Most recently Anthony Snodgrass embraced and developed this holistic approach suggesting that "historians extend their interests from political and military events to social and economic processes" and "classical archaeologists turn from the outstanding works of art to the totality of material products ...." The Archaic period is thus interpreted as a rapprochement of various threads and is not just an "archaic" stage of classical fruition but "a complete episode in its own right."1 Michael Grant also objects to the term archaic "because it possesses the dictionary significance of 'primitive' and 'antiquated.' No such pejorative epithets are appropriate for the early Greeks whose doings and sayings added up to one of the most creative periods in world history."2

Snodgrass defines the termini of the Archaic period as a "structural revolution" meaning a sudden upsurge of population and material goods that occurred with mid-point at 750 BC and the "intellectual revolution" of classical Greece.3 The end of archaism is conventionally defined as Xerxes' invasion of Greece in 480 BC It should not be thought for a moment however that all the various threads begin and end on these dates. For example red-figure pottery which characterized the Classical Greek period began in the Archaic. Snodgrass says: "... it must always be borne in mind that such demarcations of history ... although reasonably acceptable for the convenience of later ages are entirely artificial categories".4 Contents 1 Society 2 Art 2.1 Architecture 2.2 Sculpture 2.3 Ceramics 3 Conflicts 4 Important people 5 See also 6 Notes 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links Society

Mycenaean Greece of the Bronze Age had been divided into kingdoms each containing a territory and a population distributed into both small towns and large estates owned by the nobility. The kingdom was ruled by a king claiming authority under divine right by descent from a heroic ancestor and physically established at a palace situated within a citadel or acropolis ("high city") located for defense on the highest hill that could be found preferably precipitous. During the Greek Dark Ages the palaces kings and estates vanished population declined towns were abandoned or became villages situated in ruins and government devolved on minor officials and the tribal structure.

The sharp rise in population at the start of the Archaic Period brought reurbanization settlement of new towns with re-expansion of the old centres. Margalit Finkelberg5 has discussed the succession patterns of legendary and historical kings in pre-Classical Greece where succession from father to son is not the norm but where instead the new king traditionally exiled from a royal line elsewhere wins the right as son-in-law of the old king legitimised through his marriage to the daughter. This pattern is immediately familiar to a reader of Greek mythology in Pelops Bellerophon Melampous Peleus Telamon Teukros Andraimon Diomedes Menelaus and others. In Greece until quite a late Hellenistic date the king list that is so familiar a feature everywhere in the Near East and Anatolia and a calendar reckoning by regnal year are both absent. If the king is succeeded by his son-in-law Finkelberg notes (1991:305) that means the queen is succeeded by her daughter in a culture that was on its surface relentlessly patriarchal: "That is to say in Sparta and obviously in other places for which kingship by marriage is attested rather than a line of kings we have a line of queens that runs from mother to daughter."

Towards the end of the Archaic period the power of the basileus or king was reduced as aristocratic gatherings such as the council of elders increased in power. The sharing of power among powerful families occurred in many poleis which saw oligarchies established. The Archaic is also a period marked by tyrants strong rulers who seized power from the aristocracy and ruled as central dominating figures.6 A new form of government had evolved the city-state which Hellenes termed the polis. The kingdoms were not restored even though in many cases offshoots of the royal families remained. Instead each major population center became autonomous and was ruled by a republican form of government. The ancient Greek term is synoikismos from which comes the term synoecism "conurbation" meaning the absorption of villages and the incorporation of their tribes into the substructure of the polis. The akropoleis became the locations of public buildings typically temples.7

The Archaic period is also characterized by the spreading of colonization of Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts beginning about 800. The reason for this phenomenon is described by Greek authors as "stenochoria" "the lack of land" but in practice there were a great number of reasons: rivalry between political groups the need for adventures expatriation search for trade opportunities and so on. In the earliest expansion of Greek culture the Euboeans played the major role in founding the trading site at Al Mina on the Syrian coast in the estuary of the Orontes for example and the earliest Greek sites in the west at Ischia (Pithekoussai) and Cumae.8 Art Archaic kouros from Thebes Orientalizing style Black-figure style Reconstructed colour kore statue from the archaic period of Greece

