The Oxford History of the Archaic Greek World : Volume II: Athens and Attica

For all that the monuments of classical Athens--the Parthenon and its sculptures above all--are best known, it is frequently the sculpture and pottery of earlier Athens (800-500 BCE) that grabs the attention of museum visitors. This book provides the first comprehensive guide to what we know about the archaeology, artefacts, and history of archaic Athens. Author Robin Osborne offers a clear and well-illustrated description of all aspects of Athenian art, archaeology, and history, and demonstrates how the different stories that we tell about Athenian pots, sculpture, law, politics and culture all fit together.

This book introduces the history and archaeology of ancient Athens in the period from 800-500 BCE. Following the standard arrangement of the Oxford History of the Archaic Greek World series, author Robin Osborne deals successively with the sources; environmental setting; material culture (settlement pattern, burial customs, ceramic production); political, legal, and diplomatic history; economy and demography; social and religious customs; and cultural history (including history of sculpture) of archaic Athens. He provides not only a full and up-to-date guide to all these various aspects of Athenian history and archaeology, but also an integrated history which shows how all the different aspects intersect. Osborne guides the reader through an exciting story of the way in which the territory of Attica was re-occupied after the collapse of Bronze Age civilization, how Athens emerged as the dominant settlement, how the claims of family, place, and wealth were played out against one another, and how the Athenians came to place themselves both in relation to the wider Greek world and in relation to the gods.The account is illustrated with abundant maps and halftone images that bring the world of Athens to life. The political and cultural achievements of classical Athens (democracy, tragedy, the Parthenon and its sculpture) rested upon the foundations created in the archaic period, but Osborne shows that archaic Athens did not merely provide foundations for what came later but offered a fascinating history and culture of its own.