IDEAS EXCHANGED: CONNECTIVITY, IDENTITY, AND HOW WE WRITE HISTORIES OF PRE-ROMAN ITALY

A recent history lesson: in February of 2020, the 'Exchanging Ideas: Trade, Technology and Connectivity in Pre-Roman Italy' conference was held at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.This conversation on connectivity just before the world entered into years of disconnect and social isolation birthed the Mediterranean Archaeology Australian Research Community and produced two sibling volumes: 2022's Production, Trade, and Connectivity in Pre-Roman Italy, edited by Armstrong and Cohen, and 2023's Adoption, Adaptation, and Innovation in Pre-Roman Italy: Paradigms for Cultural Change, edited by Armstrong and Rhodes-Schroder.In attendance in Auckland was Bernard, who, in addition to contributing to the former volume, also published the sole-authored Historical Culture in Iron Age Italy in 2023.This review article addresses each of these texts in this order, insofar as they are each concerned with investigating technology, identity and connectivity in pre-Roman Italy through post-colonial and/or holistic lenses.Armstrong and Cohen open their volume with the claim that the strength of their multivariate approach lies not in the chapters themselves, but in the dialogue, overlay and connections between them (pp.13-14).In the spirit of this approach, I encourage readers to do the same with these textswhile each brings many exciting ideas and discussions to the table, their true strength lies in the connections between them, and the dialogues across which they speak.I will elucidate on those that jumped out at me, but if people have an interest in connectivities, identities, histories and post-colonial approaches to pre-Roman Italy, they are encouraged to read these works in tandem and discover more points of connectivity.