Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Archaic and Classical Greek Sicily
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Vancouver
STATE: BC
COUNTRY: Canada
NATIONALITY:
http://cnrs.ubc.ca/people/franco-de-angelis/ * https://www.dropbox.com/s/3o6jm6gqz8t73ej/Franco%20De%20Angelis%2C%20curriculum%20vitae.pdf?dl=0 * https://www.linkedin.com/in/franco-de-angelis-1b665018/?ppe=1
RESEARCHER NOTES:
Title: Prof.
Email: franco.de_angelis@ubc.ca
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/nr95016800
HEADING: De Angelis, Franco
000 00468cz a2200157n 450
001 3608501
005 20130821073812.0
008 950505n| azannaabn |a aaa c
010 __ |a nr 95016800
035 __ |a (OCoLC)oca03832922
040 __ |a NjP |b eng |e rda |c NjP |d ICU
100 1_ |a De Angelis, Franco
400 1_ |a Angelis, Franco De
670 __ |a The Archaeology of Greek colonisation, 1994: |b t.p. (Franco De Angelis) p. vi (Lincoln College, Oxford)
953 __ |a xx00
985 __ |c RLG |e LSPC
PERSONAL
Male.
EDUCATION:University of Ottawa, B.A., 1989; McGill University, M.A., 1991, Lincoln College, University of Oxford, D.Phil., 1996.
ADDRESS
CAREER
University of Lethbridge, Department History, assistant professor, 1997-2000; University of Calgary, Department of Greek and Roman Studies, assistant professor, 2000-03; Department of History & Classics, University of Alberta, adjunct professor, 1997-2002; University of British Columbia, Department of Classical, Near Eastern, and Religious Studies, assistant professor, 2003-05, associate professor, 2005-16, professor, 2016—.
AWARDS:Trevor Jones Memorial Award, University of Ottawa, 1989; J.W. McConnell Memorial Fellowship, McGill University, 1989; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship, 1992; Ancient History Prize, University of Oxford, 1994; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Standard Research Grant, 2001; Election to a Visiting Fellowship at Clare Hall in the University of Cambridge, 2003; Early Career Scholar, Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, Distinguished University Scholar, both from University of British Columbia, both 2004; Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung Research Fellowship, 2007, 2013.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Franco De Angelis teaches at the University of British Columbia, where he is Professor of Greek History. De Angelis graduated with honors from the University of Ottawa and received an M.A. in classical archaeology and history from McGill University, going on to earn a D.Phil. at Lincoln College, University of Oxford, in 1996. Before joining the University of British Columbia faculty in 2003, he held teaching positions at the University of Lethbridge, the University of Alberta, and the University of Calgary. His work has been recognized with numerous grants and awards, including two Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung Research Fellowships.
De Angelis’s research focuses on the social history of the ancient Greek world, including such issues as migrations, environment, urbanism, and cross-cultural interactions. He is editor of the collection Regionalism and Globalism in Antiquity: Exploring Their Limits and co-editor, with Gocha R. Tsteskhladze, of The Archaeology of Greek Colonisation: Essays Dedicated to Sir John Boardman.
Megara Hyblaia and Selinous
De Angelis’s first book, Megara Hyblaia and Selinous: The Development of Two Greek City-States in Archaic Sicily, examines the histories of two Greek colonies that were established about one hundred years apart. Megara Hyblaia, located on the southeastern coast of Sicily, was established during the first wave of Greek settlement in the latter half of the eighth century B.C.E., around the same times as the founding of Syracuse. Sometime in the 480s the ruler of Syracuse, Gelo, laid siege to Megara Hyblaia, which eventually surrendered. After most of its people were removed, either sold into slavery or resettled in Syracuse, the city was abandoned. Selinous was founded in the mid-seventh century B.C.E. by a group from Megara Hyblaia, and was thus a second-generation colony. Located on Sicily’s southwestern coast, it became one of the most important and wealthy Greek colonies on the island.
