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Roman Knossos: The Nature of a Globalized City

Roman Knossos: The Nature of a Globalized City

The nature of Roman Knossos has been poorly understood, and the misleading supposition that there was a marked change in Knossian society in the first centuries B.C.E./C.E. following the Roman conquest has become an accepted hypothesis. This paper applies globalization theory to a diachronic synopsis of Roman Knossos. By viewing cultural developments in Knossos as relative to Rome and the empire, rather than falling under a subsuming process of Roman acculturation, an alternative perspective to the romanization of Knossos may be explored; that is, that the city underwent a slow process of globalization and the ultimate effects of this cannot be seen until almost 100 years after the foundation of the colony.

Roman Knossos: The Nature of a Globalized City

By Rebecca J. Sweetman

American Journal of Archaeology Vol. 111, No. 1 (January 2007), pp. 61–81

DOI: 10.3764/aja.111.1.61

© 2007 Archaeological Institute of America