Greeks and Pre-Greeks

Greeks and Pre-Greeks

Author: Margalit Finkelberg

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2006-01-05

Total Pages: 7

ISBN-13: 1139448366

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By systematically confronting Greek tradition of the Heroic Age with the evidence of both linguistics and archaeology, Margalit Finkelberg proposes a multidisciplinary assessment of the ethnic, linguistic and cultural situation in Greece in the second millennium BC. The main thesis of this book is that the Greeks started their history as a multi-ethnic population group consisting of both Greek-speaking newcomers and the indigenous population of the land and that the body of 'Hellenes' as known to us from the historic period was a deliberate self-creation. The book addresses such issues as the structure of heroic genealogy, the linguistic and cultural identity of the indigenous population of Greece, the patterns of marriage between heterogeneous groups as they emerge in literary and historical sources, the dialect map of Bronze Age Greece, the factors responsible for the collapse of the Mycenaean civilisation and finally, the construction of the myth of the Trojan War.


Civilization Before Greece and Rome

Civilization Before Greece and Rome

Author: H. W. F. Saggs

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published:

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 9780300174168

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For many centuries it was accepted that civilization began with the Greeks and Romans. During the last two hundred years, however, archaeological discoveries in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Crete, Syria, Anatolia, Iran, and the Indus Valley have revealed that rich cultures existed in these regions some two thousand years before the Greco-Roman era. In this fascinating work, H.W.F Saggs presents a wide-ranging survey of the more notable achievements of these societies, showing how much the ancient peoples of the Near and Middle East have influenced the patterns of our daily lives. Saggs discussesthe the invention of writing, tracing it from the earliest pictograms (designed for account-keeping) to the Phoenician alphabet, the source of the Greek and all European alphabets. He investigates teh curricula, teaching methods, and values of the schools from which scribes graduated. Analyzing the provisions of some of the law codes, he illustrates the operation of international law and the international trade that it made possible. Saggs highlights the creative ways that these ancient peoples used their natural resources, describing the vast works in stone created by the Egyptians, the development of technology in bronze and iron, and the introduction of useful plants into regions outside their natural habitat. In chapters on mathematics, astronomy, and medicine, he offers interesting explanations about how modern calculations of time derive from the ancient world, how the Egyptians practiced scientific surgery, and how the Babylonians used algebra. The book concludes with a discussion of ancient religion, showing its evolution from the most primitive forms toward monotheism.


Introducing the Ancient Greeks: From Bronze Age Seafarers to Navigators of the Western Mind

Introducing the Ancient Greeks: From Bronze Age Seafarers to Navigators of the Western Mind

Author: Edith Hall

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2014-06-16

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 0393244121

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"Wonderful…a thoughtful discussion of what made [the Greeks] so important, in their own time and in ours." —Natalie Haynes, Independent The ancient Greeks invented democracy, theater, rational science, and philosophy. They built the Parthenon and the Library of Alexandria. Yet this accomplished people never formed a single unified social or political identity. In Introducing the Ancient Greeks, acclaimed classics scholar Edith Hall offers a bold synthesis of the full 2,000 years of Hellenic history to show how the ancient Greeks were the right people, at the right time, to take up the baton of human progress. Hall portrays a uniquely rebellious, inquisitive, individualistic people whose ideas and creations continue to enthrall thinkers centuries after the Greek world was conquered by Rome. These are the Greeks as you’ve never seen them before.


Rhetoric before and beyond the Greeks

Rhetoric before and beyond the Greeks

Author: Carol S. Lipson

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2012-02-01

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 079148503X

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Focusing on ancient rhetoric outside of the dominant Western tradition, this collection examines rhetorical practices in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Israel, and China. The book uncovers alternate ways of understanding human behavior and explores how these rhetorical practices both reflected and influenced their cultures. The essays address issues of historiography and raise questions about the application of Western rhetorical concepts to these very different ancient cultures. A chapter on suggestions for teaching each of these ancient rhetorics is included.