De Angelis discusses the foundation and development of these cities as well as their relationship with indigenous Sicel tribes and, in the case of Selinous, with North African (Punic) settlements from Carthage. He finds evidence that Greeks and Sicels had substantial interactions, both cooperative and competitive. Residents of Selinous had a similarly complex relationship with Punic colonists. Trade with Carthage contributed to Selinous’s enormous wealth, but Carthage was also a major economic rival of Greece. Starting in 600 B.C.E., Carthage battled a Syracuse-led coalition for control of Sicily, and in 408 destroyed Selinous despite that city’s Punic sympathies.
Writing in Antiquity, Bradley A. Ault said that the author “offers detailed discussions of site development at Megara Hyblaia, especially the growth and numbers of houses, . . . evidence for population trends, . . . and trade and exchange.” With less evidence available on the layout and domestic buildings of Selinous, De Angelis focuses instead on that city’s seven monumental temples, erected during the second half of the sixth century B.C.E. Said Ault: “De Angelis moves beyond their architectural and cultic significance to assess the (s)ite’s wealth using volumetric and cost analyses of the buildings. . . . As with Megara Hyblaia, De Angelis musters the archaeological and historical evidence to provide compelling reconstructions of the city’s territory, its population and economy.”
Archaic and Classical Greek Sicily
In Archaic and Classical Greek Sicily: A Social and Economic History De Angelis argues that the relationship between ancient Greece and Greek Sicily was a dynamic and interactive one that benefitted both societies. Classical scholars have long debated the extent to which Greek colonization either shaped or was shaped by the culture of ancient Sicily. Some argue that the Greeks were but one of many groups that had migrated to Sicily and been incorporated into its culture. Others believe that the Greeks were the primary cultural influence on the island. De Angelis suggests that neither of these views tells the whole story.
Drawing on historical and archaeological evidence from a wide range of sources, including scholarship written in Italian, French, German, and Spanish, the author takes a multidisciplinary approach to his analysis. He applies methodologies from classical and prehistoric studies, material culture, and social theory to test scholarship on this subject, and finds that the relationship between Sicily and mainland Greece was closely interdependent and mutually beneficial. He also acknowledges that other colonists to Sicily, such as the Phoenicians, exerted a significant influence on the culture and economics of Greek Sicily.
Scholars praised Archaic and Classical Greek Sicily for its thorough scholarship and methodology and its synthesis of evidence and theory, as well as its excellent maps and illustrations. In a Classical Journal Online piece, Carrie L. Sulosky Weaver praised the book as a “fresh, contextual analysis . . . that reveals new and unexpected societal trends.” In a Choice review, J.M. Williams hailed Archaic and Classical Greek Sicily as a work that is “remarkable in erudition” and that makes all earlier books on this topic obsolete.
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Antiquity, January, 2006, Bradley A. Ault, “Greeks at home and abroad,” p. 214.
Choice, October, 2016, J.M. Williams, review of Archaic and Classical Greek Sicily: A Social and Economic History, p. 262.
ONLINE
Classical Journal Online, https://cj.camws.org/ (October 9, 2017), Carrie L. Sulosky Weaver, review of Archaic and Classical Greek Sicily.
University of British Columbia, http://cnrs.ubc.ca/ (October 9, 2017), author profile.
