{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.05739692805173808, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0, 'mean_word_length': 4.551569506726457, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Globalisation and material culture: the road ahead

As with all frameworks borrowed from another discipline, a volume on Globalisation and the Roman world opens itself up to the possible criticism of, at best, applying an anachronistic framework to the study of the ancient world, or, at worst, being just another fad, but I do not doubt for a moment that this collection will easily withstand such attacks. Its laudable level of reflexivity and self-critique does not keep it from exploring bold and ambitious ideas. The exploration transcends the theoretical nitty-gritty (e.g.. “What is globalisation?” — see below) and soon focuses on the historical pay-off of thinking in terms of globalisation. The different contributors differ as to the nature and extent of this pay-off, which they discuss in thematic chapters on the economy (N. Morley), consumption (M. Pitts), urbanism (R. Laurence and F. Trifilò), human mobility (E. Isayev), visual culture (M. J. Versluys), heritage (R. E. Witcher), and — perhaps the odd one out in the list of ‘case studies’ — the first millennium B.C. (S. Sommer). Two shorter reflections by ‘outsiders’ — a sociologist, Nederveen Pieterse, and an Iron Age archaeologist, T. Hodos — conclude the volume.