Theoretical Approaches to the Archaeology of Ancient Greece: Manipulating Material Culture

by Lisa Nevett

Overview

In the modern world, objects and buildings speak eloquently about their creators. Status, gender identity, and cultural affiliations are just a few characteristics we can often infer about such material culture. But can we make similar deductions about the inhabitants of the first millennium BCE Greek world? Theoretical Approaches to the Archaeology of Ancient Greece offers a series of case studies exploring how a theoretical approach to the archaeology of this area provides insight into aspects of ancient society.

An introductory section exploring the emergence and growth of theoretical approaches is followed by examinations of the potential insights these approaches provide. The authors probe some of the meanings attached to ancient objects, townscapes, and cemeteries, for those who created, and used, or inhabited them.

The range of contexts stretches from the early Greek communities during the eighth and seventh centuries BCE, through Athens between the eighth and fifth centuries BCE, and on into present day Turkey and the Levant during the third and second centuries BCE. The authors examine a range of practices, from the creation of individual items such as ceramic vessels and figurines, through to the construction of civic buildings, monuments, and cemeteries. At the same time they interrogate a range of spheres, from craft production, through civic and religious practices, to funerary ritual.

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780472130238
Publisher:	University of Michigan Press
Publication date:	03/06/2017
Pages:	338
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Lisa C. Nevett is Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Michigan.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Introduction Lisa C. Nevett 1

Part 1 Disciplinary Context

Chapter 1 A Theoretical or Atheoretical Greek Archaeology? The Last Twenty-Five Years David L. Stone 15

Chapter 2 Haus und Stadt im klassischen Griechenland: Its Theoretical Impact Twenty-Five Years On Bradley A. Ault 40

Chapter 3 Classical Archaeology Comes of Age: Supplying Theory to Other World Archaeologies David Small 51

Part 2 Artifacts

Chapter 4 The Material Entanglements of Writing Things Down James Whitley 71

Chapter 5 Chaîne Opératoire: Moving from Theory to Praxis in the Study of Attic Geometric Pottery Ioannis Smyrnaios 104

Chapter 6 Reception, Intention, and Attic Vases Kathleen M. Lynch 124

Chapter 7 Ethnicity and Greek Art History in Theory and Practice S. Rebecca Martin 143

Chapter 8 Material(ity) Girl: Examining Images of Aphrodite on the Bullae from Tel Kedesh Lisa Ayla Çakmak 164

Part 3 Civic and Religious Landscapes

Chapter 9 Coordination Problems, Social Architecture, and Causal Efficacy: The Case of the Old Bouleuterion in the Athenian Agora Jessica Paga 189

Chapter 10 Mapping the Religious Landscape: The Case of Pan in Athens Michael Scott 212

Chapter 11 The "Spatial Turn" in Ancient Greek Festival Research: Venues of the Athenian City Dionysia and the Great Panathenaia Pompai Soi Agelidis 230

Part 4 Funerary Landscapes

Chapter 12 Funerary Spatial Concepts and Spatial Practices in Southeastern Sicily during the Eighth to Fifth Centuries BCE Kerstin P. Hofmann Regina Attula 249

Chapter 13 The Tomb Doth Protest Too Much? Constructed Identity in Tomb II at Vergina Elina Salminen 273

Part 5 Responses

Chapter 14 Theory and Method in Greek Archaeology: Some Opportunities and Challenges Lin Foxhall 297

Chapter 15 Does "Greek Archaeology" Matter? Zosia Archibald 301

Contributors 307

Index 311