Archaeologies of the Greek Past: Landscape, Monuments, and Memories

Description

Social memory - the shared remembrances of group experience - creates shared identity, and provides people with both an image of their past and a design for their future. But how are we to conceive the memories of past peoples such as, for example, the ancient Greeks? This book makes a strong case for the use of archaeology, particularly the evidence of landscape and of monuments, to trace patterns in commemoration and forgetfulness. Three detailed case studies (early Roman Greece, Hellenistic and Roman Crete, and Messenia in Archaic to Hellenistic times) focus on societies undergoing different types of social transformation. Material evidence allows us to observe how groups responded to these challenges, and how they made different uses of the past, in the past.

Susan E. Alcock is Associate Professor of Classical Archaeology and Classics at the University of Michigan. She is the author of Graecia Capta (1993; HB 0521 401097; PB 0521 568196).

'... the book is never dull.' Minerva 'The possibility of exploring interpretations of the past within the past is an exciting one, and Alcock's book provides a welcome call for more intensive exploration of this theme within Greek archaeology, a field in which (with a few notable exceptions) its potential has not been sufficiently realised ... Overall, this volume, written in an engaging and accessible style, constitutes an inspiring introduction to an intriguing subject.' The Anglo-Hellenic Review '... pioneering and fascinating study.' Journal of Hellenic Studies 'Alcock offers an insightful study of that dynamic relationship between monument and landscape and encourages students of antiquity to recontextualise the archaeological evidence of the past in the past. All historians, not just landscape historians, should read this book.' Landscape History