The Discovery of the Greek Bronze Age
The Discovery of the Greek Bronze Age

Author: J. Lesley Fitton

Publisher:

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13:

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The Classical Greeks sought their own origins in legends of gods and heroes. It was not until the discipline of archaeology emerged, in the nineteenth century, that the evidence of material culture could be used to form an image of the earliest societies in Greek lands. Only in the last 125 years have the Cycladic, Minoan and Mycenaean peoples been brought to light and an elaborate framework of dates, styles, periods and events constructed to enable us to understand the Aegean Bronze Age. Where have these 'facts' come from, and how accurately do they actually describe a remote period from which there is no written history? To trace the progression from a blank to a complex picture this book begins with the towering achievements of individuals such as Heinrich Schliemann and Arthur Evans, whose dramatic discoveries made them household names. The author then charts the consolidation and often controversial reinterpretation of their finds by succeeding generations, thereby raising fascinating questions about how archaeological knowledge is acquired and how our changing assumptions and attitudes shape our view of the ancient past.

The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean
The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean

Author: Eric H. Cline

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2012-01-01

Total Pages: 968

ISBN-13: 019024075X

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The Greek Bronze Age, roughly 3000 to 1000 BCE, witnessed the flourishing of the Minoan and Mycenean civilizations, the earliest expansion of trade in the Aegean and wider Mediterranean Sea, the development of artistic techniques in a variety of media, and the evolution of early Greek religious practices and mythology. The period also witnessed a violent conflict in Asia Minor between warring peoples in the region, a conflict commonly believed to be the historical basis for Homer's Trojan War. The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean provides a detailed survey of these fascinating aspects of the period, and many others, in sixty-six newly commissioned articles. Divided into four sections, the handbook begins with Background and Definitions, which contains articles establishing the discipline in its historical, geographical, and chronological settings and in its relation to other disciplines. The second section, Chronology and Geography, contains articles examining the Bronze Age Aegean by chronological period (Early Bronze Age, Middle Bronze Age, Late Bronze Age). Each of the periods are further subdivided geographically, so that individual articles are concerned with Mainland Greece during the Early Bronze Age, Crete during the Early Bronze Age, the Cycladic Islands during the Early Bronze Age, and the same for the Middle Bronze Age, followed by the Late Bronze Age. The third section, Thematic and Specific Topics, includes articles examining thematic topics that cannot be done justice in a strictly chronological/geographical treatment, including religion, state and society, trade, warfare, pottery, writing, and burial customs, as well as specific events, such as the eruption of Santorini and the Trojan War. The fourth section, Specific Sites and Areas, contains articles examining the most important regions and sites in the Bronze Age Aegean, including Mycenae, Tiryns, Pylos, Knossos, Kommos, Rhodes, the northern Aegean, and the Uluburun shipwreck, as well as adjacent areas such as the Levant, Egypt, and the western Mediterranean. Containing new work by an international team of experts, The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean represents the most comprehensive, authoritative, and up-to-date single-volume survey of the field. It will be indispensable for scholars and advanced students alike.

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.

The Aegean from Bronze Age to Iron Age
The Aegean from Bronze Age to Iron Age

Author: Oliver Dickinson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2006-09-27

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 1134778716

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Following Oliver Dickinson’s successful The Aegean Bronze Age, this textbook is a synthesis of the period between the collapse of the Bronze Age civilization in the thirteenth and twelfth centuries BC, and the rise of the Greek civilization in the eighth century BC. With chapter bibliographies, distribution maps and illustrations, Dickinson’s detailed examination of material and archaeological evidence argues that many characteristics of Ancient Greece developed in the Dark Ages. He also includes up-to-date coverage of the 'Homeric question'. This highly informative text focuses on: the reasons for the Bronze Age collapse which brought about the Dark Ages the processes that enabled Greece to emerge from the Dark Ages the degree of continuity from the Dark Ages to later times. Dickinson has provided an invaluable survey of this period that will not only be useful to specialists and undergraduates in the field, but that will also prove highly popular with the interested general reader.

