Citadel to City-State The Transformation of Greece, 1200-700 B.C.E. [Paperback]

Citadel to City-State serves as an excellent summarization of our present knowledge of the not-so-dark Dark Age as well as an admirable prologue to the understanding of the subsequent Archaeic and Classical periods. David Rupp, Phoenix

The Dark Age of Greece is one of the least understood periods of Greek history. A terra incognita between the Mycenaean civilization of Late Bronze Age Greece and the flowering of Classical Greece, the Dark Age was, until the last few decades, largely neglected. Now new archaeological methods and the discovery of new evidence have made it possible to develop a more comprehensive view of the entire period. Citadel to City-State explores each century from 1200 to 700 B.C.E. through an individual siteMycenae, Nichoria, Athens, Lefkandi, Corinth, and Ascrathat illustrates the major features of each period. This is a remarkable account of the historical detective work that is beginning to shed light on Dark Age Greece.

The case studies, on quite recent archaeological findings, are finely nuanced and well reasoned. Thomas and Conant fairly describe various schools of thought on interpretation of the archaeological record and put forward some new hypotheses. . . . Upper-division undergraduates and above.March 2000A Selection of the History Book Club

TOC:
Preface
Introduction
1. Mycenae: The End of the Bronze Age
2. Nichoria: The Darkest Period of the Dark Age
3. Athens: Tenth Century Breath of Spring
4. Lefkandi: New Heroes of the Ninth Century
5. Corinth: The End of the Dark Age
6. Ascra: The End Product of the Dark Age
Glossary
Abbreviations
Notes
References
Index

Carol G. Thomas is Professor of Ancient Greek History at the University of Washington. Her books include Decoding Ancient History: A Toolkit of the Historian as Detective (with D. Wick); Myth Becomes History; Progress into the Past, 2nd Edition (with William A. McDonald); and Paths from Ancient Greece. She is two-timel3!