Equality in the Colonies: Concepts of Equality in Sicily during the Eighth to Six Centuries BC Author(s): Matthew Fitzjohn Source: World Archaeology, Vol. 39, No. 2, The Archaeology of Equality (Jun., 2007), pp. 215- 228 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40026654 . Accessed: 18/09/2011 07:36 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Taylor & Francis, Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to World Archaeology. http://www.jstor.org Equality in the colonies: concepts of equality in Sicily duringthe eighth to six centuries bc MatthewFitzjohn Abstract In thelate eighthand earlyseventh centuries BC, a seriesof Greeksettlements of significantsize and organizationwere established on the east coast of Sicily.Their spatial organizationand systemsof land tenureappear to have been establishedon the principleof equality.This standsin contrastto the widelyheld beliefthat relationsbetween Greeks and the indigenouspopulation were based predominantlyon inequality.The aim of this articleis to re-examinethe materialexpression of equalityin the Greek settlementsand to reflectupon the ways in whichour categoriesof colonizer and colonizedhave influencedthe way thatwe look forand understandthe social relationsbetween people. I argue that the evidence of hybridforms of existenceas expressedthrough material culturerepresent different forms of equalitythat were experienced across the island in the Archaic period. Keywords Sicily;hybridity; cultural translation; Hellenization. Introduction This articleis concernedwith defining and identifyingequality in Sicilyduring the Archaic Period (eighthto sixth centuriesBC). In the late eighthcentury, a series of Greek settlementsof significantsize and organizationwere established on theeast coast of Sicily (Fig. 1). These new settlementsappear to representthe earliest examples of thedual aspect of thepolis (city-state):a builtcity and a social community.It has been argued thatthe spatialorganization and systemsof land tenurewere designed not onlyto reflectbut also to providethe foundationfor new laws and constitutionsand to nurtureequality among theiroccupants (Di Vita 1996: 263-308; Hansen 2000: 147-8; Cahill 2002: 18-22). World Vol. 215-228 The 13 Routledqe Archaeology 39(2): Archaeologyof Equality S\ Tayior&Franciscroup © 2007 Taylor & Francis ISSN 0043-8243 print/1470- 1375 online DOI: 10.1080/00438240701257655 216 MatthewFitzjohn Figure1 Map of Sicilyshowing the location of sites mentioned in thetext. Equalityis a complexand highlycontested concept. If we are goingto concernourselves with the notion of equality,we need to ask ourselves:what do we expect the ideal of equalityto be? What are the materialrequirements and measureof the ideal of equality, what is the extensionof equality or in other words, equality among whom? These questions are difficultto definelet alone answer,especially if we focus only on urban planningand the division of space. Furthermore,in any context,no singlenotion of equalitycan be all encompassing(Rae 1981: 132), so, in thecontext of ArchaicSicily, one notionof equalitycannot necessarilybe applied to all sitesand social situations.Rather thanassume that all Greeksettlement was thesame, I proposethat there was considerable varietyin the typesof communitiesthat existed. Part of thisdiscussion will focuson the hybridnature of communitiesand how thematerial expression of thishybridity may have acted as an expressionof equality. Therehas been a tendencyfor ancient historians and archaeologiststo writeabout this periodin a way thatpresents the history of twodistinct homogeneous cultures: the Greeks, a culturallysuperior group who in the processof settlementattempted to creategreater equality,and, in contrast,the indigenous people who wereboth socially and politicallyless complex.I would arguethat these binary classifications and theirassociated characteristics have influencedthey way in which we have understoodchanges in the archaeological recordas a markerof inequality.We have read the increasingpresence of Greekmaterial culturein indigenouscentres as evidencefor domination and civilization.Reconstructions of thenature of social relationsbetween indigenous peoples and foreignoccupiers of their land are entwinedwith our assumptionsabout what it was to be a Greek settleror an indigenousperson. The resultis that we have universalizedthe experiencefor the both Greek settlersand for the local inhabitants.We have ignored the variabilityof Equalityin thecolonies 217 archaeologicalmaterial and