What question did this study set out to answer?

To analyze the key developments and transformations in the Archaic Greek world from ca. 1200 to 479 BCE.

May 1, 2007

A history of the archaic Greek world: ca. 1200-479 BCE

Key Points

To analyze the key developments and transformations in the Archaic Greek world from ca. 1200 to 479 BCE.
Detailed examination of historical texts and archaeological findings.
Evaluation of non-literary evidence and ancient chronography.
Analysis of the socio-political structures within Greek city-states.
Identified the evolution of the polis and its role in Greek society.
Documented the influences of the Dorian migration on subsequent Greek communities.
Described the transition from monarchy to aristocracy and the emergence of democracy in Athens.

Abstract

List of maps. List of figures. List of documents. Preface. Timeline. 1 The practice of history. The Lelantine War. The Lelantine War deconstructed. What is history? History as literature. Method and theory. 2 Sources, evidence, dates. Evaluating sources. Dating Archaic poets. Non-literary evidence. Ancient chronography. Archaeological dating. 3 The end of the Mycenaean world and its aftermath. Mycenaean Greece. Gauging the historicity of the Dorian migration. Alternative explanations. The loss and recovery of writing. Whose Dark Age? 4 Communities of place. Defining the polis. The urban aspect of the polis: houses, graves, and walls. Political and economic functions. Cultic communities. Polis and ethnos. 5 New homes across the seas. On the move. The credibility of colonial foundation stories. Pots and peoples. A Spartan foundation? Taras, Phalanthos, and the Partheniai. Hunger or greed? 6 The changing nature of authority. Charting the genesis of the state. Kings or big-men? The emergence of an aristocracy. Laws and institutions. The return of the big-man. Excursus I. A cautionary tale: Pheidon of Argos. 7 Fighting for the fatherland. A hoplite revolution?. Some more equal than others. Conquest, territory, and exploitation. 8. Defining the political community. Looking to the end. The role of the demos and the Great Rhetra. Drawing boundaries. Land, labor, and the crisis in Attica. The second sex. Excursus II. Evaluating the Spartan Mirage. 9 The city of Theseus. The end of the tyranny. The birth of democracy? The unification of Attica. Theseus: democrat or autocrat? The (a)typicality of Athens. 10 Making a living. Conceptualizing ancient economic activity. A peasant economy? Plying the seas. The introduction of coinage. 11 Imagining Greece. Greeks and others: the external dimension. The rise of Persia and the invasions of Greece. The invention of the barbarian. The emergence of panhellenism: the internal dimension. 12 Writing the history of Archaic Greece. The First Sacred War: fact or fiction? The limits of narrative history. Dividing up space and time. Abbreviations and glossary of literary sources. Works cited in the further reading. Index.

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