries BCE and represents the sense of locality developed on the northern periphery of Tartessos.

Between the eighth and sixth centuries BCE, the Indigenous Elymian settlement of Monte Polizzo underwent a period of notable socio-economic development in the wake of Greek and Phoenician colonization. Archaeological evidence from multiple excavated domestic structures, including a substantial assemblage of weaving implements, underscores the central role of weaving within the community. Textile production was deeply embedded in daily life, functioning not only as a key contributor to the economy but also as a conservative force in articulating and reinforcing local identity and local agency in response to an ever-changing world.

This chapter investigates how coloniality and Indigeneity were locally negotiated at Monte Iato (Western Sicily) from the sixth to fifth centuries BCE. Architectural analysis and ceramic ‘fingerprints’ demonstrate that power-seeking elites employed Greek-style monumentalization to assert status while simultaneously fostering a counter-narrative of Indigenous authenticity. The interplay between imported and local cultural elements created multiple overlapping localities within the community. The evolving material culture reveals a dynamic process of sociopolitical differentiation and cultural entanglement, offering new insights into how locality and identity were co-constructed in a colonial matrix.

The Sulcis region of southern Sardinia not only hosted the earliest Phoenician colonial settlement of the island (Sulky) but was also home to thriving Indigenous settlements of Iron Age Nuragic culture. The site of Nuraghe Sirai has yielded remarkable evidence that offers an insight in the relationships and interactions between these communities. Three detailed case studies of ceramic production and architecture show different skills and production techniques that were adopted and adapted over time. In the process, new traditions were invented, new economic connections were created and new power relations were built and imposed.

This chapter examines the transformations of the settlement of Morgantina in the sixth and early fifth centuries BCE though Appadurai’s concepts of “locality” and “colonization.” The use of local and imported vessels, particularly within the Four-Room Building’s dining assemblage, alongside inscribed names and other words in Greek and the Sikel language, highlights the overlapping networks with which the people of Morgantina engaged over time. By focusing on ritual and dining assemblages that showcase the adoption and adaptation of imported forms like Lakonian kraters and the endurance of local carinated cups, the dynamic production of locality at Morgantina is situated in broader Mediterranean networks.

Locality is inherently unstable and fragile, especially in colonial contexts, where the process of (re)creating and maintaining neighbourhoods requires intense interaction and shifting landscapes of power. With Basilicata as case study I explore the production of locality from the perspectives of local and colonial populations. Drawing on archaeological and bioarchaeological evidence, I focus on the divergent strategies that inland and coastal sites employed to produce their localities. I also re-examine the strength of locality as a heuristic tool for the study of Greek colonisation, concluding on which of Appadurai’s insights are useful for interpreting ancient Mediterranean interactions.

Although northern Apulia was never directly colonized or occupied during the Iron Age, it has long been recognized that it was subject to significant Greek cultural and economic influence. Local communities seem to have developed a distinct sense of locality, based more on continuity and regional traditions. The area thus offers a valuable comparison to the other case studies in this volume, clearly showing the selectivity of cultural adaptation. This is demonstrated by an examination of the rich funerary record, which provides numerous and diverse examples of the adoption and rejection of foreign (Greek) elements.

Based on Appadurai’s concept of locality and neighbourhood, this concluding chapter situates the contributions of this volume as well as the author’s own research in Italy in a multidisciplinary and multiculturally long-term comparative perspective. Introducing the concept of ‘qualities of locality’, it discusses landscape properties, settlement (dis)continuity, culture contact and cult as basic elements in the shaping of neighbourhood and the production of locality in Indigenous Mediterranean Iron Age contexts. At times, it also reveals the fragility of the production of locality as a social achievement, as mentioned by Appadurai.

In southern France, the transition to the Iron Age was synonymous with major changes in Celtic societies, which partly depended on the intensity of contacts established with the Mediterranean world. These changes were marked by the emergence of a ruling class whose power was fundamentally based on control of land and communication routes. The expression of these powers that centred on notions of symbolic or real violence evolved over time. The sense of identity referenced a past embodied by emblematic figures or places and was articulated by the process of ethnogenesis that we can trace in ancient sources and archaeology.

This chapter asks the question what being ‘local’ really means. How many generations must people of Phoenician ancestry live locally before they are considered ‘locals’? Analysis and comparison of ceramics and burial rituals in Iron Age South Iberia show that locality is produced daily by myriad actors who were differentiated and connected by ethnicity, social status, age, and gender. Who is considered ‘local’ in one place might look alien compared to how other communities and individuals perform their locality elsewhere. Ultimately, this chapter debunks the persistent notion of stable ethnic identities in the ancient Mediterranean that add little to our understanding of selfhood and cultural and colonial contacts.

This chapter explores locality and empowerment in Mallorca (Balearic Islands) during the eighth-fifth centuries BCE, a period marked by low-intensity colonial contacts in the archipelago. It examines the late Talaiotic and early Balearic periods, focusing on Indigenous traditions and social change through Mallorca-based case studies and drawing on archaeological evidence and existing scholarship. The study discusses the development of Talaiotic settlements, including the emergence of habitation sites with tower-like structures, the so-called talaiots, and the later development of walled villages. It also examines the role of ritual sites, such as the Son Real cemetery, in reflecting social status and evolving traditions.

As the opening chapter of and introduction to the volume, this chapter serves three main purposes. First, it sets out the conceptual and intellectual background of the book as a whole and outlines the rationale for the core aim, which is to foreground local communities and their practices – locality and agency. Second, it outlines three broad topics that organize the case studies and thus provide an overall structure. Third, it briefly introduces the specific local contexts investigated in each chapter and clarifies how these engage with the overall theme and objective of the volume.

An analysis of households and communities in the lower Segura and Vinalopó river valleys between the eighth and fifth centuries BCE provides an in-depth understanding of interactions between Indigenous and Phoenician groups and how people deployed various techniques for the spatial production of locality. In a context of intensive contacts between people of diverse origins, the production of places, economies and rituals of the households and their integration in wider communities and regional networks are considered. Particular attention is given to the role of settlements, neighbourhoods and houses as locales for materializing and structuring social relations within and among households.

Much has been written about the Phoenician colonization of Sardinia, and Phoenician colonial settlements on the island have seen extensive excavation, but much less attention has been given to the local communities of so-called Nuragic culture, despite their millennium-old roots and widespread distribution. Detailed investigation and comparison of two key sites on the central west coast shows that the Iron Age communities of this region drew on the particular ‘power of place’ to sustain their active involvement in shaping both the Iron Age landscape and their interactions with Phoenician outsiders while also affirming and elaborating their deep roots in the local past.

The site of Incoronata offers a crucial model for understanding the collective sharing of techniques, objects, rituals, images and ideology between an indigenous Iron Age community and Aegean immigrants on the Ionian coast of South Italy in the eighth century BCE. The dialectic between locality and connectivity is explored through an archaeological investigation of themes such as the leading role of the indigenous communities and the contribution of crafts; the creation of a common ‘middle ground’ for ritual actions; and the shared memories of both communities in the construction of elite identities and hegemony.

This analysis of the relationships between the Late Nuragic communities of Iron Age Sardinia and Phoenicians focuses on their contributions to the formation of urban centres. Both the near-absence of colonial settlements in the eighth century BCE and the evidence of recurrent Phoenician coexistence with Indigenous communities suggest that the emergence of a small number of urban centres in the following century owed much to these cultural interactions. The role of central places in Nuragic society was instead fulfilled by a small number of major regional sanctuaries that flourished in precisely these centuries.