ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the Tyrrhenian metal trade as a case study of the local effects of connectivity on the society of Iron Age Italy. Recent years have seen mobility and connectivity emerge as dominant paradigms for understanding ancient Mediterranean life. More often than not, maritime connectivity is viewed as a socio-economic ‘good’ and as a necessary pathway for communities seeking to develop beyond the limitations of their local ecologies. In contrast, this chapter argues we should see connectivity as a far more open-ended process with more variable, and not always positive, results for those communities deciding to engage with it. Indeed, this study proposes we would be better served to speak of plural ‘connectivities’ with variable results. To demonstrate this variability, I focus on the socio-economic effects of the metal trade emanating from northern Etruria. I review evidence for the emergence and nature of this metal trade, integrating known textual and archaeological evidence with some newly published shipwreck data. As this collected material shows, the region’s emergence as a major exporter of iron ore largely depended on a pre-existing background of connectivity; this situation encouraged the region’s involvement in a sort of factor market focused on supplying raw material to a much longer and more flexible chain of metal production. In this case, while this particular form of connectivity brought wealth to the area’s elites, it also proved fragile to a certain extent. Over the long run, evidence reveals few signs that northern Etruria’s metal trade brought durable sociopolitical power extending beyond the region.
