Trade and Cultural Transmission in Lived Spaces from Central Italy from the Final Bronze Age to the Republican Period (1100–100 BC): An Exploratory Network Analysis

Francesca Fulminante () and Daniela Engelhart
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Francesca Fulminante: University of Oxford
Daniela Engelhart: Kiel University

Chapter 5 in Network Analysis for Economic, Business and Financial History, 2026, pp 145-182 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract What is the role of interaction in cultural transmission in lived spaces with different degree, density or ranking? Does cultural transmission happen more easily and often in primary or secondary order settlements? Does transmission of shapes, forms and/or techniques happen mostly at the core or the periphery of a given trading, homogeneous cultural region? Is the concept of port-of-trade still valid for those centres at the boundaries and intersection between different ethnic and cultural regions? By using Central Italy from the Final Bronze Age to the Archaic Period as a case study we will try to address these questions using a network exploratory approach. Our method will be based on the analysis and theoretical considerations in the paper of Nakoinz et al. (2020). There, the typology and location of fibula are used to calculate an adjacency matrix to gain a network, on which to do further analysis on. In our case, we will build three comparable matrices, one from sites in Etruria, one from sites in Latium vetus and finally, one in which both regions are combined, with a much larger and more diverse number of types. With the created networks, Centrality measures, such as degree and betweenness, can then be calculated in order to get an insight into the interaction of the sites in the two different regions to answer the previously asked questions. By considering the regions separated and in combination, we hope to be able to assess whether ethnic and/or cultural barriers are also in place and how similar or different they are in their internal and cross-cultural dynamics.

Keywords: Central Italy; Bronze age; Iron age; Network analysis; Adjacency matrices; Centrality indexes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-21355-6_5

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