Greek Archaeology

Christopher Mee is Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Liverpool. Formerly Assistant Director of the British School at Athens, Mee specializes in the prehistory of Greece and has directed excavation and survey projects in Lakonia and on the Methana peninsula. He is the author of Rhodes in the Bronze Age: An Archaeological Survey (1982), and co-author of A Private Place: Death in Prehistoric Greece (with William Cavanagh, 1998) and Greece: An Oxford Archaeological Guide (with Antony Spawforth, 2001).

"Despite such conservatism, the book manages to keep an essential balance between the detail of the archaeological material and the grand picture of socio-historical phenomena. It shifts between different spatial and temporal scales smoothly and it is certainly recommendable to any student wishing to introduce her/himself to Greek archaeology." (Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 7 November 2011) "Christopher Mee's Greek Archaeology is a thoroughly contemporary and innovative overview, which I recommend warmly to students from the sixth form to their sixties (and later) as an excellent introduction to the subject . . . This is a book for all who want to start to understand the whole of the glory that was Greece from its material culture. It also has good illustrations." (The Anglo-Hellenic Review, 1 September 2011)

• List of Figures xiList of Maps xxxivList of Tables xxxvAcknowledgments xxxviList of Abbreviations xxxvii1 Introduction 1Across the Great Divide 1Chronology 32 Settlement and Settlements 8Introduction 8Neolithic Greece 9Early Bronze Age 10Palatial Crete 13The Cyclades 16Mycenaean Greece 17The Early Iron Age 22The Eighth Century 25The Archaic Period 28The Classical Period 31The Hellenistic Period 36Conclusions 403 The Architecture of Power 43Introduction 43Neolithic Dimini 43Early Bronze Age Lerna 45Neopalatial Knossos 47Mycenaean Pylos 51Early Iron Age Lefkandi 56Classical Athens 58Hellenistic Macedonia 64Conclusions 664 Residential Space 69Introduction 69The Neolithic Period 69The Early Bronze Age 72Middle Bronze Age Greece 73Neopalatial Crete 75The Cyclades 79Mycenaean Greece 82The Early Iron Age 84The Archaic and Classical Periods 88The Later Fourth Century and the Hellenistic Period 97Conclusions 1045 The Countryside 107Introduction 107The First Farmers 108The Secondary Products Revolution and Mediterranean Polyculture Revisited 110Royal Estates 112Early Iron Age Pastoralists? 114Down on the Farm? 115Works and Days 124Conclusions 1276 Technology and Production 129Pottery 129Neolithic pottery 129Early Bronze Age pottery 132Minoan and Mycenaean pottery 134Early Iron Age pottery 139Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic pottery 141Pottery production at Athens and Corinth 145Metallurgy 149The Neolithic and Early Bronze Age 149Second-millennium metalwork 151The age of iron 155The silver mines at Lavrion 157Conclusions 1637 Trade and Colonization 166Introduction 166Neolithic 167Early Bronze Age 168The Thalassocracy of Minos 171Mycenaeans Overseas? 175Into the Iron Age 178Magna Graecia 180France and Spain 184The Black Sea 186The Eastern Mediterranean and Egypt 186Ships and Cargoes 187Conclusions 1908 Warfare 192Introduction 192The Early Bronze Age Aegean 193Pax Minoica 193Well-greaved Achaeans 197Well-built Mycenae 201Warfare in Transition 207Hoplite Warfare 210Naval Warfare 213Fortifications 216The Rise of Macedon 220Conclusions 2219 Death and Burial 223Introduction 223Neolithic Greece 224Early Bronze Age Greece 225Middle Bronze Age Greece 230Mycenaean Greece 233Early Iron Age Greece 239The Archaic Period 244The Classical Period 245Conclusions 25210 Religion 255Introduction 255Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Figurines 255Cretan Rural Sanctuaries 258Religion in the Cretan Palaces and Towns 262Cretan Converts? 265Mycenaean Religion 266Religion after the Palaces 272Early Iron Age 273The Eighth Century 274The Archaic Period 278The Fifth Century 286The Fourth Century and the Hellenistic Period 290Conclusions 295Timeline 298Glossary 300References 302Index 319