Interpreting the Seventh Century BC

This book has its origin in a conference held at the British School at Athens in 2011 which aimed to explore the range of new archaeological information now available for the seventh century in Greek lands.

This book has its origin in a conference held at the British School at Athens in 2011 which aimed to explore the range of new archaeological information now available for the seventh century in Greek lands. It presents material data, combining accounts of recent discoveries (which often enable reinterpretation of older finds), regional reviews, and archaeologically focused critique of historical and art historical approaches and interpretations. The aim is to make readily accessible the material record as currently understood and to consider how it may contribute to broader critiques and new directions in research. The geographical focus is the old Greek world encompassing Macedonia and Ionia, and extending across to Sicily and southern Italy, considering also the wider trade circuits linking regional markets. The book does not aim for the pan- Mediterranean coverage of recent works: given that much of the latest innovative and critical scholarship has focused on the western Mediterranean in particular, it is necessary to bring old Greece back under the spotlight and to expose to critical scrutiny the often Athenocentric interpretative frameworks which continue to inform discussion of other parts of the Mediterranean.

Editors’ Preface ;
Notes on Contributors ;
1. Introduction: interpreting the seventh century BC (Xenia Charalambidou and Catherine Morgan) ;
2. Introduction: can one speak of the seventh century BC? (Roland Étienne) ;
3. Ceramics, analytical scales and cultural histories of seventh-century Crete (Antonis Kotsonas) ;
4. The birthplace of Greek monumental sculpture revisited (Georgia Kokkorou-Alevras) ;
5. On women and on lions (Eva Simantoni-Bournia) ;
6. Greek art in the seventh century BC: the example of bronzes from Delphi (Hélène Aurigny) ;
7. Al Mina and changing patterns of trade: the evidence from the eastern Mediterranean (Alexander Vacek) ;
8. Cypriot evidence in seventh-century Rhodes: discontinuity or change? (Giorgos Bourogiannis) ;
9. Faience in seventh-century Greece: egyptianizing ‘bric a brac’ or a useful paradigm for relations with Egypt? (Virginia Webb) [Open Access: Download] 10. A sea of luxury: luxury items and dyes of marine origin in the Aegean during the seventh century BC (Tatiana Theodoropoulou) ;
11. Coarse, plain and cooking ware: seventh-century innovation for old-fashioned pots (Jean-Sébastien Gros) ;
12. East Greek pottery workshops in the seventh century BC: tracing regional styles (Michael Kerschner) ;
13. Old Smyrna: a window onto the seventh-century painted wares from the Anglo-Turkish excavations (1948-1951) (Stavros A. Paspalas) ;
14. Euboea and the Euboean Gulf region: pottery in context (Xenia Charalambidou) ;
15. Parian ceramics of the seventh century BC in Cycladic cemeteries and sanctuaries (Photini Zaphiropoulou) ;
16. Beyond Athens and Corinth. Pottery distribution in the seventh-century Aegean: the case of Kythnos (Maria Koutsoumpou) ;
17. Conservatism versus innovation: architectural forms in early Archaic Greece (Alexander Mazarakis Ainian) ;
18. Fortifications in the seventh century. Where and why? (Rune Frederiksen) ;
19. Corinthian sanctuaries and the question of cult buildings (Catherine Morgan) ;
20. Achaian interaction and mobility in the area of the Corinthian gulf during the seventh century BC (Anastasia Gadolou) ;
21. The sanctuaries of Herakles and Apollo Ismenios at Thebes: new evidence (Vassilis Aravantinos) ;
22. A group of small vases with Subgeometric – early Archaic decoration from the sanctuary of Herakles at Thebes (Kyriaki Kalliga) ;
23. Cult in Attica. The case of the sanctuary of Artemis Mounichia (Lydia Palaiokrassa-Kopitsa) ;
24. Athenian burial practices and cultural change: the Rundbau early plot in the Kerameikos cemetery revisited (Anna Maria D’Onofrio) ;
25. Special burial treatment for the ‘heroized’ dead in the Attic countryside. The case of the elite cemetery of Vari (Alexandra Alexandridou) ;
26. Cumae in Campania during the seventh century BC (Matteo D’Acunto) ;
27. Cultural dynamics in the seventh-century Sibaritide (southern Italy) (Jan Kindberg Jacobsen, Sine Grove Saxkjær and Gloria Paola Mittica) ;
28. From innovation to tradition: seventh-century Sicily (Gillian Shepherd) ;
29. An early orientalizing spouted krater from Naxos on Sicily (Maria Costanza Lentini) ;
30. The city of Mende during the late eighth and seventh centuries BC (Sophia Moschonissioti) ;
31. Panhellenes at Methone, Pieria (c. 700 BC): new inscriptions, graffiti/dipinti, and (trade)marks (Yannis Tzifopoulos, Manthos Bessios and Antonis Kotsonas) ;
32. Frontiers in seventh-century epigraphy: aspects of diffusion and consolidation (Alan Johnston) ;
33. Skilled in the Muses’ lovely gifts: lyric poetry and the rise of the community in the seventh-century Aegean (Jan Paul Crielaard)