Prolegomena to Any Future Indigenous History of the Ancient World.

This article critically examines the use of the term "indigenous" in the study of ancient peoples, particularly in Hellenistic Anatolia, arguing for a more nuanced, theoretically grounded, and transhistorical understanding of indigeneity in premodern contexts. It challenges the common analogy between ancient non-imperial groups and modern Indigenous populations affected by European settler colonialism, highlighting the complexity and diversity of indigenous identities, colonial dynamics, and power relations in antiquity. Through case studies of three Anatolian cities—Miletos, Mylasa, and Stratonikeia—the article demonstrates that distinctions between colonizers and indigenous peoples were often blurred, with local identities and imperial relationships varying significantly beyond simple ethnic binaries. The author advocates for applying Indigenous studies frameworks, including self-articulated kinship, attachment to ancestral territories, and interactions with dominant powers, to better understand ancient societies without imposing modern colonial assumptions, thereby enriching both ancient historiography and contemporary Indigenous scholarship.