The University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia
Vancouver campus
UBC Search
Department of Classical, Near Eastern, and Religious Studies
UndergraduateGraduatePeopleResearch & ResourcesCommunityAlumniApply Now
Home / Profiles / Franco De Angelis
Franco De Angelis
Professor of Greek History
Distinguished University Scholar
Buchanan C328
work phone: 604-822-6749
franco.de_angelis@ubc.ca
Franco De Angelis
Degrees
B.A. with Honours (1985-89): University of Ottawa/Université d’Ottawa, Department of Classical Studies/Département des Etudes Anciennes, degree in Classical Languages and Literature
M.A. (1989-91): McGill University, Department of Classics, degree in Classical Archaeology and History. Thesis: ‘Boiotia in the Geometric and Archaic Periods: Population, Settlement, and Colonisation’. Supervisor: Prof. John M. Fossey
D.Phil. (1992-96): Lincoln College in the University of Oxford, Faculty of Literae Humaniores, Sub-faculty of Ancient History. Thesis: ‘The Evolution of Two Archaic Sicilian Poleis: Megara Hyblaia and Selinous’. Supervisor: Prof. Robin G. Osborne; Committee Members: Prof. Sir John Boardman and Dr. S. Hornblower.
Career
1997-2000: Assistant Professor, University of Lethbridge, Department History.
2000-2003: Assistant Professor (with tenure), University of Calgary, Department of Greek and Roman Studies.
1997-2002: Adjunct Professor, Department of History & Classics, University of Alberta.
2003-2005: Assistant Professor, University of British Columbia, Department of Classical, Near Eastern, and Religious Studies.
2005-2016: Associate Professor (with tenure), University of British Columbia, Department of Classical, Near Eastern, and Religious Studies.
2016-: Professor (with tenure), University of British Columbia, Department of Classical, Near Eastern, and Religious Studies.
Grants, Honours, Prizes
2013: Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung Research Fellowship, held at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany, May 2013-July 2013
2013: Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, Senior Visiting Scholar, University Seminars Program, six presentations at New York and Northwestern Universities, February 11-24
2007-2008: Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung Research Fellowship, held at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany, September 2007-August 2008
2007-2009: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Aid to Research Workshops & Conferences in Canada ($20,000)
2004-2005: Early Career Scholar, Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, University of British Columbia
2004-: Distinguished University Scholar, University of British Columbia
2001-2004: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Standard Research Grant ($56,520)
2003: Election to a Visiting Fellowship at Clare Hall in the University of Cambridge (to be taken up at a future date)
1996-97: The British School at Rome’s Rome Scholarship (£8,000 in stipend + £8,000 equivalence in accommodation and maintenance)
1994: University of Oxford, Ancient History Prize: commendation (2nd prize; title of submission: “The Foundation of Selinous: overpopulation or opportunities?)
1992-96: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship ($58,000)
1992-95: Government of Britain, Overseas Research Scholarship
1992-95: University of Oxford, Overseas Bursary
1994: University of Oxford, Meyerstein Committee Grant
1993-94: University of Oxford, Craven Committee Grants
1989-91: McGill University, J.W. McConnell Memorial Fellowship
1989: University of Ottawa, Trevor Jones Memorial Award
Groups: Full-time Faculty
Read More | No Comments
Research Bio Teaching
Academia.edu Webpage>>LinkedIn Webpage>>CV (curriculum vitae)>>
UNDERGRADUATE
WHY STUDY WITH CNERS?
