The Culture of Urbanization in the Mediterranean c.800–600 BC

This chapter examines the cultural aspects of the urbanization process in the Mediterranean from 800 to 600 BC. The findings reveal that links between the Orientalizing movement and processes that ultimately led to the rise of urban centres can be explored in the different uses and meanings which élites from different regions attached to the aristocratic koine. The results also suggest that the Orientalizing koine provided new forms of sociability and identity which in turn provided the background against which the larger urban community emerged.