This seminar series aims to consider critically our use of globalisation as a paradigm for understanding past societies. Specifically, while the organisers observe that globalisation-conscious archaeology enriches long-term perspectives in global studies, they argue that clearer definitions are needed to take this interdisciplinary dialogue forward. In my own archaeological use of globalisation to understand the past, I observe that many archaeologists criticise globalisation as a top down approach, despite efforts by sociologists and other archaeologists like myself to point out that globalisation is inherently both bottom up and top down.  This talk will present recent examples drawn from discourse around my own use of globalisation theory to understand the complex connections of the Mediterranean’s early first millennium BCE, its so-called Iron Age. It will use these as a springboard to reflect more meaningfully upon the perceived weaknesses of globalisation theory in our understanding of the past, and to explore more effective means of presenting globalisation’s value both to scholarship of the past and as a means of understanding our lived experiences today.