2007 Contacts between pre-classical Greece and the Near East in the context of cultural influences: An overview. (original) (raw)

2007, In: R. Rollinger, A. Luther, J. Wiesehöfer (eds.), "Getrennte Wege? Kommunikation, Raum und Wahrnehmung in der alten Welt". Oikumene 2:13-49.

The subject of the relations between pre-classical Greece and the ancient Near East has received ample attention in recent times. Archaeologists and historians have discussed ways in which peoples came into contact in the Late Bronze, Dark and Greek Archaic Ages, while others have published about cultural elements that the Greeks might have taken over from the ancient Near East. As a result, the old position about the isolated development of the Greek world has become untenable: the origins of many elements of Greek culture can now without a doubt be traced outside the Greek world. Nonetheless, the available archaeological and historical data is hardly ever taken into account in research on cultural influences. Consequently, publications on influences often seem incomplete, since attention is paid only to the similarities between certain cultural elements without consideration of the process of transmission. This article is intended to contribute to changing this situation by gathering the archaeological and historical data relevant for research on Near Eastern influences on ancient Greece, in order to present an overview of which groups of people in what time and under what circumstances the Greeks met or came to know about.