One of the best insights we can garner into Greek religion archaeologically is looking at the physical manifestation of its temple sites, mainly, its sanctuaries. The first and largely most popular or well known in the modern day are Civic Sanctuaries, the type site being the Athenian Acropolis....

Religion is an ephemeral and hard to define concept, one that is often tied up with notions of tradition, culture, belief and ideology. It is nevertheless one of the aspects of Greek culture that people remain fascinated with. Archaeologically, we are perpetually faced with the challenge of...

In the confines of Athenian democracy, only the free citizens (that is, bare in mind, men who owned property) would have power to vote, largely those comprising the 10 tribes of Attica. Here’s a flow chart of how Democracy was thought to work in Athens, at least, according to Aristotle.

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In any discussion of Greek exchanges of power, warfare and strategy, you will inevitably encounter the infamous citizen-soldiers of the city-states, known as the Hoplites. These warriors pose a unique way of fighting for us, one which is reliant on few numbers but nevertheless effective. Through...

The changing nature of power in the Greek world has been a major point of discussion, especially in recent years. Athenian statehood & political identity has obvious ramifications for how we understand the very nature of a Democratic system, even today. The 19th century belief in progress,...

As we move to the western world, we are really looking at the Greek’s process of colonisation and especially, the interaction between Italic locals & Greek settlers. A previous generation of scholarship had a tendency to subsume such indigenous influences into Greek presence, and...

As we move into the Iron Age from around 1000 BC onwards, not only did Greek culture expand internally, but we also begin encountering the Phonecians. Greek characterisations of the Phonecians were not always positive, with even Homer describing them throughout the Odyssey as being famed for...

Having completed a chronological overview of the Ancient Greek world, I now want to turn to some important themes & ideas about more specific parts of Greek society that I think still have relevance to how we understand and experience the modern world. The first of these is the...

As the Hellenistic Successor Kingdoms spread, the encounter between Greek culture & Eastern indigenous populations informed a new cultural milieu. An excellent case study for the Hellenisation process is the site of Ai Khanoum, in Takhar Province, Afghanistan. The city was occupied from 280...

Following on from Classical Athens, it's time to move into the transition period leading up to the Hellenistic & Roman era of Greece. We should first call to mind that the term “Hellenisation” and “Hellenistic” are nomenclature that we coined, not so much terms that...

As we move into late Archaic & Classical Periods, we’re still a while off from the Democracy Athens was famous for. Instead we first encounter the reigns of the Athenian Tyrants. Now, we need to reframe things a bit. While the modern English word “tyrant” generally denotes...

Following the rise of the Archaic Polis of Athens, I would be amiss if I didn’t at least spend one post on the Classical city to talk about it a bit. The easiest way to begin talking about Athens in the Classical Period is through its architecture. It is usually even defined by it!...