Greece in the Archaic Age, c. 800-500 BC

Code

CLAR3038

School

Classics and Archaeology

Level

3

Credits

20

Semesters

Spring UK

Summary

During the period 800-500 BC the Greek world transformed from a collection of relatively small communities led by local strongmen to complex city-state societies with elaborate institutions, magistracies, and systems of public finance. Law shifted from an oral to a written basis; Greek settlements spread across the Mediterranean basin and Black Sea; and Greek individuals travelled to Egypt and the east, fuelling a process of dynamic cultural fusion. This period was, too, the crucible from which emerged remarkable works of literature, art, and the beginnings of Greek philosophy.

But it was an era of conflict and disruption as much as cultural and economic progress. Major inequalities in wealth between rich and poor led to social breakdown in many communities. The solutions were various: in Attica, Solon attempted to reshape Athenian institutions to place the poor in a stronger position and curb some of the more egregious abuses inflicted by the wealthy. In Sparta, a culture of material austerity emerged that hid from plain sight the visible aspects of inequality whilst maintaining the economic structures that underpinned elite dominance. For some Greek communities, the answer to these problems lay in entrusting one man with the direction of the community, that is, tyranny, which led to disaster in places like Athens and the emergence of the institutional outlines of the classical democracy. And warfare was rife: the archaic age saw the emergence on land of the tactics of the hoplite phalanx, and at sea the development of the trireme and the fiscal structures that underpinned the first state-owned navies.

This module will enable students to chart continuity and change during the epoch in which the contours of classical Greek society were firmly established. It will focus in particular on the interpretative strategies required in evaluating a highly diverse body of evidence and the methodological problems that challenge historians when reconstructing an era whose evidence is far more lacunose that that which survives for the ensuing periods.

Target Students

Available to Undergraduate level 2 and level 3 students in the Department of Classics and Archaeology, including Liberal Arts, subsidiary and exchange students.

Classes

• One 2-hour seminar each week for 5 weeks
• One 2-hour lecture each week for 10 weeks

Assessment

• 100% Coursework 1: (Coursework) essay or assignment 3000 words.

Assessed by end of spring semester

Educational Aims

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module, students should

1.) Have acquired a good working knowledge of the debate on ‘Homeric society’ and the methodologies required for an historical appraisal of the poems.

2.) Have understood the nature of oral tradition as a genre and its strengths and weaknesses as evidence.

3.) Have acquired detailed knowledge on the various transformations that took place in the period under study, as well as an appreciation of continuities.

4.) Have acquired a sense of the regional and fragmented nature of the Greek world as well as the various processes that tethered it together.

5.) Have command of a range of techniques and methodologies, such as skills in reading (whether secondary or primary literature and in translation or in the original) and analysis;

6.) Be able to engage in detailed analysis of a range of ancient evidence;

7.) Be able to think independently while giving due weight to the arguments of others;

8.) Be able to understand complex ideas and relate them to specific problems or questions;

9.) Be able to acquire substantial quantities of information systematically and process it effectively;

10.) Be able to construct a coherent argument substantiated by relevant evidence and present it orally or on paper;

11.) And be able to take responsibility for their own learning, reflect upon and assess their own progress, strengths and weaknesses.

Conveners

• Mr Edmund Stewart