Philosophy before the Greeks

Philosophy before the Greeks

Author: Marc Van De Mieroop

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2017-02-28

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 0691176353

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There is a growing recognition that philosophy isn't unique to the West, that it didn't begin only with the classical Greeks, and that Greek philosophy was influenced by Near Eastern traditions. Yet even today there is a widespread assumption that what came before the Greeks was "before philosophy." In Philosophy before the Greeks, Marc Van De Mieroop, an acclaimed historian of the ancient Near East, presents a groundbreaking argument that, for three millennia before the Greeks, one Near Eastern people had a rich and sophisticated tradition of philosophy fully worthy of the name. In the first century BC, the Greek historian Diodorus of Sicily praised the Babylonians for their devotion to philosophy. Showing the justice of Diodorus's comment, this is the first book to argue that there were Babylonian philosophers and that they studied knowledge systematically using a coherent system of logic rooted in the practices of cuneiform script. Van De Mieroop uncovers Babylonian approaches to knowledge in three areas: the study of language, which in its analysis of the written word formed the basis of all logic; the art of divination, which interpreted communications between gods and humans; and the rules of law, which confirmed that royal justice was founded on truth. The result is an innovative intellectual history of the ancient Near Eastern world during the many centuries in which Babylonian philosophers inspired scholars throughout the region—until the first millennium BC, when the breakdown of this cosmopolitan system enabled others, including the Greeks, to develop alternative methods of philosophical reasoning.


Early Greece

Early Greece

Author: Oswyn Murray

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 9780674221321

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Murray traces the emergence of urbanisation and social and political structures from the Mycenean and legendary origins of Greece through to the Persian Wars.


Greece Before History

Greece Before History

Author: Curtis Neil Runnels

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 080474050X

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Presents a guide to the people and monuments of ancient Greece.


Pre-Greek

Pre-Greek

Author: Robert Beekes

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2014-08-07

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 900427944X

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Before the arrival of the Indo-European Greeks in the area around the Aegean Sea, a non-Indo-European language was spoken there which was eventually replaced by Greek. Although no written texts exist in this Pre-Greek language, Robert Beekes shows that we can reconstruct elements of its phonology and morphology on the basis of the substantial amount of Pre-Greek vocabulary which was absorbed by Greek. In addition to the general characteristics of Pre-Greek, Beekes provides a complete overview of the evidence, comprising over 1100 Greek etyma which are certainly of Pre-Greek origin. The book thus opens a window on the first Pre-Indo-European language of prehistoric Europe to have left a trace in history.


A Companion to Greeks Across the Ancient World

A Companion to Greeks Across the Ancient World

Author: Franco De Angelis

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2020-05-07

Total Pages: 640

ISBN-13: 1118341376

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An innovative, up-to-date treatment of ancient Greek mobility and migration from 1000 BCE to 30 BCE A Companion to Greeks Across the Ancient World explores the mobility and migration of Greeks who left their homelands in the ten centuries between the Early Iron Age and the Hellenistic period. While most academic literature centers on the Greeks of the Aegean basin area, this unique volume provides a systematic examination of the history of the other half of the ancient Greek world. Contributions from leading scholars and historians discuss where migrants settled, their new communities, and their connections and interactions with both Aegean Greeks and non-Greeks. Divided into three parts, the book first covers ancient and modern approaches and the study of the ancient Greeks outside their homelands, including various intellectual, national, and linguistic traditions. Regional case studies form the core of the text, taking a microhistory approach to examine Greeks in the Near Eastern Empires, Greek-Celtic interactions in Central Europe, Greek-established states in Central Asia, and many others throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia. The closing section of the text discusses wider themes such as the relations between the Greek homeland and the edges of Greek civilization. Reflecting contemporary research and fresh perspectives on ancient Greek culture contact, this volume: Discusses the development and intersection of mobility, migration, and diaspora studies Examines the various forms of ancient Greek mobility and their outcomes Highlights contributions to cultural development in the Greek and non-Greek world Examines wider themes and the various forms of ancient Greek mobility and their outcomes Includes an overview of ancient terminology and concepts, modern translations, numerous maps, and full references A Companion to Greeks Across the Ancient World is a valuable resource for students, instructors, and researchers of Classical antiquity, as well as non-specialists with interest in ancient Greek mobilities, migrations, and diasporas.