ABSTRACT
The archaeology of Greek and indigenous southern Italy of the first millennium BC is usually seen as a part of the domain of Classical Archaeology. This means that it was mostly studied by archaeologists who were educated in classics-oriented departments. Here a traditional culture-historical approach often dominated in which the ancient written sources played a major role. This is also the educational background of the author of this book. In 1970 the archaeology of the Mediterranean in the Netherlands was basically a specific form of cultural history. Since that time the domain has changed enormously with the rise of the survey and landscape archaeology, the immensely increasing importance of the data from the sciences and the introduction of anthropological concepts and ideas. The culture-historical paradigm, moreover, has lost its dominant position. We have seen the rise of the New Archaeology followed by the wide variety of approaches that characterizes the post-modern archaeology. Though these more recent paradigms have their flaws and advantages, they all contributed in a significant way to more nuanced approaches resulting in a better insight into the past.
