Paul. 1956. Greek Pins and their Connexions with Europe and Asia. Oxford: Clarendon Press.6 Kienast, Hermann J. 2005. The Aqueduct of Eupalinos on Samos. Athens: TAP.
7 Miller, Margaret C. 1997. Athens and Persia in the Fifth Century B.C.: A Study in Cultural Receptivity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
8 Moyer, Ian S. 2002. “Herodotus and an Egyptian Mirage: The Genealogies of the Theban Priests.” JHS 122: 70–90. Reprinted in ORCS Vol. 2, 292–320.
9 Sturgeon, Mary C. 1987. Isthmia IV. Sculpture I: 1952–1967. Princeton: American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
10 Ustinova, Yulia. 2005. “Snake‐limbed and Tendril‐limbed Goddesses in the Art and Mythology of the Mediterranean and Black Sea.” In Scythians and Greeks. Cultural Interactions in Scythia, Athens and the Early Roman Empire (Sixth Century BC–First Century AD), edited by David Braund, 64–79. Exeter: University of Exeter Press.
FURTHER READING
1 Kaplan, Philip. 2006. “Dedications to Greek Sanctuaries by Foreign Kings in the Eighth through Sixth Centuries bce.” Historia 55.2: 129–52.
ARCHAIC AGE
PHILIP KAPLAN
University of North Florida
The period in Greek history from the middle of the eighth century BCE to the early fifth century BCE is referred to as the archaic age, during which many of the characteristic elements of Hellenic society and culture developed, including the adoption and spread of the alphabet, the emergence of the POLIS as the dominant form of political organization, the spread of Greek settlement throughout the MEDITERRANEAN and the EUXINE (Black) Seas, the development of HOPLITE warfare, the flourishing of expressions of aristocratic culture in the form of POETRY, athletics, and the symposium, the appearance of characteristic Greek artistic forms such as monumental temple ARCHITECTURE, SCULPTURE, and decorated fine pottery, the rise of SPARTA as the dominant state in the PELOPONNESE, and the emergence of DEMOCRACY in ATHENS. The era culminated in conflict with the expanding Persian Empire, resulting in the IONIAN REVOLT, the failed Persian invasions of Greece, and the emergence of Athens and Sparta as the dominant powers in classical Greece.
The contemporary documentation for this period is scant. That any records survive from the archaic age is due to the adaptation of the Phoenician consonantal alphabet to record the Greek language, with the addition of vowel signs, sometime around the middle of the eighth century. A theory that the alphabet was adopted to record early EPIC POETRY remains controversial (Powell 2002, 125–33). The Homeric epics are thought by a majority of scholars to have reached their final form in the later eighth or seventh centuries, although some argue that they were not written down until later. The poems relate events of an earlier HEROIC AGE, but arguably incorporate details of the social world of more recent times. The Boeotian poet HESIOD’s Works and Days, likely from the seventh century, provides insight into contemporary social structures and farming and merchant practices. His Theogony provides the first extended account of Greek mythology, supplemented by the later Homeric Hymns. Other epic poems, as well as lyric, iambic, elegiac, and other forms of poetry composed in the seventh and sixth centuries, survive mainly in quotations and summaries by later writers, and the occasional recovered papyrus fragment. Philosophical poetry and PROSE emerged in IONIA in the sixth century, along with GEOGRAPHY; all of these literary products are lost except in later quotations. A small assortment of INSCRIPTIONS from this period, found on stone, BRONZE, and pottery, provide valuable primary evidence: these include graffiti, DEDICATIONS, statements of possession and funerary inscriptions, and later decrees, legal material, and treaties. ARCHAEOLOGY has also greatly expanded our understanding of the archaic age. On‐going excavations at the major Greek poleis, at the large and small sanctuaries, and exploration of smaller settlements and rural locales by means of surface survey, remote survey, and rescue excavations, have uncovered a wealth of data about the communities and material culture of the archaic Greek world.
Because of the fragmentary nature of the contemporary evidence, Herodotus provides the closest we have to a coherent historical narrative for the period. Until he turns to the events at the end of the sixth century, however, Herodotus only provides continuous connected narratives concerning LYDIA, EGYPT, and PERSIA. His accounts of the Greek states are disconnected, not offered in sequential order, and are largely limited to a few communities, primarily Athens, Sparta, CORINTH, SAMOS, and CYRENE. He also provides occasional snippets of information about other places in the Greek world with which he was familiar, such as DELPHI, SICYON, and NAUCRATIS in Egypt. With the beginning of the Ionian Revolt, his accounts of events in Greece become more continuous, if still highly selective. Much of his information was gathered from local oral SOURCES, but he may have used predecessors such as the geographer HECATAEUS of MILETUS. Herodotus can be supplemented by later historians, such as the fourth‐century EPHORUS of CYME, also preserved in fragments. Information about the archaic age preserved in sources of the Hellenistic and Roman eras, such as STRABO, Pausanias, and scholiasts, is often of doubtful pedigree and shaped by later perspectives.
After the destruction and abandonment of the palace centers of the AEGEAN Bronze Age, the Greek world underwent a period of state collapse, depopulation, loss of literacy, isolation, and a decline of material culture, traditionally known as the “Dark Age,” though the excavations of the cemeteries and settlement at Lefkandi on EUBOEA, and of several settlements on CRETE, have shown that the poverty and isolation of this period was not as uniform and long‐lasting as had earlier been believed. By the early eighth century, signs of recovery in several major centers appear, and the numbers of settlements (and their population) throughout Greece increase (Snodgrass 1980; Morris 1987; but cf. Osborne 1996, 74–81). Burials show a rise in WEALTH and status disparities in the form of GOLD and other jewelry, and increasingly elaborately decorated pottery. Some settlements seem to be resettlements or continuations of Bronze Age centers, such as Athens, THEBES (Boeotian), and Cnossus; while others, such as Corinth and the cities of the northern and eastern Aegean, likely represent new foundations. A later tradition of a war over control of the Lelantine Plain between coalitions of cities led by CHALCIS and ERETRIA might be taken as evidence for fully functional states by the end of the eighth century; but the historical reality of this war has been questioned (Hall 2014, 1–8).
The expansion of the population in the Greek mainland, contacts with the states of the Near East, and growing interest in commercial opportunities and resources not available at home, encouraged the expansion of Greek settlement beyond the Aegean (Tsetskhladze 2006–2008). THUCYDIDES’ account of the settlement of SICILY, later sources such as Strabo and Eusebius, and archaeological investigation, indicate that Greek expansion in what is conventionally called the “colonization movement” started with the creation of settlements in south ITALY and Sicily in the mid‐eighth century (although recently the distinction between this phase of COLONIZATION, and earlier expansion in the eastern Aegean, has been questioned). Euboeans from Chalcis and Eretria, along with settlers from the Peloponnese, particularly ACHAEANS and Corinthians, played a leading role in the initial movement west. By the seventh century, colonial settlement had spread to the HELLESPONT, PROPONTIS, and the Euxine, led by Miletus and its daughter cities. Further settlement took place in the seventh century in Cyrenaica in LIBYA, and as far west as MASSALIA in southern France and EMPORION in northeastern Spain. The choice of location was determined by the availability of resources and arable land, and was limited by the power of local states and by competition from the PHOENICIANS, chief rivals to the Greeks in settlement and TRADE in the central and western Mediterranean. The colonies, or apoikiai, sought to control the surrounding hinterland, become agriculturally self‐sufficient, and generally become independent poleis, keeping only ritual ties with their metropoleis (see Graham 1983). In pursuit of trading opportunities, Greeks also established emporia,
