Eurasian localisms : towards a translocal approach to Hellenism and inbetweenness in central Eurasia, third to first centuries BCE

From Mesopotamia to Central Asia, regions in central Eurasia in the Hellenistic period are often viewed, presented, and imbued with meaning as 'places in between' - cultural melting pots, resulting from a fusion of Eastern and Western cultures after Alexander the Great. Milinda Hoo critically explores scholarly understandings of cultural inbetweenness in the regions of Baktria, Parthia, and Babylonia in the third to first centuries BCE, focusing on the diverse ways in which the model of Hellenism has been used to make historical meaning out of eclectic material culture. The sites of Ai Khanum, Takht-i Sangin, Old Nisa, Seleukeia on the Tigris, and Babylon serve as core case studies to investigate perceptions of Hellenism in places that are considered culturally 'inbetween'. These form the foundation for a new translocal approach, based on globalization concepts, to better and more critically understand what we consider as Hellenism and localism in the East. Contents 8 List of figures 11 Acknowledgements 12 A note on spelling and style 14 Part I: Contexts of Hellenism 16 1 Introduction 18 1.1 Setting the scene 18 1.2 Hellenistic Central Asia: a case for inbetweenness 22 1.2.1 Geographical inbetweenness 22 1.2.2 Temporal inbetweenness 29 1.3 Methodology 34 2 Hellenism’s great debates 39 2.1 Hellenism: a history 39 2.1.1 The birth of a concept 40 2.1.2 Hellenism, empire, and colonialism 43 2.1.3 Post-war Hellenism 47 2.1.4 Postcolonialism and the limits of Hellenization 50 2.1.5 Postcolonialism, Orientalism, and the paradigm of continuity 52 2.2 New directions: hybridity and hybridization 57 2.2.1 Biological hybridity 58 2.2.2 Postcolonial hybridity 59 2.2.3 Hybridity in ancient history and archaeology 61 2.2.4 Hybridity and its discontents 63 2.3 Current trends: networks, globalization, and global perspectives 66 2.3.1 Networks and ancient globalization 66 2.3.2 Global perspectives and Hellenism now 68 Part II: Cases of Hellenism 72 3 Ai Khanum on the Oxus 74 3.1 Introduction 74 3.2 Site context and features 81 3.3 Review 101 3.4 Hellenism and Greek identity 101 4 Takht-i Sangin and the Oxus Temple 110 4.1 Introduction 110 4.2 Site context and features 111 4.3 Review 122 4.4 Hellenism and religion 123 5 Old Nisa 128 5.1 Introduction 128 5.2 Site context and features 131 5.3 Review 145 5.4 Hellenism and Philhellenism 146 6 Seleukeia on the Tigris 156 6.1 Introduction 156 6.2 Site context and features 158 6.3 Review 168 6.4 Hellenism and hybridity 168 7 Hellenistic Babylon 177 7.1 Introduction 177 7.2 Site context and features 182 7.3 Review 196 7.4 Hellenism and localism 197 Part III: Eurasian Localisms 204 8 Paradoxes of Hellenism 206 8.1 Baktria, Parthia, and Babylonia: a comparison 206 8.2 Hellenism and ethnicity baggage 216 8.3 The question of religion 219 8.4 The paradox of Philhellenism 220 8.5 Cultural reductions in cultural hybridity 223 8.6 The trouble with localism 225 9 Towards a translocal approach 230 9.1 Globalization in theory 230 9.1.1 Classics and globalization 230 9.1.2 Defining globalization 232 9.1.3 Complex connectivity 234 9.1.4 Time-space compression and deterritorialization 235 9.1.5 Glocalization and the local 238 9.1.6 Translocalism 241 9.2 Globalization in practice: outlook 244 9.2.1 A translocal view on Ai Khanum and Hellenism 245 9.2.2 A translocal view on Nisa and Hellenism 252 9.2.3 A translocal view on Takht-i Sangin and Hellenism 258 9.2.4 A translocal view on Babylon, Seleukeia, and Hellenism 264 10 Conclusion 272 Abbreviations 275 Bibliography 276 Index 330