The Cambridge Companion to the Greek Iron Age

Explores the period from the end of the Bronze Age palaces to the emergence of Greek city states about five centuries later.

Offering a synthesis of the key developments of the Greek Iron Age, this Companion demonstrates how new archaeological and theoretical approaches have enlarged and clarified our understanding of this seminal period. Including archaeological surveys of different regions, it presents focused discussions of the Early Iron Age cultures.Once considered a period of poverty and isolation, devoid of impressive material culture, the Iron Age is now regarded as a pivotal era. It witnessed how the ancient Greeks lost and regained literacy, created lifelike figural representations and monumental architecture, and eventually established new and complex civic polities. The Companion to the Greek Iron Age offers an up to date account of this critical epoch of Greek antiquity. Including archaeological surveys of different regions, it presents focused discussions of the Early Iron Age cultures and states with which Greek regions had contacts and which are integral for understanding cultural developments in this formative period. They include Cyprus, Syro-Anatolia, Italy, and Egypt, regions in which, as in Greece, the Early Iron Age is diverse and unevenly documented. Offering a synthesis of the key developments, The Companion to the Greek Iron Age also demonstrates how new archaeological and theoretical approaches have enlarged and clarified our understanding of this seminal period.