CONSTRUCTING THE ‘URBAN PROFILE’ OF AN ANCIENT GREEK CITY: EVIDENCE FROM THE OLYNTHOS PROJECT

2020 ◽  
Vol 115 ◽  
pp. 329-378
Author(s):  
Lisa C. Nevett ◽  
E. Bettina Tsigarida ◽  
Zosia H. Archibald ◽  
David L. Stone ◽  
Bradley A. Ault ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Infrastructure ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Greek City ◽  
Classical Greece ◽  
Relevant Evidence ◽  
Classical Studies ◽  
Legacy Data ◽  
Greek World

This article argues that a holistic approach to documenting and understanding the physical evidence for individual cities would enhance our ability to address major questions about urbanisation, urbanism, cultural identities and economic processes. At the same time we suggest that providing more comprehensive data-sets concerning Greek cities would represent an important contribution to cross-cultural studies of urban development and urbanism, which have often overlooked relevant evidence from Classical Greece. As an example of the approach we are advocating, we offer detailed discussion of data from the Archaic and Classical city of Olynthos, in the Halkidiki. Six seasons of fieldwork here by the Olynthos Project, together with legacy data from earlier projects by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and by the Greek Archaeological Service, combine to make this one of the best-documented urban centres surviving from the Greek world. We suggest that the material from the site offers the potential to build up a detailed ‘urban profile’, consisting of an overview of the early development of the community as well as an in-depth picture of the organisation of the Classical settlement. Some aspects of the urban infrastructure can also be quantified, allowing a new assessment of (for example) its demography. This article offers a sample of the kinds of data available and the sorts of questions that can be addressed in constructing such a profile, based on a brief summary of the interim results of fieldwork and data analysis carried out by the Olynthos Project, with a focus on research undertaken during the 2017, 2018 and 2019 seasons.

A Discussion of Josiah Ober’s The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 1142-1143
Author(s):  
Arlene W. Saxonhouse
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Classical Greece ◽  
Theoretical Account ◽  
Political Inquiry ◽  
Greek World

Ancient Greece has long exercised a powerful hold on the imagination of modern political science. But until fairly recently, this influence has largely been philosophical, related to the origins of many theoretical concepts—including the concept of politics itself—in the ancient world. In The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece, Josiah Ober offers a synoptic and ambitious social theoretical account of the ancient Greek world, the sources of its power, the causes of its decline, and the lessons that can be drawn from this story for contemporary social and political science. We have thus invited a range of political scientists to comment on Ober’s account of classical Greece and its relevance to contemporary political inquiry.

Agricultural Production

2018 ◽  
pp. 118-141
Author(s):  
Alain Bresson
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Animal Husbandry ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Greek City ◽  
Rangeland Ecology ◽  
City States ◽  
Age Constraints ◽  
Regional Types ◽  
Greek World

This chapter examines the growth of agricultural production in the Greek city-states. It traces the evolutions and mutations of agriculture in the ancient Greek world as well as the consequences of these changes, first by discussing the so-called Mediterranean trilogy that comprised ancient Greek agriculture: grain, olives, and grapes. While cereals, grapes, and olives constituted the heart of agricultural production in ancient Greece, the role played by other products such as fig, vegetables, roses and other flowers, and honey is also considered. The chapter goes on to explore animal husbandry in the Greek city-states, focusing on the debate on “pastoralism” in the Early Iron Age, constraints in livestock raising, and the three main regional types of stock raising that extended from the southern Aegean to Thessaly, the Peloponnese, and the vast migratory areas of western Greece. Finally, it analyzes rangeland ecology and management during the period.

A Discussion of Josiah Ober’s The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 1140-1141
Author(s):  
S. Sara Monoson
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Classical Greece ◽  
Theoretical Account ◽  
Political Inquiry ◽  
Greek World

Ancient Greece has long exercised a powerful hold on the imagination of modern political science. But until fairly recently, this influence has largely been philosophical, related to the origins of many theoretical concepts—including the concept of politics itself—in the ancient world. In The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece, Josiah Ober offers a synoptic and ambitious social theoretical account of the ancient Greek world, the sources of its power, the causes of its decline, and the lessons that can be drawn from this story for contemporary social and political science. We have thus invited a range of political scientists to comment on Ober’s account of classical Greece and its relevance to contemporary political inquiry.

scholarly journals The Meaning of the Snake in the Ancient Greek World

Arts ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 2
Author(s):  
Diana Rodríguez Pérez
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Classical Greece ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Source Of Information ◽  
Greek World ◽  
Archaic And Classical Greece ◽  
Previous Scholarship

Despite playing no meaningful practical role in the lives of the ancient Greeks, snakes are ubiquitous in their material culture and literary accounts, in particular in narratives which emphasise their role of guardian animals. This paper will mainly utilise vase paintings as a source of information, with literary references for further elucidation, to explain why the snake had such a prominent role and thus clarify its meaning within the cultural context of Archaic and Classical Greece, with a particular focus on Athens. Previous scholarship has tended to focus on dualistic opposites, such as life/death, nature/culture, and creation/destruction. This paper argues instead that ancient Greeks perceived the existence of a special primordial force living within, emanating from, or symbolised by the snake; a force which is not more—and not less—than pure life, with all its paradoxes and complexities. Thus, the snake reveals itself as an excellent medium for accessing Greek ideas about the divine, anthropomorphism, and ancestry, the relationship between humans, nature and the supernatural, and the negotiation of the inevitable dichotomy of old and new.

