Lecture 5 - Social Developments Of The 8th Century

Question 1

Bronze Age collapse

Answer 1

Destruction of major Mycenaen centres from 1200, re-occupation of palace locations as villages.

Question 2

‘Dark Age’

Answer 2

Fall in population, or fall in funerary remain.
Destruction of palatial buildings and the loss of writing.
Disappearance of figurative illustration in pottery.
Severance of trading contacts.

Question 3

Developments in the 8th century

Answer 3

Growth in the number of settlements in the Pelopponese, Crete and Attica.
Increased number of sanctuaries and votives.
Increased connectivity across Greece, the Aegean and Med.
Orientalising of pottery.
Revival of writing.

Question 4

Features of the polis

Answer 4

Territory - asty, chora, agora.
People - citizens, oikos, metics.
Governing body includes assembly and judiciary.
Warfare - the Lelantine war (between Chalcis and Eretria)

Question 5

Emergence of the polis - ancient explanation - synoicism

Answer 5

Different settlements become politically united to form a polis. For example Thucydides’ example of King Theseus who united Attica into Athens. “Down to the reign of Theseus, Attics had always consisted of a number of independent townships”.

Question 6

Emergence of the polis - ancient explanation - polis natural for humans

Answer 6

Aristotle argues this - in ‘politics’ he says that man must be part of the whole state, a person who is incapable of entering the state is a lesser man or animal.

Question 7

Emergence of the polis - modern views - religious factors

Answer 7

Sanctuaries as evidence for developed communities, their development as part of the process of state formation, city centre sanctuaries (theory by de Polignac).

Question 8

Other types of community-organisation

Answer 8

A koinon (alliance of communities).
Delphian Amphictyony (league of communities based around Delphi)
The Ethne - a form of state in which communities may or may not be autonomous, but are involved in a larger, ethnic-based organisation.

Question 9

Bronze Age cultures of the Aegean

Answer 9

Characteristics of Bronze Age culture:
Not polis based but focus on the palace.
Trade links especially with Near East and Egypt.
Writing exists - Linear A and Linear B.