The Complete Archaeology of Greece

The Complete Archaeology of Greece covers the incredible richness and variety of Greek culture and its central role in our understanding of European civilization, from the Palaeolithic era of 400,000 years ago to the early modern period. In a single volume, the field's traditional focus on art and architecture has been combined with a rigorous overview of the latest archaeological evidence forming a truly comprehensive work on Greek civilization.

*Extensive notes on the text are freely available online at Wiley Online Library, and include additional details and references for both the serious researcher and amateur

• A unique single-volume exploration of the extraordinary development of human society in Greece from the earliest human traces up till the early 20th century AD
• Provides 22 chapters and an introduction chronologically surveying the phases of Greek culture, with over 200 illustrations
• Features over 200 images of art, architecture, and ancient texts, and integrates new archaeological discoveries for a more detailed picture of the Greece past, its landscape, and its people
• Explains how scientific advances in archaeology have provided a broader perspective on Greek prehistory and history

Selected by Choice as a 2013 Outstanding Academic Title

List of Figures and Tables ix

List of Color Plates xxii

Acknowledgments xxv

Introduction 1

Part I The Landscape and Aegean Prehistory 9

1 The Dynamic Land 11

2 Hunter-Gatherers: The Palaeolithic and Epipalaeolithic in Greece 28

3 Early Farming Communities: Neolithic Greece 46

4 Complex Cultures of the Early Bronze Age 83

5 The Middle to Early Late Bronze Age on Crete: The Minoan Civilization 123

6 The Middle to Early Late Bronze Age on the Cyclades and the Mainland 155

7 The Mature Late Bronze Age on the Mainland and in the Wider Aegean: The Mycenaean Civilization 181

Part II The Archaeology of Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman Greece in its Longer-term Context 207

8 The Greek Early Iron Age and the Concept of a “Dark Age” 209

9 The Archaeology of the Archaic Era: Demography, Settlement Patterns, and Everyday Life 234

10 The Built Environment, Symbolic Material Culture, and Society in Archaic Greece 252

11 The Archaeology of Classical Greece: Demography, Settlement Patterns, and Everyday Life 265

12 Symbolic Material Culture, the Built Environment, and Society in Classical Greece 285

13 The Archaeology of Greece in Hellenistic to Early Roman Imperial Times: Demography, Settlement Patterns, and Everyday Life 310

14 Symbolic Material Culture, the Built Environment, and Society in Hellenistic and Early Roman Greece 337

15 The Archaeology of Greece from Middle Roman Imperial Times to Late Antiquity: Demography, Settlement Patterns, and Everyday Life 351

16 Symbolic Material Culture, the Built Environment, and Society in Middle to Late Roman Greece 369

Part III The Archaeology of Medieval and post-Medieval Greece in its Historical Context 379

17 The Archaeology of Byzantine Greece: Demography, Settlement Patterns, and Everyday Life 381

18 Symbolic Material Culture, the Built Environment, and Society in the Byzantine Aegean 402

19 The Archaeology of Frankish-Crusader Society in Greece 416

20 The Archaeology of Ottoman and Venetian Greece: Population, Settlement Dynamics, and Socio-economic Developments 436

21 Material Culture, the Built Environment, and Society in Ottoman and Venetian Greece 459

22 The Archaeology of Early Modern Greece 478

Index 498

Long-listed for the 2012 John D. Criticos Prize

“However, in general, this book is a marvel.” (European Journal of Archaeology, 1 January 2014)

“In sum, it is clear that with the extensive range of evidence carefully collected and well-analyzed in this volume, it will, as its author hopes, “contribute to a wider awareness of the rich history of this beautiful country in every century of its remarkable past.” (Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 1 November 2013)

“For others, however, The complete archaeology of Greeceis a valuable source of information, drawing a broad canvas, and, most significantly, exposing important questions concerning each period. . . Bintliff’s book is a generous reciprocation of Greek Philoxenia, a distillation of his long experience of Greek archaeology in the field, this theoretical positions and methodological tools, reaching out further than to the people of Greece alone." (Antiquity, 1 January 2013)

‘Named CHOICE Outstanding Title for 2012

“Summing Up: Recommended. All readers.” (Choice, 1 November 2012)

“Bintliff’s newest contribution provides an ambitious panorama of Greek archaeology . . . Bintliff’s book does more than any other major survey of Greek history or archaeology to bring the rural economy into the larger narrative of later Greek history.” (The New Archaeology of the Mediterranean World, 1 September 2012)

“By doing that he has delivered a brilliant survey of Greek archaeology and a remarkably succinct and comprehensive volume – a must read for anyone interested in the archaeology of Greece.” (The Anglo-Hellenic Review, 1 October 2012)

“It doesn’t get much more comprehensive than this.” (Corinthianmatters.com, 2 May 2012)

John Bintliff studied Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge where he received his PhD in the landscape archaeology of prehistoric Greece. He has taught at Bradford and Durham Universities and is currently at Leiden University in the Netherlands, and has been co-director of the Boeotia Project in Central Greece since 1978. His interests include the long-term archaeology of Greece and the Mediterranean, landscape archaeology and regional field survey, and archaeological theory. He has published 18 books, including Mycenaean Geography (1977), Palaeoclimates, Palaeoenvironments (1982), European Social Evolution (1984), The Annales School and Archaeology (1991), Europe Between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages (1995), Structure and Contingency (1999), The Future of Archaeological Field Survey in Europe (2000), A Companion to Archaeology (2004), Testing the Hinterland (2007), Medieval and Post-Medieval Greece (2009). The Complete Archaeology of Greece provides, for the first time, a comprehensive overview of the story of Greece from the first hunter-gatherers up to the Modern era. In 22 chapters and an introduction, John Bintliff surveys all phases of Greek culture, including the traditional foci of the Classical Greek and the Bronze Ages, but also detailing its beginnings in the Greek Palaeolithic (ca. 400,000 B.P.) up to the early modern period (1950 A.D.). Each chronological period is fully explained with the latest discoveries and theories, and richly illustrated. The author focuses on developments during each succeeding period of growth and change in Greek society, the evolution of their material culture, settlement patterns in the rural as well as urban landscapes, and the significance of their symbolic or representational culture—the ways in which architecture, art, and even everyday objects can reveal the social order and lifeways of the ancient Greeks. John Bintliff features well-known works of Greek art, architecture, and ancient texts, but also integrates the newest archaeological discoveries, surveys and excavations for a more comprehensive picture of the Greek past. "For once a book that does not oversell itself! Bintliff's book is not just The Complete Archaeology of Greece, but is the first overview that is complete. Born from a lifetime of experience in regional studies in Greece, it is an impressive accomplishment that respects the material culture of all periods of the Hellenic past."
- Jack Davis, American School of Classical Studies, Athens

"A stunning panoramic review of the archaeology of the Greek world from prehistory to the end of Ottoman rule. The volume offers a theoretically-sophisticated, methodologically challenging and intellectually stimulating survey which will be a must-read for all interested in the archaeology of the area."
- John Haldon, Princeton University

"A bold, ambitious and perhaps controversial work…it ranges from deep prehistory to modern times, encompassing Minoans, Mycenaeans, the Classical world, Byzantium and the Ottoman empire along its course. Building on a lifetime's experience, Bintliff has produced a tour de force which will, I predict, have many critics but very few rivals."
- Colin Renfrew, Cambridge University