Subject : Archaeology of Greece
Level of Study : Undergraduate
Target Grade : A Grade
Length: 1000 Words (~4 pages)
Delivery Time : 5 Days
Time for requesting changes : Standard 7 days
Paper instructions : Archaeologists investigate the material culture and environmental settings of the human past in different
types of contexts. In the ancient Greek Mediterranean, these contexts often have to do with human behavior
in sacred settings, in public settings, in private domestic settings, and in funerary settings. (1) The desire to
propitiate divine entities with the best that an individual or a community could offer in order to glorify the
deity as well as commemorate the largess (however great or small) of the individual or group making the
gift led to the development of sacred zones filled with temples, treasuries, showy votive monuments, and
thousands of more humble offerings (small wooden or clay figurines), remains of sacrifices, and so on. (2)
Economic, social, political, legal, military, and other public activities could take place in different areas of a
community and leave material records reflecting those actions. (3) Private homes and (4) the burial of the
deceased are likewise documented by material remains and reveal much about daily life – and death – in a
given society.
In each of these 4 settings, consider what archaeologists have discovered and how this new knowledge
contributes to our understanding of the history of ancient Greece by discussing the excavation and/or study
of at least two examples from each of the 4 contexts. At each of these different kinds of sites, what
information gained through the practice of archaeology do you think is the most valuable for
understanding the human past? Why?
At each of these different kinds of sites, what are the limitations of the study of the material culture for
understanding the human past? Why?
Please use specific dates where you can for artifacts, architecture, and sites. But you may also place them within
the broader periods given below:
Periods:
Geometric 1100-700 BCE
Protoarchaic 710-600 BCE
Early Archaic 600-520 BCE
Late Archaic 520-480 BCE
Early Classical 480-450/440 BCE
High Classical 450/440-400 BCE
*Late Classical 400-323 BCE
(Don’t go over 1000 words.)