A. Haug, Visual Concepts of Human Surroundings. The Case of the Early Greek Polis (10th–7th century BC), in: A. Haug - L. Käppel - J. Müller (Hrsg.), Past Landscapes. The Dynamics of Interaction between Society, Landscape, and Culture (Leiden 2018) 145–168 (original) (raw)
Related papers
Between ca. 1000 BC, the Early Iron Age, and the Roman Late Republican era ca. 100 BC, domestic life in Greece changed in remarkable ways. On one level we see a process of continual elaboration, confirming Susan Kent's (Kent 1990) generalization that growing complexity in the built environment can form a mirror for that in contemporary social and political life. Yet in parallel we can also see a cycle, beginning with a largely undifferentiated and simple domestic environment matched by the larger residences of an elite, passing through a period when relative equality becomes the norm, then returning to an era where class differences in homes are striking. The Greek house is thus a barometer for the longer-term transformations in social life as a whole.
Making Ancient Cities: Space and Place in Early Urban Societies
2014
Contents: Chapter 1 Making Ancient Cities: New Perspectives on the Production of Urban Places Kevin D. Fisher (Department of Classical, Near Eastern & Religious Studies, University of British Columbia) Andrew T. Creekmore III (Department of Anthropology, University of Northern Colorado) Chapter 2 The social production of space in third millennium cities of Upper Mesopotamia Andy Creekmore (Department of Anthropology, University of Northern Colorado) Chapter 3 North Mesopotamian Urban Space at Titriş Höyük in the Third Millennium B.C. Yoko Nishimura (Department of Anthropology, U. of Pennsylvania) Chapter 4 Swahili urban spaces of the East African coast Stephanie Wynne-Jones (Dept. of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Bristol Jeffrey Fleisher (Dept. of Anthropology, Rice University) Chapter 5 Urban Identities: Social and Spatial Production at Classic Period Chunchucmil, Yucatán, Mexico Aline Magnoni (Tulane University) Traci Arden (University of Miami) Scott Hutson (University of Kentucky) Bruce Dahlin (Ancient Maya Environmental Studies Center) Chapter 6 Making the first cities on Cyprus: urbanism and social change in the Late Bronze Age Kevin D. Fisher (Classical, Near Eastern & Religious Studies, U. of British Columbia) Chapter 7 Urbanization and the emergence of the Greek Polis: The case of Azoria, Crete Rodney Fitzsimons (Dept. of Ancient History and Classics, Trent University) Chapter 8 The rise of a Neopalatial city and the (re)construction of its hinterlands: A view from Galatas D. Matthew Buell (Dept. of Classics, SUNY Buffalo) Chapter 9 Cahokia: The Processes and Principles of Creation of an Early Mississippian City John Kelly (Dept. of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis) James A. Brown (Dept. of Anthropology, Northwestern University) Chapter 10 Comparing East and West: Aspects of urban manufacture and retail in the capitals of the Roman and Han Empires Anna Razeto (University of Copenhagen) Chapter 11 Ancient Open Space, Gardens, and Parks: A Comparative Discussion for Mesoamerican Urbanism Barbara L. Stark (School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University) Chapter 12 Different Cities Norman Yoffee (Departments of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas and University of New Mexico and Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University)
As a study of the human past, the primary method of archaeology is the placement of its subjects in space and time. Since the subjects are material, the remains of the built environment are obviously central to this task. In its analytical and interpretive mode archaeology focuses on how humans in the past produced space through building. In this sense, space and time are not universal abstracts but rather, as E. Casey states, "contained in places". Archaeological places, then, are the remnants of these institutions and practices located in a fragmentary spatio-temporal grid. How archaeologists make sense of such a fragmentary past is a question of general hermeneutics. Preeminent to this is architecture, which, as Connerton observes, is an "incorporating practice", that is, one that defines and is defined by the movements and actions of humans'. The trick for archaeologists is to try to discover something about the practices incorporated within architecture. These are, of course the practices of its occupants and the interpretations of its passersby, which are relative, continuous, and multiple'. The task therefore is further constrained by the limitations of our ability to understand the many intentions of creators, users,and viewers of architecture over a span of time we can usually only guess at.
The Disciplines of Geography: Constructing Space in the Ancient World
Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History, 2017
This article serves as introduction to a special double issue of the journal, comprised of seven articles that center on the theme of space and place in the ancient world. The essays examine the ways in which borders, frontiers, and the lands beyond them were created, defined, and maintained in the ancient world. They question the intersection of concrete and fantastical, or real and imagined, that existed in both the ancient and pre-modern world, where distant locations become elaborately embroidered by fantastical constructions, despite the concrete connections of travel, trade, and even military enterprise. ** Note this is a pre-print version of the article **
All that we see or seem: Space, memory and Greek akropoleis
Archaeological Review from Cambridge 30.1, 2015
Site and scene: Evaluating visibility in monument placement during the Bronze Age of West Penwith, Cornwall, United Kingdom Chelsee Arbour (In)visible cities: The abandoned Early Bronze Age tells in the landscape of the Intermediate Bronze Age southern Levant Sarit Paz 'All that we see or seem': Space, memory and Greek akropoleis Robin Rönnlund Becoming visible: The formation of urban boundaries in the oppidum of Manching (Bavaria) Thimo Jacob Brestel Mutable spaces and unseen places: A study of access, communication and spatial control in households at Early Iron Age (EIA) Zagora on Andros
2013
The Research Group E-I investigates artistic forms of the transmission of knowledge concerning spaces of antiquity. In this respect long-term chains of transformative processes are to be observed through which the interrelationships between space and knowledge established in antiquity have been altered by historical agents through specific epistemic and medial claims. The aim is twofold: to analyze these knowledge-based processes of transformation in precise areas of investigation on a reliable material basis on the one hand; on the other to formulate relevant statements concerning the history of the transformation of space and knowledge through the consolidation of research results. For this reason, the research group takes up the all- encompassing topic of the artistic transmission of knowledge about space in the post-classical era in the context of the following precisely formulated contoured topic areas: (1) spoliation and transposition, (2) travels through spaces of antiquity, ...
2022
The Athenian Agora in the Roman period has received sustained attention from archaeologists and historians of the Greek past alike. However, within this substantial body of research a number of problematic ideas and assumptions remain about the changes observable in the space during this period. Often, the Roman developments are linked with a ‘monumentalising’ of the Agora, whereby increasing architectural grandeur symbolises a decline in the space’s civic vitality (Shear 1981, 362; Walker 1997, 72). However, in recent years and with the growth of research paradigms such as acculturation, scholars have begun to recognise the broader significance of public spaces in creating understandings of social relations as the Greek cities become incorporated into the Roman Empire (Evangelidis, 2014; Dickenson, 2016). This work takes a longitudinal approach to studying the Agora to understand how social actors and groups shape it in response to new circumstances, and how in-turn they may act to challenge or reproduce these structures. This is accomplished through the implementation of the space syntax approach, a theoretical approach and methodology which provides analytical means to understanding the relevance of spatial configurations to social relations. The work will also serve as a test case for this approach, in order to generate new ways of accessing the responses of public space and provincial communities to incorporation into Empire.