Greek Colonization and Indigenous Communities: Rethinking Encounters in the Ancient World, July 10 – 11, 2024

The Program in the Ancient World is a major contributor to this first of its kind, three-day conference organized by Marc Domingo Gygax (Princeton) and Manuel Fernández-Götz (Edinburgh). The conference will be held at the Princeton Athens Center, July 10-11, 2024, and is by invitation only.  Twenty-one scholars from around the world will participate.

The impact of Greek colonization on indigenous societies across the Mediterranean and the Black Sea has been debated since at least the 19th century. Traditionally, many interpretations saw the Greek presence as a key push factor for developments taking place within local communities (e.g. emergence of urban centers and increased social hierarchization), portraying the influences coming from the supposedly ‘higher’ Greek culture as a rather unidirectional process. These views have been challenged in recent decades by new approaches that emphasize the importance of endogenous processes and the bidirectional nature of cultural encounters. This conference aims to bring together a wide range of contributions that will reassess the interactions between Greek colonies and indigenous communities, taking into account novel theoretical perspectives, new archaeological discoveries, and a multi-scalar approach. The conference will encompass both communities located in the immediate hinterlands of the coastal settlements and other groups located further inland. The chronological framework will be the period between ca. 800-400 BCE, with a geographical scope extending from Iberia to the Black Sea.

Please see the program for details.