Archaeology Meets Science
Archaeology Meets Science

Author: Holley Martlew

Publisher: Oxbow Books

Published: 2008-03-14

Total Pages: 621

ISBN-13: 1782974547

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The 'Archaeology meets Science' project is currently transforming our understanding of the Minoan and Mycenaean civilisations, through the in-depth application of state of the art scientific analyses to ceramic artefacts and skeletal material. This book is the fruit of this acclaimed research, which was carried out between 1997 and 2003, and presented in an exhibition in a number of museums across Europe and the United States, starting with the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. Moving beyond the standard archaeological format of illustrations with descriptions of contexts, the book analyses each object from the inside , and consequently each has a different story to tell. Organic residue and stable isotope analysis has extended our knowledge beyond anything previously gleaned through conventional archaeological research, and we now have a much better understanding of the food and drink consumed by ordinary people in Bronze Age Greece. There are some fascinating insights, such as the origin of modern Greek retsina, which was traced first to the time of Agamemnon, then to Crete in the 17th century BC and finally to the Early Minoan Period, c. 2000 BC. The book provides the primary scientific evidence on which the world renowned scientists who have carried out this work have based their conclusions.

The Aegean Bronze Age
The Aegean Bronze Age

Author: Oliver Thomas Pilkington Kirwan Dickinson

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1994-03-03

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 9780521456647

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Oliver Dickinson has written a scholarly, accessible, and up-to-date introduction to the prehistoric civilizations of Greece. The Aegean Bronze Age, the long period from roughly 3000 to 1000 BC, saw the rise and fall of the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations. The cultural history of the region emerges through a series of thematic chapters that treat settlement, economy, crafts, exchange and foreign contact (particularly with the civilizations of the Near East), and religion and burial customs. Students and teachers will welcome this book, but it will also provide the ideal companion for amateur archaeologists visiting the Aegean.

Collapse and Transformation
Collapse and Transformation

Author: Guy D. Middleton

Publisher: Oxbow Books

Published: 2020-04-09

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 1789254280

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The years c. 1250 to 1150 BC in Greece and the Aegean are often characterised as a time of crisis and collapse. A critical period in the long history of the region and its people and culture, they witnessed the end of the Mycenaean kingdoms, with their palaces and Linear B records, and, through the Postpalatial period, the transition into the Early Iron Age. But, on closer examination, it has become increasingly clear that the period as a whole, across the region, defies simple characterisation – there was success and splendour, resilience and continuity, and novelty and innovation, actively driven by the people of these lands through this transformative century. The story of the Aegean at this time has frequently been incorporated into narratives focused on the wider eastern Mediterranean, and most infamously the ‘Sea Peoples’ of the Egyptian texts. In twenty-five chapters written by 25 specialists, Collapse and Transformation instead offers a tight focus on the Aegean itself, providing an up-to date picture of the archaeology ‘before’ and ‘after’ ‘the collapse’ of c. 1200 BC. It will be essential reading for students and scholars of the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean regions, as well as providing data and a range of interpretations to those studying collapse and resilience more widely and engaging in comparative studies. Introductory chapters discuss notions of collapse, and provide overviews of the Minoan and Mycenaean collapses. These are followed by twelve chapters, which review the evidence from the major regions of the Aegean, including the Argolid, Messenia, and Boeotia, Crete, and the Aegean islands. Six chapters then address key themes: the economy, funerary practices, the Mycenaean pottery of the mainland and the wider Aegean and eastern Mediterranean region, religion, and the extent to which later Greek myth can be drawn upon as evidence or taken to reflect any historical reality. The final four chapters provide a wider context for the Aegean story, surveying the eastern Mediterranean, including Cyprus and the Levant, and the themes of subsistence and warfare.

Great Moments in Greek Archaeology
Great Moments in Greek Archaeology

Author: Panos Valavanēs

Publisher: Getty Publications

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 9780892369102

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This beautifully illustrated book offers a wide-ranging overview of the greatest archaeological sites and discoveries from ancient Greece. The contributors--a veritable who's who of the most venerable names in Greek archaeology--include both those who have excavated at the sites in question and scholars who have spent a lifetime studying the monuments about which they write. Presented here are the legendary sites of ancient Greece, including the Athenian Acropolis, Olympia, Delphi, Schliemann's Mycenae, and the Athenian Agora; the most iconic sculptures in the Greek world, such as the Aphrodite of Melos and the Nike of Samothrace; and several fascinating chapters on underwater archaeology discussing the Kyrenia and Uluburun shipwrecks and the astonishing bronze masterpieces raised from the sea. This is the first book to bring together the archaeological legacy of ancient Greece in a concise and accessible way while still preserving the excitement of discovery.