Anthony M. Snodgrass - Böcker

Until quite recently, it has been the accepted view that the Archaic period of Greek history was by definition merely a prelude to the Oassical period, an era regarded as unsurpassed in its literary, intellectual, artistic, and political achievements. Lately, however, ancient historians and Classical archaeologists have undertaken a major reappraisal of their subject, one result of which has been a broadening view of the Archaic period and its importance to the history of Greece. In this first major book on Archaic Greece to be written by an archaeologist, Professor Snodgrass shows how the supremacy of Classical Greece would have been impossible without the preceding centuries of the Archaic period. The intellectual revolution which divided the Archaic period from the Oassical transformed something remarkable into something unique. But there was an earlier revolution, a "structural revolution," which took place not merely within the Archaic period, but at its beginning.It had far-reaching effects: it established the economic basis of Greek society, as well as the main outlines of its social framework; it drew the political map of the Greek world in a form that was to endure for four centuries; it set up, with even greater permanence, the forms of state that were to determine Greek political history; it provided the interests and goals, not merely for Greek but for Western art as a whole, which were to be pursued over the next two and a half millennia; it gave Greece in the Homeric epics an ideal of behavior and a memento of past glory to sustain it; it provided much of the basis of Greek religion; and it furnished many lesser things, among them the means for Greek society to defend its independence militarily. It is doubtful whether, before or since, all these features have ever come about in one conn try with such concertedness and such speed. Archaic Greece gives a broader cultural history of the period than has hitherto been attempted, and Professor Snodgrass shows that it can be seen, for perhaps the first time, as a complete episode in its own right.His fresh and personal approach to his subject, together with the book's superb illustrations, will ensure a wide audience.

Classical archaeology probably enjoys a wider appeal than any other branch of classical or archaeological studies. As an intellectual and academic discipline, however, its esteem has not matched its popularity. Here, Anthony Snodgrass argues that classical archaeology has a rare potential in the whole field of the study of the past to make innovative discoveries and apply modern approaches by widening the aims of the discipline.

"The papers in this book presume to stray across the traditional boundaries with the domains of prehistorians, ancient historians, and literary critics.... It had been regarded as somehow out of order for Classical archaeologists to meddle with social, political, and economic history; or with topics that involved the entire Old World; or with testing the historical veracity of ancient authors; or with the intellectual presuppositions of ancient artists. At heart, my experience has been not so much of swimming across the tide, as of working across the grain of the subject."—from the PrefaceIn the past few decades the aims, subject matter, and methods of classical archaeology have changed beyond recognition. Archaeology and the Emergence of Greece collects twenty-five essays by A. M. Snodgrass, the leading authority on the archaeology of early Greece that led the way in this transformation. Snodgrass emphasizes the Iron Age as the formative period in the making of Classical Greece and elaborates upon this link by commenting on literature, history, anthropology, Aegean and European prehistory and Roman provincial archaeology. This volume, for which Snodgrass has written new introductions to each essay, will become required reading for students and scholars of the ancient world. The essays have been chosen and organized to facilitate classroom use.