formsof existence,and consequentlyoverlooked some more visibleforms of equalitybetween and withingroups. The aim of thispaper is to addressthe gap in our preconceivednotion of the occupants withinsettlements in order to question how people have identifiedsocial situationsin colonies or constructeda unidirectionaldevelopment of settlementand society.I shall appraise the currentstate of our understandingof this transitionalphase in the developmentof thepolis and theprocesses of culturalinteraction through an examination of the creationand modificationof settlementlayout and the use of domesticspace. Designingequality A complexrange of interactingfactors motivated people fromdifferent parts of Greeceto leave theirhomes and settlein otherparts of the Mediterranean.Wars, loss of land, increasingclass dominationand inequality,poverty or faminemay have been among the reasons, while the possibilityof acquiring wealth and the freedomfrom the social constraintsof theirown domesticsituation may have also been contributingfactors (Murray1993: 102-23). Althoughthere are no survivingwritten accounts contemporarywith the creationof thesettlements in Sicily,our narrativesof thesocial historyand physicalformation of the Greek settlementshave been highlyinfluenced by later ancient sources in which the processof foundinga colonyand thedivision of space is discussed(Di Vita 1996:263-308; Cahill 2002: 1-22). Of particularrelevance to thisdiscussion are Plato and Aristotlewho, concerned with civic strifecaused by economic, social and political inequalities, suggested that urban planning could provide a correspondencebetween physical organizationand social structure,possibly acting as a mechanismfor achieving equality, unityand order. The presenceof roads and the apparentdemarcation of space in the earliestlevels of Greek settlementshave led some to argue that,from the eighthcentury on, therewere attemptsto equalize the amountof land distributedto each inhabitantand so maintaina balance betweenpoverty and wealth.The extremecase of thisargument has been made by Vallet et al. (1976), Treziny(1999) and Di Vita (1996: 267). They have claimed that,as originallyplanned, Megara Hyblaea was organizedas a gridsystem of streetsalong two main routes runningeast-west from coast to plateau and with a systemof minor streetsrunning north-south. Within this systemthere were insulae,areas of demarcated land thatwere essentially identical, inside which were equal plotsthat varied only in small measurementsand containedeach settler'shouse witha small plot of land (Fig. 2). Much emphasishas been placed on how each insula and plot was calculatedfrom a standardmeasurement to ensurethe creationof physicallyand ideologicallyequal plots (Treziny1999: 141) In otherwords, equal plot size representssocial equality(Vallet et al. 1976; Treziny1999: 141-83). What is more, the urban plan was not just a symbol,a materialexpression of new culturalideas of isonomia,equality before the law, but rather the process of demarcation,allocation and habitationin equal lots establishedand nurturedthe notion of equality.While the apparentconnection between discussions in Aristotleand Plato and the archaeologicalevidence for the process of urbanizationin 2 18 MatthewFitzjohn Figure2 Plans of area around the Agora in Megara Hyblaea includingrepresentation of insulae (afterTreziny 1999). Sicilyis attractive,in partbecause of its explanatorysimplicity, we mustbe carefulnot to let laterideals distortan earlierarchaeological reality. Despite thesystem of measurement thereare significantdifferences in the size of the lots: betweenlots to thewest and lots to the east of the agora the average differenceis 14m2.Treziny (1999) explainedaway any differencesin thedivision of land, announcingthem as accidental,an involuntaryresult of the difficultiesof urban planning. The insulae of sitesmay have been similarin size, but thatdoes not mean eitherthat people had equal access to themor thateach piece of land was of equal value. Even where therewas completeequality of area, therecould have been considerabledifference in the value of land in differentparts of a city. In fourth-centuryOlynthus, for example, inscriptionsof land transactionsreveal that comparable transactions for plots of land of similarsize show considerablevariations in value (Cahill 2002: 276-81). At Olynthus,we see that the houses surroundingthe agora were sold much more frequentlyand were considerablymore expensivethan those elsewhere.Further away fromthe agora, the houses wereno smalleror