Greek ideas of the north and the east: Mastering the Black Sea area (original) (raw)
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The thesis examines Greek perceptions of the North Pontic area with special focus being placed on intercultural relationships in the region and the development of local identities. By taking a multidisciplinary approach, the study uses various materials available for researching ancient societies. These include literary , epigraphic, numismatic and archaeological sources. Also, certain concepts of cultural anthropology have been used to discuss problems regarding ethnicity and collective identity in ancient society. The chronological scope of the thesis encompasses over a millennium of Greek–Barbarian (i.e. non-Greek) interrelations in the northern Black Sea region. The starting point of the work has been defined by the time when the Greeks first came into contact with local populations and Greek settlements were set up along the northern Black Sea shore, which can be traced to the 7 th and 6 th centuries BC, during the Archaic period. The following Classical and Hellenistic periods have come into special focus in the thesis due to the fact that the literary topoi and the imaginary view of the northern Black Sea region and its population, which deeply influenced later (especially Roman) writers, were developing over these periods.
The Early Greek Presence in the Southern Black Sea.pdf
In: M. Manoledakis, G. Tsetskhladze, I. Xydopoulos (eds.), Essays on the Archaeology and Ancient History of the Black Sea Littoral, Colloquia Antiqua 18, Leuven/Paris/Bristol, CT 2017, 173-241. To get access to the whole paper, please contact the author (m.manoledakis@ihu.edu.gr) or the publisher (peeters@peeters-leuven.be).
The Southern Black Sea in the Homeric Iliad: Some Geographical, Philological and Historical Remarks
One of the most important questions concerning the history of the Greek colonisation in the Black Sea area that has not yet been answered with any surety is that of the chronology of the earliest colonies. Scholars are mainly divided into two groups: those who believe that the colonisation began in the 8th century BC, based mostly on the written sources, and those who speak for the 7th century, based mostly on the archaeological finds, although a lot of regions round the Black Sea remain unexcavated. The 'Iliad' is one of the texts that have often been used in the debate, since it is supposed to be one of the earliest Greek written sources. In its verses 2.851-2.857, several names of places and peoples of the southern Black Sea are mentioned. But from when are these verses dated and to what conclusions can they lead us? The paper examines these specific verses in terms of the geographical and historical data they can offer, bearing in mind the philological discussion in their regard.
istros the case of istros may well provide a good example concerning the problem of the territories of the greek cities. 1 Founded by miletos in the mid 7th century BC or soon thereafter, 2 istros was settled on the gulf that later became the lagoon of razelm-Sinoe, after geomorphologic transformations changed the ancient landscape. 3 at the time of its foundation, istros probably had very little territory, since the emergence of a proper chora, according to the present archaeological testimony, seems to first have occurred two or three generations later. 4 The coming of the Greeks: the archaeological evidence Before the coming of the milesian colonists, the region between the Danube and the Black Sea (Dobruja) belonged to the diffusion area of the third phase of a middle hallstatt culture, named after the eponymous site, the Babadag culture. 5 archaeological research has revealed the fortified sites of Babadag and Beidaud as well as a number of unfortified settlements on both sides of the Danube, which belonged to this culture (Fig. 1). none of these settlements , however, were truly located on the coast. it is known that the end of the Babadag culture was violent, even if we are still ignorant of the circumstances and the exact date (perhaps the end of the 8th or more probably the beginning of the 7th century BC). accordingly, these sites, whether fortified or not, were destroyed. this destruction, however, seems not to have been related to the coming of the milesians, since, on the one hand, these settlements were not in the region which came to be included in the chora of istros and, on the other hand, nothing was found among these settlements which should be ascribed to the greeks. taking this preliminary result into account, the map of the rural sites which are to be assigned to the milesian colonisation after c. 600 BC is more than remarkable (Fig. 2). two archaic settlements are situated some 4-5 km from the city of istros. at histria-Pod, except for the horizon of the 4th century BC (on which more later), a layer quite rich in material belonging to the second half of the 6th century BC as well as a level from the end of the archaic period were revealed. 6 it is difficult to ascertain the character of this site. the same