CAREER SUCCESS WITH A CNERS DEGREE
UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMS
EXPERIENTIAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDENTS
ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD SCHOOLS
UNDERGRADUATE AWARDS
CURRENT UNDERGRADUATE COURSES
GRADUATE
PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS
GRADUATE SEMINARS
MA PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS AND POLICIES
PHD PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS AND POLICIES
GRADUATE STUDENT CONFERENCE
GRADUATE HANDBOOK
PEOPLE
FULL-TIME FACULTY
PART-TIME FACULTY
DEPARTMENTAL STAFF
EMERITI AND AFFILIATED FACULTY
PROGRAM CONTACTS
MASTERS STUDENTS
DOCTORAL STUDENTS
RESEARCH & RESOURCES
DEPARTMENTAL RESEARCH INTERESTS
CNERS GRADUATE READING ROOM
FROM STONE TO SCREEN PROJECT
KALAVASOS AND MARONI BUILT ENVIRONMENTS PROJECT (CYPRUS)
CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF ANCIENT SICILY
NEAR EASTERN ARCHAEOLOGY (JOURNAL)
ONLINE RESOURCES
RELEVANT ORGANIZATIONS
COMMUNITY
EVENT CALENDAR
MEDIA
AIA VANCOUVER
ARCHAEOLOGY DAY
ALUMNI
GET INVOLVED
ALUMNI FAQ
CNERS
Vancouver Campus
Buchanan C227
1866 Main Mall
Vancouver, BC Canada V6T 1Z1
Tel 604 822 2515
Fax 604 822 9431
Find us on
Back to top
The University of British Columbia
About UBC
Contact UBC
About the University
News
Events
Careers
Make a Gift
Search UBC.ca
UBC Campuses
Vancouver Campus
Okanagan Campus
UBC Sites
Robson Square
Centre for Digital Media
Faculty of Medicine Across BC
Asia Pacific Regional Office
Emergency Procedures | Terms of Use | Copyright | Accessibility
The University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia
Vancouver campus
UBC Search
Department of Classical, Near Eastern, and Religious Studies
UndergraduateGraduatePeopleResearch & ResourcesCommunityAlumniApply Now
Home / Profiles / Franco De Angelis
Franco De Angelis
Professor of Greek History
Distinguished University Scholar
Buchanan C328
work phone: 604-822-6749
franco.de_angelis@ubc.ca
Franco De Angelis
Research Interests
Ancient Greek world history (Early Iron Age to Hellenistic period)
migrations and diasporas; environment; urbanism; development of societies; economics; regional identities (esp. Sicily and pre-Roman Italy); interregional and intercultural contact
multi- and interdisciplinary approaches (combining texts and material culture); cross-cultural, comparative, and theoretical approaches
historical contextualizations of ancient literature
ancient and modern historiographies for these research interests
Works in Press and Progress
Research
Publications
Groups: Full-time Faculty
Read More | No Comments
Research Bio Teaching
Academia.edu Webpage>>LinkedIn Webpage>>CV (curriculum vitae)>>
UNDERGRADUATE
WHY STUDY WITH CNERS?
CAREER SUCCESS WITH A CNERS DEGREE
UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMS
EXPERIENTIAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDENTS
ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD SCHOOLS
UNDERGRADUATE AWARDS
CURRENT UNDERGRADUATE COURSES
GRADUATE
PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS
GRADUATE SEMINARS
MA PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS AND POLICIES
PHD PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS AND POLICIES
GRADUATE STUDENT CONFERENCE
GRADUATE HANDBOOK
PEOPLE
FULL-TIME FACULTY
PART-TIME FACULTY
DEPARTMENTAL STAFF
EMERITI AND AFFILIATED FACULTY
PROGRAM CONTACTS
MASTERS STUDENTS
DOCTORAL STUDENTS
RESEARCH & RESOURCES
DEPARTMENTAL RESEARCH INTERESTS
CNERS GRADUATE READING ROOM
FROM STONE TO SCREEN PROJECT
KALAVASOS AND MARONI BUILT ENVIRONMENTS PROJECT (CYPRUS)
CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF ANCIENT SICILY
NEAR EASTERN ARCHAEOLOGY (JOURNAL)
ONLINE RESOURCES
RELEVANT ORGANIZATIONS
COMMUNITY
EVENT CALENDAR
MEDIA
AIA VANCOUVER
ARCHAEOLOGY DAY
ALUMNI
GET INVOLVED
ALUMNI FAQ
CNERS
Vancouver Campus
Buchanan C227
1866 Main Mall
Vancouver, BC Canada V6T 1Z1
Tel 604 822 2515
Fax 604 822 9431
Find us on
Back to top
The University of British Columbia
About UBC
Contact UBC
About the University
News
Events
Careers
Make a Gift
Search UBC.ca
UBC Campuses
Vancouver Campus
Okanagan Campus
UBC Sites
Robson Square
Centre for Digital Media
Faculty of Medicine Across BC
Asia Pacific Regional Office
Emergency Procedures | Terms of Use | Copyright | Accessibility
9/8/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1504891551524 1/4
Print Marked Items
Greeks at home and abroad
Bradley A. Ault
Antiquity.
