ATHENS AND ATTIKA FROM THE 11TH TO THE EARLY 6TH CENTURY BCE. SETTLEMENT HISTORY AND SOCIO-POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS

Popular narratives on Early Athens assume a sudden emergence of the polis in an eighth century BCE ›renaissance‹ ending the ›Dark Ages‹ and an Early Archaic ›downturn‹ leading into the pre-Solonic crisis. My dissertation takes a look at the longer-term socio-political processes to test such assumptions. It sketches a new picture of cultural-historical developments in Attika in the Early Iron Age and the Early Archaic period, which does not project back the very different conditions of the Classical period but is based on a critical analysis of the written sources and in particular the archaeological evidence.

     A chapter on the historical developments until the early sixth century precedes the archaeological sections of the thesis. The critical evaluation of the reliability of later written sources and the consideration of more recent historical approaches allows me to question the presumption of a developed Athenian state already in the seventh century BCE or the assumption of far-reaching Solonian reforms. This opens our eyes for the successive increase of state-ness within the Archaic period. Only in the course of this process, the unity of Attika will have become a goal.

     The second part of the dissertation investigates questions of settlement archaeology. Firstly, a topographically organized overview of the published evidence from Attika is given. Against this background, the settlement structure is analysed, and the settlement history is diachronically evaluated. This enables me to counter the idea of an internal colonisation of Attika starting from its alleged only centre with the assertion of decentralised small-scale densification processes.

     The third and the fourth parts of the thesis discuss the cemeteries and the sanctuaries and diachronically explore their potential for the reconstruction of socio-political transformation processes. The analysis of burials reveals a continually high degree of funerary variability. This indicates a constant competition of burial groups with diverging representational strategies as well as a high amount of instability in the continuous renegotiations of positions of social pre-eminence. Fluctuations in the number of documented graves do not permit conclusions on the ›rise of the polis‹ but result from changes in the popularity of various types of burial places within Athens. The growing preference for communal burial grounds starting not later than the early eighth century and the changes in representational strategies this entails nevertheless suggest an increase in communal consciousness and a commencing consolidation of elites. The examination of burials thus roughly divides the studied period into a phase of social fragmentation in the eleventh to ninth centuries BCE and a period of growing social ties starting in the eighth century BCE. The investigation of sanctuaries yields very similar results: The few earlier cult places most probably functioned as ›neutral‹ meeting places for the surrounding groups. In the Late Geometric and the Early Archaic period, in contrast, a larger number of sanctuaries emerged all over the region. These had smaller and more clear-cut catchment areas and thus could serve the formation of territorially defined groups as well as the social differentiation within these. Expensive votives and remains of communal feasts testify to this. They are supplemented by a large number of simple votives in the second half of the seventh century BCE, which in turn makes the active participation of larger groups of persons very likely. All of these processes take place at many different sites within Attika and thus cannot be directly related to the ›rise‹ of the Athenian polis.

     Finally, the single results of the dissertation are correlated. This allows me to draw a picture of continuous socio-political developments accelerating in the eighth century BCE and reaching a pivotal founding phase in the Early Archaic period. The concept of an eighth century ›emergence‹ of the Athenian polis then again is misleading.