The period takes its name from what in art history was considered the archaic or old-fashioned style of sculpture and other works of art/craft that were characteristic of this time as opposed to the more natural look of work made in the following Classical period (see Classical sculpture). Architecture Main article: Architecture of ancient Greece Sculpture

Sculpture in limestone and marble terra cotta bronze wood and rarer metals were used to adorn temples and funerary monuments both free-standing and in relief. The themes were mythical or from daily life. Life-size statues began suddenly at about 650 BC Three periods have been identified:9 Early Archaic 660 BC - 580 BC During the period the major sculptural forms were the kouros and its female equivalent the kore. Middle Archaic 580 BC - 535 BC Late Archaic 540 BC - 480 BC Ceramics In pottery the Archaic period sees the development of the Orientalizing style which signals a shift from the Geometric Style of the later Dark Ages and the accumulation of influences derived from Phoenicia and Syria. Pottery styles associated with the later part of the Archaic age are the black-figure pottery which originated in Corinth during the 7th century BC and its successor the red-figure style developed by the Andokides Painter in about 530 BC. Some notable distinctions to tell if it's from the archaic period is the Egyptian like "left foot forward" "archaic smile" and the very patterned and conventionalized hair or "helmet hair." Conflicts First Messenian War (Approximately 750-730 BC) Lelantine War (End of 8th century BC) Second Messenian War (640-620 BC) Periander's destruction of Epidaurus (approx. 600 BC) First Sacred War (595-585 BC) Thirean War (mid-6th century BC) Spartan invasion of Samos (529 BC) Arcadian Wars Athenian Republic Wars Greco-Persian Wars Important people Statesmen Aristomenes Cleisthenes Cleisthenes of Sicyon Cleomenes I Cypselus Draco (lawgiver) Lycurgus (Sparta) Peisistratos (Athens) Periander Pheidon Polycrates Solon Teleclus Theagenes of Megara Theopompus (king of Sparta) Thrasybulus (tyrant) Epic poets Homeros Hesiodos Philosophers Anaximandros Anaximenes of Miletus Herakleitos Pythagoras Thales Xenophanes Lyric poets Alkaios Alkman Anakreon Sappho Stesikhoros Ibykos Simonides of Ceos Korinna Logographers Kadmos of Miletos Ekataios of Miletos Akusilaos Fabulists Aispos Sculptors Butades Ageladas Antenor Arkhermos Aristokles Bathykles Bupalos Kanakhos Dipoinos and Skyllis Endoios Hegias of Athens Rhoicos Smilis Theodoros Painters Aglaophon Exekias Anakles Antidoros Archikles Ergoteles Glaukytes Hermogenes Kaeltes Kleitias Lydos Nearchos Paseas Psiax Sakonides Sikelos Sophilos Sosimos Teisias Xenokles Andokides Painter Apollodros Epiktetos Euthymides Hypsis Makron Pheidippos Phintias Psiax Sikelos Skythes Smikros Tragic poets Thespis Phrynikhos Khoirilos Pratinas Comic poets Susarion of Megara (580 BC) Epikharmos of Kos (540-450 BC) Cratinus (520-420 BC) also classical Khionides (also classical) 486 BC See also Mykonos vase Pitsa panels Notes Snodgrass p. 13. Grant Michael (1988). The Rise of the Greeks. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. xii.  Snodgrass pp. 13 23. Snodgrass pp. 201-202. Margalit Finkelberg "Royal Succession in Heroic Greece" The Classical Quarterly New Series 41.2 (1991:303-316) A Brief History of Ancient Greece Snodgrass pp. 28-34. Robin Lane Fox Tavelling Heroes in the Epic Age of Homer 2008. Richter pp. 47-83. The overlap of dates recognizes transitions. References Richter Gisela M.A. (1963). A Handbook of Greek Art: Third Edition Newly Revised. Phaidon Publishers Inc..  Snodgrass Anthony (1980). Archaic Greece: The Age of Experiment. London Melbourne Toronto: J M Dent & Sons Ltd. ISBN 0460043882.  Pomeroy Sarah (2009). A Brief History of Ancient Greece. Oxford New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195392678.  Further reading George Grote J. M. Mitchell Max Cary Paul Cartledge A History of Greece: From the Time of Solon to 403 B.C. Routledge 2001. 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