Greek Warfare beyond the Polis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Blome
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Military History ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Greek City ◽  
Federal States ◽  
Defensive Strategies ◽  
Wide Scale ◽  
City State ◽  
The Military ◽  
Greek World

This book assesses the nature and broader significance of warfare in the mountains of classical Greece. Based on detailed reconstructions of four unconventional military encounters, the book argues that the upland Greeks of the classical mainland developed defensive strategies to guard against external aggression. These strategies enabled wide-scale, sophisticated actions in response to invasions, but they did not require the direction of a central, federal government. The book brings these strategies to the forefront by driving ancient Greek military history and ancient Greek scholarship “beyond the polis” into dialogue with each other. As it contends, beyond-the-polis scholarship has done much to expand and refine our understanding of the ancient Greek world, but it has overemphasized the importance of political institutions in emergent federal states and has yet to treat warfare involving upland Greeks systematically or in depth. In contrast, the book scrutinizes the sociopolitical roots of warfare from beyond the polis, which are often neglected in military histories of the Greek city-state. By focusing on the significance of warfare vis-à-vis the sociopolitical development of upland polities, the book shows that although the more powerful states of the classical Greek world were dismissive or ignorant of the military capabilities of upland Greeks, the reverse was not the case. The Phocians, Aetolians, Acarnanians, and Arcadians in circa 490–362 BCE were well aware of the arrogant attitudes of their aggressive neighbors, and as highly efficient political entities, they exploited these attitudes to great effect.

A Discussion of Josiah Ober’s The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 1146-1146
Author(s):  
Daron Acemoglu ◽  
James A. Robinson ◽  
Barry R. Weingast
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Classical Greece ◽  
Theoretical Account ◽  
Political Inquiry ◽  
Greek World

Ancient Greece has long exercised a powerful hold on the imagination of modern political science. But until fairly recently, this influence has largely been philosophical, related to the origins of many theoretical concepts—including the concept of politics itself—in the ancient world. In The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece, Josiah Ober offers a synoptic and ambitious social theoretical account of the ancient Greek world, the sources of its power, the causes of its decline, and the lessons that can be drawn from this story for contemporary social and political science. We have thus invited a range of political scientists to comment on Ober’s account of classical Greece and its relevance to contemporary political inquiry.

Repoliticizing the Ancient Greek City, Thirty Years Later

2014 ◽  
Vol 69 (03) ◽  
pp. 471-501
Author(s):  
Vincent Azoulay
Keyword(s):  
General Consideration ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Greek City ◽  
Political Experience ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
Greek World ◽  
The Way

Abstracts Thirty years after Nicole Loraux published her 1986 article in L’Homme, this study revisits the question of political experience in the ancient Greek world. Its aim is to demonstrate the importance of the two definitions of the term “politics” as conceived by the Ancient Greeks. On the one hand, the political was conceived as an ensemble of activities with no specific institutional substance or form, a sphere of action that has no direct equivalent in the modern state, but rather relates to very varied experiences and practices undertaken in the context of conflict. On the other hand, politics was understood not only as organized access to different institutions, but also as the way in which a community structured and defined itself. Taking the Athenian crisis of 404-403 BCE as a case study, in particular the speech of Cleocritus preserved in Xenophon’s Hellenica, this paper proposes a new way of thinking about this dual expression of collective life. Far from the reconciliatory reading of Cleocritus’ speech proposed by Loraux, his appeal for harmony bears witness, in the turmoil and tension of events, to the way that politics (in the institutional sense) was sidelined to the exclusive benefit of the political and the collective practices associated with it. In conclusion, this case study opens up a more general consideration of the meaning of the “event” and its epistemological significance. By considering the crisis of 404-403 BCE at the heart of the “regimes of historicity” that characterized the history of Athens between the fifth and fourth centuries BCE, this article aims to provide a clearer articulation of the foundational moments and established functioning of Greek democracy.

A Discussion of Josiah Ober’s The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 1144-1145
Author(s):  
Melissa Schwartzberg
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Classical Greece ◽  
Theoretical Account ◽  
Political Inquiry ◽  
Greek World

Ancient Greece has long exercised a powerful hold on the imagination of modern political science. But until fairly recently, this influence has largely been philosophical, related to the origins of many theoretical concepts—including the concept of politics itself—in the ancient world. In The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece, Josiah Ober offers a synoptic and ambitious social theoretical account of the ancient Greek world, the sources of its power, the causes of its decline, and the lessons that can be drawn from this story for contemporary social and political science. We have thus invited a range of political scientists to comment on Ober’s account of classical Greece and its relevance to contemporary political inquiry.

A Discussion of Josiah Ober’s The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 1138-1139
Author(s):  
Federica Carugati
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Classical Greece ◽  
Theoretical Account ◽  
Political Inquiry ◽  
Greek World

Ancient Greece has long exercised a powerful hold on the imagination of modern political science. But until fairly recently, this influence has largely been philosophical, related to the origins of many theoretical concepts—including the concept of politics itself—in the ancient world. In The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece, Josiah Ober offers a synoptic and ambitious social theoretical account of the ancient Greek world, the sources of its power, the causes of its decline, and the lessons that can be drawn from this story for contemporary social and political science. We have thus invited a range of political scientists to comment on Ober’s account of classical Greece and its relevance to contemporary political inquiry.

Social Ecology of the Ancient Greek World

1975 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 211-218
Author(s):  
Simon Cornelis Bakhuizen
Keyword(s):  
Social Ecology ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Greek World
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