80.307 (Mar. 2006): p214.
COPYRIGHT 2006 Cambridge University Press
http://www.cambridge.org
Full Text:
ALAN M. GREAVES. Miletos: a history, xiii+177 pages, 40 figures. 2002. London: Routledge; 0-415-23846-3
hardback 60 [pounds sterling].
FRANCO DE ANGELIS. Megara Hyblaia and Selinous: the development of two Greek city-states in Archaic Sicily
(Oxford University School of Archaeology Monograph 55). xxiii+256 pages, 51 figures & tables, 34 plates. 2003.
Oxford: Oxford University School of Archaeology; 0-947816-56-9 hardback 48 [pounds sterling].
NICHOLAS CAHILL. Household and city organization at Olynthus. xiii+383 pages, 63 figures, 16 tables. 2002. New
Haven (CT): Yale University Press; 0-300-08495-1 hardback 35 [pounds sterling].
CATHERINE MORGAN. Early Greek states beyond the polis, xii+326 pages, 86 figures, 1 table. 2003. London:
Routledge; 0-415-08996-4 hardback 64 [pounds sterling].
In the title of a recent review article for Antiquity, Robin Osborne (2003) considered, 'Getting history from Greek
archaeology'--and responded 'some way to go'. Happily, the four volumes reviewed here allow for some revision to
Osborne's rejoinder. At least in the fields of settlement and landscape archaeology (taken here to include houses, cities,
sanctuaries and the countryside), Greek history is indeed being wrung from stones.
Miletos
Greaves' Miletos provides a much needed overview of this important site and its setting. Miletos, on the Aegean coast
of modern Turkey, was a locus for activity from at least the Middle Bronze Age down through the Middle Ages.
Explored and excavated primarily by German teams from 1900 to the present day, dissemination of research results in
English has been limited and mostly second-hand. The present volume seeks to rectify this situation.
Over the course of four chapters, Greaves addresses the geography of Miletos, including its physical environment and
natural resources, the prehistory of the site (primarily Bronze Age, but with some Neolithic and Chalcolithic material),
its Archaic period floruit, and its Classical and post-Classical phases. In the latter, considerably less attention is paid to
the city as monumentalised from the Hellenistic period onwards, as this has typically received the most coverage in
print. In fact, half of the book's 150 pages of text are devoted to discussions of landscape and prehistory. Another 50
pages deal with the Archaic period, and only a few are given over to subsequent developments.
What ultimately distinguishes Greaves' book is precisely this arrangement. By freely admitting at the outset that, 'the
reader will find nothing here that could not be found in published works or by visiting the region' (xi), and that his 'is a
personal interpretation of the published data currently available--"a history"--but only one of many such histories that
could be written using the same material' (xiii; such as Gorman 2001), the author acknowledges not only his debt to the
work of others, but that this has allowed him a free hand to work at the interface of history and archaeology.
Greaves' first chapter, on the landscape of the Millesian peninsula, offers an excellent synthesis of the available
information. A useful feature, each chapter ends with at least one case study, in this case 'Miletos and metals', as well as
a brief annotated bibliography. The second chapter, prehistoric Miletos, is particularly useful since it provides an
9/8/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1504891551524 2/4
overview of earlier and more recent work at the site which has focused on recovering evidence for the Minoan and,
especially, Mycenaean occupation there. The case studies deal with 'The Minoan colonisation of Miletos', and 'Miletos
and Millawanda', the likely Hittite place name for the site.
