ABSTRACT
The interest shown by archaeologists in The Corrupting Sea (CS) has been comparably restrained – with the exception of Cyprian Broodbank’s gratifying suggestion that we extend our ‘corruption’ further back into pre-history. At a ‘higher’ analytical level we attempted to develop a framework for interpreting certain aspects of Mediterranean history that shed light on the big questions of unity, distinctiveness, and continuity in the region. CS was an attempt to provide a backdrop against which those other kinds of history could be written. From the vocabulary that we have just been using, it will be clear why some of the very different metaphors that CS has prompted in reviewers do not seem helpful. Many archaeologists and anthropologists of the Mediterranean have found it necessary to elaborate the microregional structure of their areas of study; and new and constructive research on the precise nature of interdependence in all periods of Mediterranean history is being published every year.
