Colonial constructs: Colonialism and archaeology in the Mediterranean

Abstract

This paper first explores colonialist traditions in Mediterranean archaeology: it exposes the relationships between representations of ancient colonial situations in the Mediterranean and the recent context of modern (neo‐)imperialism in which Classical Archaeology was formed as a discipline and in which many archaeologists have been working. It is argued that dualist representations of colonialism must be abandoned. As an alternative, the postcolonial concept of hybridity is introduced as a useful starting point for examining the more mundane and less polarized dimensions of colonial situations. Such an alternative postcolonial interpretation of Carthaginian colonialism in west central Sardinia during the fifth to third centuries BC is expounded in the second part of the paper.