Chapter 3 presents the evidence for the Archaic city, a time when Miletos rose to major commercial and political
prominence. Indeed, it was this very wealth and influence that brought about Miletos' demise. In 494 BC, following a
rebellion of Greek states that it fomented against the Persians in 499 BC, it was utterly destroyed, only to be founded
anew after the end of the Persian Wars in 479 BC. The archaeology of Archaic and earlier Miletos is limited by several
factors, not the least of which are the extensive Hellenistic--Roman cities which overlay it (the high water table acting
as another impediment). But a good idea of the extent and grandeur of the Archaic city can be gained from soundings in
its sanctuaries, from indications of its fortifications and necropolis, and from much material evidence. It is also for this
period that one can make the most of historical sources. Greaves concludes the chapter with considerations of political
history, economy and coinage, before embarking on case studies of population, colonisation (avid in this regard,
Miletos is credited by Pliny the Elder with founding 90 colonies!), and a lengthy treatment of the nearby oracle of
Apollo at Didyma (control over which Miletos sought to maintain and benefit from).
The fourth chapter offers a concise treatment of the Classical through Islamic phases at the site, before dosing with a
case study on 'Miletos as a centre of philosophy and learning'. The volume is illustrated throughout with maps,
photographs and plans, and includes several GIS projections.
Megara Hyblaia and Selinous
In Megara Hyblaia and Selinous, De Angelis follows a more strictly problematised research orientation. Although
concerned with many of the same issues as Greaves at Miletos, De Angelis explicitly espouses a post-colonial approach
to these two Greek settlements in Sicily. The book, in part, follows up on arguments he made in the pages of Antiquity
several years ago (De Angelis 1998), which critiqued traditional scholarship into the Greek 'colonial' enterprise. So, in
addition to offering a fine analysis of the foundation and development of these two sites, De Angelis seeks to place each
within the context of its relationship with indigenous Sikel tribes, and also, for Selinons, the Punic settlements of
Western Sicily, amongst whom and alongside which the Greeks established their homes 'away from home' (a literal
definition of the Greek term for such settlements, apoikia).
As Greaves did for German publications on Miletos, Dc Angelis renders the service of distilling Italian scholarship on
Sicilian archaeology for English readers (see also Leighton 1999). What he finds, for both Megara Hyblaia and
Selinous, is that there is ample archaeological evidence for Greek and Sikel interaction and cooperation, as well as
competition and conflict. The two make for ideal case studies into circumstances of Greek settlement on the island.
Megara Hyblaia was founded in the initial wave of colonisation, in the third quarter of the eighth century BC, alongside
other such ventures on the island's east coast. Syracuse was the most famous of these and, sometime between 485 and
480 BC, was responsible for the destruction of Magara Hyblai. Selinous, a second-generation foundation of the midseventh
century, was a by-product of internal colonisation, in this case, by Megara Hyblaia itself. Moreover, it was
located in western Sicily, nearer than any other Greek settlement to the sphere of Punic presence there. So, while the
two cities share certain attributes in their foundation and growth, they are equally divergent examples of the colonial
enterprise.
De Angelis offers detailed discussions of site development at Megara Hyblaia, especially the growth and numbers of
houses (but I could not find any reference in the text to Figures 15 or 19), evidence for population trends (including the
presence of native dements), and trade and exchange (especially by analysing the percentage of ceramic imports to the
site). His diachronic progression moves in half or quarter century blocks, depending on the chronological precision of
his data.
While Megara Hyblaia offers a good deal of evidence for its layout and residential areas but considerably less for its
public buildings, Selinous presents the inverse scenario. The grids (an unprecedented three different ones!) along which
the city was organised have only recently become clarified and virtually nothing is known of its habitations. Instead,
research has long concentrated on the sanctuaries at the site, where, under the impetus of its ruling tyrants in the second
half of the sixth century BC, no less than seven monumental temples were erected. But De Angelis moves beyond their
architectural and cultic significance, to assess the rite's wealth using volumetric and cost analyses of the buildings.
