Greek Culture Flashcards
Domestic architecture: house plans, typicality and changes, use as evidence; Burial rites and practices: refl of social status, rel betw living and dead, changes, role of Eub and Lefk; Coins: why, timing, need for; Idea of polis pre-texts; Importnace of innovations esp in iron technology Gender
What is the general pattern when comparing settlements’ plans within an between LBA and EIA?
Variation
What were two priorities in the laying out and organisation of the LBA and EIA Greek settlements?
Connections w the past and civic identity
Defence
What are the 5 features of urban planning that can be used in study?
domestic areas
artisanal regions
house layouts
presence of temples or not (or places of cult)
presence of open spaces or not
What are two continuous features of EIA settlements across Greek communities?
Archaeologically distinct artisan quarter
Necropolis outside city walls
What building plan becomes particularly common in the EIA?
apsidal
What does Snodgrass (1993) say on the nature of EIA communities?
Likely were not big enough nor long lasting enough to develop significant hierarchies suggested by certain interpretations of the archaeological evidence
What sort of plan did later EIA rectangular buildings have?
Courtyards at centre with smaller rooms arranged around their perimeter
What was a feature of the Cretan EIA towns rather unique to their topography?
Defensive walls built in between two slopes by the settlements
Around when does the idea of the Greek polis become clearer? What should be added as nuance here?
8th-7th centuries
There was still a great degree of heterogeneity among settlements
Why does dev of polis around this time help to explain variation?
The period was defined by major developments and changes in political/social organisation. Therefore, communities go down different pol/social routes in different ways as part of a general pattern. A lot of potential for ways in which communities could change.
Why is burial evidence so important for LBA and IA studies?
It makes up large proportion of the evidence we have
What can be used to deduce info about person buried and/or their community?
offerings within grave/associated w burial
What is the problem with using burial data to extrapolate info about society/individuals?
treatment in death may not equate to the experience of that person when alive
What social characteristics are often studied through burial data? (3)
status
ethnicity
gender
What was a major shift in burial rites from LBA to EIA? Why should caution be taken with this conc?
collective tombs to individual ones
it wasn’t a complete shift with collective burials still occurring in G world
What form of burial becomes popular in EIA? When precisely?
Cremation
10th-8th cents
What were the two forms of cremation? What made them different?
Primary - body burnt on pyre at the location of burial
Secondary - body burnt elsewhere then ashes put into urn whihc is then buried
What was a common secondary cremation form of burial in Attica?
trench-and-hole
What were the common primary crem tomb types?
cist or shaft tombs
When were earliest burial in Kerameikos? What kind of burial were they?
11th cent
secondary trench and hole types
In Kerameikos, what was main distinctive characteristic between female and male secondary crems?
female - belly amph urn
male - neck amph urn
What are the different cemeteries in Lefkandi? Periods?
SKOUBRIS 11th-10th c.
KHALIOTIS finds date to LH IIIC
PALIA PERIVOLIA 11th c.
EAST CEMETERY uncert
SOUTH CEMETERY uncert
TOUMBA 10th c.
Where in Athens was the ‘rich Athenian lady’ grave found? What type of burial was it?
What made it very distinctive? (3)
Areopagus
9th cent BCE
cremation, trench-and-hole
possible foetus cremation, rich finds related to females specif, variety of finds e.g. faience imports
What consideration should be made in light of the fact a foetus was cremated w the rich athenian lady? Papadopoulos’ take?
who the unusually wealthy dedications were being made to and whose status they may reflect
They should not be separated but rather both the deaths and bodies were representative of life taken too soon
Interpretations as to who ‘the rich athenian lady’ could have been?
Smithson: daughter of high class pentakosiomedimnos, or of king Arriphronos.
Coldstream: part of Mentonid clan, aristocratic family that had great power in early athens
How were secondary crems in Kerameikos made distinctive?
grave markers like simple stones or amphorae
Where was the panoply tomb found? What is its significance?
Argos, buried c720 BCE
Evidence of early armour, continuation of Argos with burial rather than cremation, relationship betw indiv when alive and dead
When was their a significant increase to the number of cemeteries in Attica?
10th-8th cents
What are the 3 theories as to increase in number of Attican cemeteries?
population increase
emergence of the polis (conc of people)
increase in visibility of graves
What was the typical way of child inhumation?
enchytrismos - buried in a pot
When was the Phaleron (Piraeus) cemetery in use? Type of burials?
10-4th cents
inhumations, lower status
mass graves of shackled males
Why is settlement at Lefkandi so good for EIA evidence?
uninhabited from 8th cent BCE
Name of settlement at Lefkandi?
Xeropolis
What do Lefkandi burial dedications, especially of Toumba cemetery reveal about connections in the Agean?
wide range of contacts (Syrian, Cyrpriot items) and a thriving local production at the same time
What are suggestions as to causes behind the abandonment of Xeropolis?
-lelantine war
-intense socio-political competition that prompted cultural development too complex for the area on which the settlement was based/community imploded
-migration to Eretria (aligns w settlement patterns of E at this time)
What are the theories as to origins of cremation that became so popular in G as EIA came?
from East - Hittites
from Italy, practiced since LBA
Why would cremation have been expensive?
limited access to timber
a lot was required c3-4 days to burn a body
