1 Revised version of a paper given at UCL in the seminar series “La naissance des cités crétoises”, 6th May 2010. I would like to thank Jan Driessen for inviting me to give this talk, and both Florence and Jan Driessen for their wonderful hospitality while I was in Leuven (and for taking me to Louvain-la-Neuve). The text has been very much improved by comments from Anthony Snodgrass, and more especially Josine Blok of the University of Utrecht, both of whom have made useful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.
2 As in Gehrke 2009: 395: “Even by modern criteria, therefore, these organizations [ poleis ] may be credited with the characteristics of a state, and rightly called “states”; 396: “Since… the polis thus defined shows significant elements of statehood, I use the concepts of polis and state as synonyms”.
3 This is often referred to as “Stagira”, but, as Flensted-Jensen (2004: 844-845 n. 613) points out, the true name is Stagiros. It is located in the Chalkidike, on the North Aegean coast.
4 For a flavour of this kind of approach, for those unfamiliar with it, see papers in Feinman & Marcus 1998b, in particular Flannery (1998) and Wright (1998). The contrast with Gehrke (2009) is stark.
5 Marcus 1998: 91 “Such territories are as small as those controlled by the caicazgos of Mexico’s Post-Classic Mixteca… and it is probably inappropriate to consider them “states”… “Greek poleis represent a social form that is unlikely to represent a first-generation state for its region”. See also remarks about the term “city state” (Feinman & Marcus 1998a: 8-9). See now Flannery & Marcus 2012, for a fuller exposition of this neo-evolutionist comparative perspective on states.
6 Blanton’s (1998) proposal may provide a better framework for cross-cultural comparison, one that does not privilege the Mesoamerican and Mesopotamian sequences over the Aegean.
7 It is perhaps for this and related reasons that the debate about the “rise of the polis” seems to have reached an impasse by 1993 (see Snodgrass 1993). Though Hansen (2000a) clearly hoped that the term “city-state” could function as a useful “etic” term for cross cultural comparison, contributions to his volume (Hansen 2000b) to me indicate the opposite – contributors use the term in different ways, without any clear parameters for systematic comparison. Anderson (2009) however may offer a way of defining the Greek state that could be used for comparative purposes.
8 Other theorists have come up with similar definitions of the polis – “a polis must be juridically autonomous in the sense of holding a monopoly of the means of coercion within the territory to which its laws apply” (Runciman 1990: 348).
9 I will leave to one side the question of other kinds of state in the Archaic and Classical Aegean. The “citizen state” was only one of several such forms, the others being the territorial monarchy (Macedon and Epirus) and the confederacy (e. g. Phokis, or Thessaly), often referred to as the ethnos.
10 Having read the arguments of Perlman (1996: 262-6; 2004a: 1186 n. 988), it strikes me as unlikely that the site of Patela Prinias can be identified with ancient Rhitten (or Rhizenia), contra Guarducci (see also Pautasso this volume). The numerous legal inscriptions (IC I, XXVIII. 2-15) from the site, inscriptions dating principally to the early-6th century BC, confirm however that Patela Prinias must have been a polis. We do not know its ancient name, but it is almost certainly not Apellonia/Apollonia (see Perlman 2004a: 1150-1151 n. 946) which is more plausibly located at Ayia Pelagia (see also Alexiou 1984).
11 Information from Hansen & Nielsen 2004 and, on size of islands, Wikipedia. Note that in my estimates I have added to the numbers given in Hansen & Nielsen 2004, in the case of Sicily and Cyprus to include a number of Phoenician/Punic (Kition, Motya) and indigenous (e. g. Morgantina) political communities.
12 Numbers as in Perlman 2004a: Herakleion, 1165 n. 961; Dragmos, 1157 n. 955. The location of Dragmos is almost certainly not as given in the Barrington atlas (a site only occupied very briefly in the Hellenistic period) – “Sta Ellinika” near Zakro (Nowicki 2000: 54-55) seems to me to be a much more likely candidate. Other dependent communities classed (in Hansen’s definition) as poleis include Rhitten/Rhizenia and Stalai/Stalitai (Perlman 2004a: 1186 n. 988, 1187, n. 989). For this phenomenon, see in particular Perlman 1996. These communities cannot count as states.
13 Numbers as in Perlman 2004a: Malla 1177 n. 975; Biannos/Biennos, 1154 n. 951.
14 Numbers as in Perlman 2004a: Eleutherna 1158-1160 n. 957; Lyktos/Lyttos 1175-1177 n. 974; Knosos 1169-1170 n. 967; Gortys/Gortyn 1161-1165 n. 960; Dreros 1157-1158 n. 956; Praisos 1183-1184 n. 984. Detailed studies of the Archaic legal inscriptions from both Eleutherna (Perlman 2004b) and Gortyn (Perlman 2002) underscore the institutional complexity and legal sophistication of these political communities.
15 Praisos controlled Stalai, Setaia and (probably) Dragmos (Perlman 1996: 257-258); Gortyn controlled Amyklai, Aulon, Rhitten, and several others (Perlman 1996: 258-268).
16 So Marcus (1998) argues, contra Renfrew (1986), Snodgrass (1986) and most other contributors to Renfrew and Cherry (1986).
17 This idea has been taken up by Hansen (1993a) and other scholars (contributions to Hansen 1993b).
18 “πολίτης δ’ἁπλῶς οὐδενί τών ἄλλων ὁρίζεται μᾶλλον ἢ τῷ μετέχειν κρίσεως καὶ ἀρχῆς.” (Arist., Pol 1275a 22). Though it should be recognised that, this is not so much a definition, as an admission of aporia in the face of the complexity of the evidence.