In the end, Selinous' vacillating Greek and Punic sympathies were not enough to save it from destruction at the hands of
Carthage in 409/8 BC. As at Megara Hyblaia, De Angelis musters the archaeological and historical evidence to provide
compelling reconstructions of the city's territory, its population and economy. He closes the study with a two-part
9/8/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1504891551524 3/4
conclusion which sums up the main points of Megara Hyblaia's and Selinous' 'divergent evolution', as well as what they
tell us about Greek poleis more generally. The book is well illustrated with plans and tables, although the small black
and white plates at the end are of variable quality.
Olynthus
Located on the Chalcidicean peninsula in Macedonia (northern Greece), Olynthus was founded by anoikismos, a
'moving inland' of local populations in 432 BC. It flourished for less than three generations, until the time of its
destruction by Philip II of Macedon in 348 BC. Excavated between 1928 and 1938 under the direction of D.M.
Robinson, and yielding fourteen volumes of 'final' publication between 1929 and 1952 (a remarkable achievement then
and now), Olynthus stands as a landmark in the archaeology of the Greek household. For, while the American
excavators discovered little in the way of public architecture, the plans of more than 100 houses were recovered, neatly
arrayed in regular insulae (as too was the housing at Megara Hyblaia, Selinous, and post-479 BC Miletos, but for which
we have comparatively limited evidence).
Cahill offers a re-study of the material from Olynthus from the perspective of archaeology at the turn of the twenty-first
century. The research took him back to the original excavation notebooks and involved the creation of a database for the
entire site, integrating the architecture and artefacts into a typologised, searchable and quantifiable whole. This gives a
near unique opportunity in the Greek world to study houses and their assemblages as recovered at the time of
excavation. Although the discard of fragmentary material by the excavators was high, all whole and high quality
material was logged by findspot and collected.
Following an excellent essay on 'Greek city-planning in theory and practice' (Chapter 1), Cahill presents an overview of
the site and its excavation, as well as his own methodological approach to the material (Chapter 2). His third chapter
discusses the Olynthian houses generally, followed by more detailed descriptions of thirteen houses. Each of these is
accompanied by a schematic plan onto which Cahill has mapped conventions that represent distributions and densities
of 40 different artefact types.
Cahill's chapter 4 looks at the diverse planning and spatial organisation of the houses, identifying activity areas in
kitchen-complexes (a suite frequently combined with a bathroom), as well as evidence for food preparation in areas of
the house beyond it (notably in the ubiquitous porches or courtyards). Evidence for storage, weaving (including
instances on an 'industrial' scale) and banqueting form subsequent sections of chapter 4, while his chapter 5 approaches
this variability from the point of view of 'spatial planning' across the city. Here, clusters of activities are taken to reflect
deliberate decisions ranging from economic concerns (e.g. locating shops near the agora) to patterning in the allotment
of house parcels at the time of the city's foundation. Analysis of building techniques, similarities in architectural syntax
and departures from it, support the notion that the residents of Olynthus built their own houses.
Chapter 6 takes up 'the economies of Olynthus', both agricultural and industrial, for which there is ample evidence.
Questions of trade and exchange at the city are addressed before a final dosing section lays out the evidence for the
likely market oriented subsistence strategy of a good number of inhabitants at the site; others appear to have relied on a
more traditional model of self-sufficiency (and these findings, too, have spatial correlates within the city's topography),
This last chapter is accompanied by additional house plans showing artefact distributions, and plans illustrating wider
trends across the site as a whole. Four colour site plans summarise conclusions about the distribution of 'gendered
space', 'house clusters', trade and industry at Olynthus. Two appendices include details of the cluster analyses carried
out, and of inscriptions regarding (house) sales.
