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13
Alphabet Soup in the Mediterranean Basin:
The Emergence of the Mediterranean Serial
Susan E. Alcock
1. introduction
Figure 13.1 captures, in graphic form, an arresting phenomenon.
1 In a nutshell, the past two decades or so have witnessed
the emergence of a number of academic journals which deal, to a
greater or lesser extent, with the historical Mediterranean. The
sample is admittedly a small one; the circulation of many rather
limited; the life-span of a few regrettably brief. Nonetheless, the
pattern is clear enough to invite review and contextualization,
and to encourage some thought about the nature, and purpose,
of these ‘Mediterranean serials’. 2
First, the nature of the sample should be clarified: what
precisely is meant by the term ‘Mediterranean serial’? To keep
things manageably straightforward, I have applied two very
simple but fairly ruthless filters. First, my principal emphasis
lies with journals that deal with the history, archaeology, art, or
1 I would like to thank John F. Cherry, co-editor of the Journal of Mediterranean
Archaeology, for first drawing my attention to the phenomenon and
for his subsequent advice, as well as William Harris for his kind invitation to
participate in this project. I have attempted to be as comprehensive as possible
in my coverage of these journals, although some relevant material remained
inaccessible, despite the efforts of Mary E. Alcock and of the library staff at
the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Stanford, Calif.
For other comparative discussions of these periodicals, see P. S. Wells, review
of Mediterranean Archaeology and Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology,
Antiquity 65 (1991), 1006–1007, and CS 543.
2 Figure 13.1 includes all the ‘Mediterranean serials’ listed in Table 13.1,
with the exception of those explicitly dealing with contemporary conditions:
Mediterranean Quarterly, Mediterranean Politics, and the Mediterranean Journal
of Human Rights.