About the project
The three-year project, entitled The Social Archaeology of Early Iron Age and Early Archaic Greece, aims at offering an afresh approach and extensive study of the archaeology of the Greek World since the beginning of the first millennium BC until the end of the seventh century BC, by promoting multidisciplinary research with the application of modern technology, archaeometric and bioarchaeological analysis and studies.
Since the 1970’s distinguished scholars set the basis for the study of the so-called “Dark Ages” and the Geometric period (A. Snodgrass, V. Desborough, J.N. Coldstream), new rich material has come to light and various studies have appeared. However, the information still remains scattered and a full and new detailed account of the period spanning the earlier part of the first millennium up to the Early Archaic period is necessary. It is crucial for the purposes of the project the seventh century BC to be included and examined too. Indeed, despite the fact that new data has been continuously added, it has been either neglected or not presented in a satisfactory synthesis in close association with the developments of the previous period, which is unanimously believed to represent the crucial century which led to the rise of the polis. The seventh century saw numerous changes which have not been satisfactory explained yet. The developments taking place in the Greek world during this period were crucial for the further development of the polis and marked the initial steps for the acme characterising the Greek world of the sixth and fifth centuries. In order to approach and fully understand these developments, the seventh century should be introduced and examined together with the earlier period. As far as the geographical scope is concerned, the project expands over the Aegean but it also includes all the areas around the Mediterranean. Except for the theoretical part of the project, the application of modern scientific approaches, such as social anthropology, gender studies, bioarchaology, archaeometry, as well as quantitative methods will decisively contribute to the better possible results and to the presentation of a new picture of the period under examination.
The project’s emphasis lies on the study of three main axes of ancient societies: settlements, cemeteries and sanctuaries. The main goal is all the available data, including all the movable finds, found within such contexts, to be collected, entered in a database and studied. A number of cross-issues, several among them interdisciplinary, address to the entire project.
Settlements: the data concern both the Aegean area as well as the Greek colonies. The study focuses on the reasons lying behind the urbanisation and the rise of the polis, in an attempt to “read” architecture from a social point of view. A contextual approach for the artefacts recovered from settlements will be adopted. Their study in association with the actual remains could illuminate changes in social behaviour. The role of the ceramic and metal production and the study of bioarchaeological remains need to be evaluated. An important parameter in this section includes the preparation of new plans and graphic reconstructions of particular settlements and monuments.
Necropoleis: In contrast to the limited number of EIA and Early Archaic settlements, the finds from funerary contexts form the majority of the extant evidence and add importantly to the approach of the period. Much effort will be devoted to the relation of the evidence deriving from burials to that from settlements and sanctuaries. The different geographic areas will be individually examined. Issues concerning sex, age, gender and social status of the deceased will be addressed, attempting to create the profile of the contemporary societies. The subject of the ancestor cults will be set into serious consideration too.
Sanctuaries and cults: The material evidence from the early sanctuaries and its implications for the cult, the performed rituals and the social structure of the local communities is under examination. The developments in cult will be traced from the Early Iron to the Early Archaic periods, aiming at tracing similarities and differences as well as their social impacts.
Bioarchaeological and Archaeometric studies will be taken into serious account in the development of the project’s study. Extensive analysis of human and animal bones, sea molluscs, environmental samples, as well as pottery and metal samples will take place. Moreover, quantitative analysis of data will be applied. The results will be included in all the relevant sections, whenever appropriate. All the available interdisciplinary data related to the period will be used.
By using GIS applications within the frame of this project, a multiple-level study of each site will be attempted concerning urban planning and individual monuments, while a site distribution will be completed. The early settlements of Oropos and Kephala on Skiathos will serve as case studies.