Cahill's work at Olynthus marks a further milestone for research into Greek houses and households, domestic economic
strategies and city planning generally. As such, it stands among a recent spate of household studies in classical
archaeology (see, most recently, Ault and Nevett 2005, to which Cahill makes a contribution). A website has been
designed by Cahill to form the basis of further studies by interested scholars and students; when complete it will contain
the full text of his book, much additional data and many more plans (http://www.stoa.org/olynthus/).
Greek ethne
Morgan's book differs from the three foregoing studies in that it looks at regional affiliations of populations which stand
in distinction to or overarch the Greek polis or city-state as a form of social organisation. These are the so-called ethne
or 'ethnos states', and comprise variably constructed 'tiered complexes of identities', which have generally been
described as tribally based. Like household archaeology, the archaeology of ethnicity has become increasingly
fashionable of late (see Hall 1997). Previously, like the household, considerations of ethnicity were seen as marginal to
9/8/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1504891551524 4/4
more traditional concerns in classical archaeology, whether of prominent monuments or at famous sites (one frequently
being found at the other).
Morgan's main concern is to chart the complexity of social organisation beyond the major polis centres, especially
during the Early Iron Age and Archaic periods. She focuses on five principal regions of Greece--Thessaly, Phokis, East
Lokris, Achaia and Arkadia--over the course of five topical chapters: an introduction, 'Big sites and place identities',
'Communities of cult', 'Territory, power, and the ancestors' and 'Beyond the polis: political communities and political
identities'. The text is accompanied by 84 excellent maps, plans and photographs. Morgan's arguments are presented in
a series of complex discourses about the nature of ethne, their relationships both within and without the group, and as
social identities and power brokers. She considers not only their ideological bases, but also their physical
manifestations, their religious and genealogical affiliations, their territorial extent, economic concerns and political
clout. Her conclusion is that ethne are every bit as complex, and ultimately more durable, than the polis system with
which the Greeks are invariably identified. Ethne preceded the polis, continued to flourish alongside it, and, ultimately,
outlasted it.
Classical archaeology as cultural history
The four volumes considered here represent a cross-section of the Greek world, and of scholarship into it. They range in
their concern from Asia Minor to Sicily and to the Greek mainland; from cities to the countryside, and from city- to
tribal-states. All take as their primary concern the elucidation of social and behavioural history. Not that 'traditional'
history has been neglected, for this is something that characterises each of the studies here: their grounding is in the
historical sources and the archaeological evidence, allowing primacy to neither. 'Language and material behaviour
comprise multiple channels of communication which may be deployed within various discourses, and some of the most
interesting insights arise from the dissonance, as well as consonance, between them' (Morgan 2003: 17). Each study
also shows how ongoing analysis of previously published material can continue to bear fruit when further cultivated.
References
AULT, B.A. & L.C. NEVETT (ed.). 2005. Ancient Greek houses and households. Chronological regional and social
diversity. Philadelphia (PA): University of Pennsylvania Press.
DE ANGELIS, F. 1998. Ancient past, imperial present: the British Empire in T.J. Dunbabin's The western Greeks.
Antiquity 72: 539-49.
GORMAN, V. 2001. Miletos. The ornament of Ionia: a history of the city to 400 B.C.E. Ann Arbor (MI): University of
Michigan Press.
HALL, J. 1997. Ethnic identity in Greek antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
LEIGHTON, R. 1999. Sicily before history. An archaeological survey from the Paleolithic to the Iron Age. Ithaca (NY):
Cornell University Press.
OSBORNE, R. 2003. Getting history from Greek archaeology--'some way to go'. Antiquity 77: 612-16.
Bradley A. Auk, University at Buffalo, SUNY Buffalo, NY 14261-0011, USA (Email: clarbrad@buffalo.edu)
Ault, Bradley A.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Ault, Bradley A. "Greeks at home and abroad." Antiquity, vol. 80, no. 307, 2006, p. 214+. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA145024070&it=r&asid=5b897dbd6939d8d7596be2aa9b06a5a9.
Accessed 8 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A145024070