material Culture 293Conclusion
This chapter has tested the Mediterranean paradigm for the study of material cul-
ture in several ways. Principally this has concerned how things have been, and are,
produced, used, circulated, researched, interpreted, displayed, reconstructed, col-
lected and emulated. We have met Mediterranean material culture in museums,
domestic interiors, inventories, archaeological excavations, conservation studios
and workshops. We have seen how established topoi such as east and west, invest-
ments and heirlooms, innovation, authenticity, tourism and collecting, all have
particular expressions in the Mediterranean context at different periods in its his-
tory. From the carpet to the cameo, Mediterranean materiality has migrated across
the globe. Central to our understanding has been an appreciation of the industrial
processes, the availability of materials, the knowledge of consumers, economic
imperatives and the sources of inspiration which have shaped the phenomena that
have generated our evidence. Today, a litmus test for comparing material culture
in the Mediterranean might be cost-of-living indicators. It is for future historians
to ascertain why the average cost of a pair of men’s leather shoes is €90 in Athens
and €40 in Cairo.^2
These comparative and chronological vignettes have shone a torchlight on people’s
relationships with things. The point of doing so was to provide an alternative perspec-
tive of what Mediterranean history can look like when viewed through its material
culture. Inspired by Braudel’s global approach to material life the examples presented
in this chapter have used open-handed comparison instead of a framework based on
the traditional canons of political, religious and art historical change (for example,
Roman, Islamic, Neo-classical: see also Hilsdale, this volume). While important for
identification and interpretation, the taxonomic approach has also been avoided as it
has the tendency to silo material culture according to form and function, forgetting
the people that were responsible for its creation, use and circulation. This has given a
certain freedom to explore the Mediterranean paradigm without limitation to further
understand the connected economies, the shared social mores, and the cultural
hybridity found in this region. On the one hand the relationships described here are
absolutely distinctive to the Mediterranean geo-cultural region, and on the other, the
historical view of them could be applied to any place and society from which vestiges
of related object cultures have survived.The future of Mediterranean material culture
The idea of object biography is based on the theory that things, like people, are
constructs of the societies they inhabit. However, unlike people, the history of objects
is seldom finite and we should embrace this fact in our work. The representation,
interpretation and research of an historical artifact are parts of its life story. An object’s
family history will embrace the stories of the origins of materials and the skills, craft
and industry that made its creation possible. What the field of Mediterranean material
culture needs now is for these kinds of biographies to be written. Narratives and dis-
courses that genuinely transcend traditional chronological and geographical limits will
open our eyes to how historical time really does change pace when viewed through
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