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Accepted Paper:

Theorising the early Greek city in its locational, micro-regional and regional context  
Martin Gallagher (Boston University)

Paper short abstract:

Problems with identifying the spatial articulation of early Greek cities between the mid-9th and the last third of the fifth centuries BC can be addressed by turning to the understudied northern half of Greece, especially Thessaly, and the underused (in historical Greek Archaeology) resources of historical geography and complexity theory.

Paper long abstract:

Whilst it is now clear that the physical development of early (8th/7th century) Greek cities is geographically limited and temporally protracted I argue that instead of drawing lines between city and non-city phases is a mistake, because as Ernst Kirsten (1956) noticed long ago Greek poleis (usually and misleadingly translated as city-states) are not really cities at all but village-states (Dorpstaaten). Once the appropriate scale is recognised and the successive stages of 'urban' forms are attended to, it becomes clear that early activity sometimes anticipates the functionality of later structures and at others defines the main activity loci of subsequent periods, in strong contradistinction from previous ones. Sometimes the location of settlements alone indicates an organised community such as in Eretria, where a flooding river was a perpetual threat or across the bay in Oropos where early metalworking could not have been accommodated by local supply. In others, we can trace the movement and competition of settlements, such as in Boeotian Orchomenos/Tanagra and Chaeronea, respectively.

The lack of attention to these stages coincides with a predominant focus on the polis communities of the southern half of Greece. Understudied regions to the north in areas later defined as regionally-governed ethne are archaeologically comparable to their southern counterparts in early periods.

Thessaly provides opportunities for all of the above-mentioned forms of analysis and offers a special opportunity because its continuous occupation and open territory suggest subsequent changes in spatial articulation result from human 'decisions and dispositions' rather than historical or environmental determinism.

Panel S23
Theorising city landscapes: boundaries and place in urban space
  Session 1