19 Though all forms of citizenship, following (see Arist. Pol. 1275b 22-24) seemed to involve descent, only some required the “principle of strong equality” As Runciman (1990) observes, citizen-states could be oligarchies as well as democracies.
20 This is the old “hoplite reform” theory, for whose history see Snodgrass 2006: 307-359. The theory has been seriously undermined by the work of Hans van Wees (see especially van Wees 2004).
21 For the covenant between Yahweh and the Hebrews, one should look no further than the first five books of the Bible. For more thoughts on the “covenant state”, see Blok 2013.
22 On IC II, V. 5 from Axos. Perlman (2010: esp. 103-107) argues that this is a term for citizen women in particular, whose status was clearly distinct (and superior) to other women.
23 Though, as Josine Blok (pers comm.) points out, no female citizen in ancient Athens was completely passive – participation in cult, particularly the holding of priesthoods, would make some women much more active than others, and more active than some men.
24 Schmitt-Pantel (1990) discusses the debate as it had developed by the end of the 1980s.
25 As ironically commented on by Plato (Pl Ap, 36d). For the tholos, see Thompson 1940: 44-105, 126-37; Thompson & Wycherley 1972: 41-46; Camp 1992: 94-97. It is likely that the form of commensality practised in the tholos was undertaken while seated on benches, not reclining on couches (see Cooper & Morris 1990). It was not therefore “sympotic”, but might have resembled Spartan syssitia (see below). Of course, the privileges of free-dining alluded to by Plato (Pl Ap, 36d), where Olympic victors might dine at public expense, is almost certainly not the tholos in the Agora, but another building in the Old Agora. This has been plausibly identified with remains now visible in Agia Aikaterini square to the south-east of the Acropolis in the area of the Archaic Agora (see Schmalz 2006). There is a longstanding debate as to who in Athens held the lifelong privilege of sitesis in this building, detailed in IG I ³ 313.
26 The earliest testimony is from Gortyn, IC IV, 4 line 4 (early 6th c. BC). Other Archaic inscriptions mentioning andreia include one each from Eltynia (IC I, X. 2) and Axos (IC II, IV. 1) and the Spensithios inscription (Jeffery & Morpugo Davis 1970: 143-4 side B, lines 10 and 12). The institution continues to be mentioned in the early fifth century (IC IV, 75. line B9), that is to the time of the Great Code.
27 The literary sources are principally Homer (Od. 19.175-7), discussing the five peoples of Crete, including the Eteocretans; Hdt. VII. 170-71 (the charter myth of the Praisioi) and Strabo (X. 4.6; X. 4.12), who identifies Homer’s Eteocretans with the inhabitants of Praisos. On the Eteocretan inscriptions (IC III, VI. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5), see Duhoux 1982: 63-85. On the history of research at Praisos, see Whitley, O’Conor & Mason 1995: 405-407.
28 On the excavation, see Morgan et alii 2008: 95-96. The date of Praisos’ destruction is usefully discussed by Bosanquet 1940: 73-75.
29 Bosanquet 1902a: 26: “I [Bosanquet] decided to clear it [the Almond Tree House] entirely, and this was done between June 17th and July 3rd [1901]. Care was taken so to dispose of earth and stone as to improve the surrounding property, broad new terraces being formed on the slope below, which had been a mere moraine of tumbled ruins.”
30 For this structure, see Alexiou 1972; 1975; 1984; Ioannidou-Karetsou 1973. Ruth Westgate has visited both sites, and informed me that the structures at Praisos and Apollonia are of comparable size and architectural sophistication. The Apollonia structure has also been interpreted as an andreion.
31 See Madgwick & Whitley forthcoming. Hare is also reported from a recent Greek-French re-investigation of the andreion at Dreros (Zographaki & Farnoux 2012: 597-598; Mulliez 2011).
32 For a terracottas from Praisos and its sanctuaries, see Forster 1902; 1905; Halbherr 1901, 386-92. Similar terracottas have been found in Roussa Ekklesia; Erickson 2009.
33 Forster type 25 or 26 (Forster 1905: 252-253; Halbherr 1901: 392 fig. 24).
34 Though the iconography corresponds to Forster’s description of his type 11 (Forster 1905: 248; see also Halbherr 1901: pl. XII n. 3; Dohan 1931: 211 figs 4, 6, 7), our example is clearly neither from the same type nor from the same series. I have found no exact parallel for this piece.
35 These are, initially, Forster type 10 (Forster 1905, p. 248; Halbherr 1901, p. 390 fig. 19; see also Dohan 1931, 210, figs 1-2).
36 Forster type 11 (Forster 1905: 248; see also Halbherr 1901: pl. XII no. 3; Dohan 1931: 211 figs 4, 6, 7). There seem to be other depictions of warriors with plumed helmets from Praisos of Classical date; see Halbherr 1901: 392 fig. 25.
37 Boston 01.8027; ABV, 152 no. 27; see also Beazley 1986: 53 and plate 49,1. Other depictions include an example by Exekias from Philadelphia (ABV, 145 no. 16, Philadelphia 4843; see Beazley 1986: 63-64); and another vase (perhaps by the painter of Berlin 1686) once from Northwick, now in Oxford (ABV, 301; Kunze 1967: 165 fig. 55). This list is not exhaustive.
38 One consequence of this argument is that the Δαταλείς mentioned in the Spensithios inscription (Jeffery & Morpugo-Davies 1970) must refer to a segment of the Archaic city, not to the whole of it. On my argument, “Dattalla” cannot therefore be the name of an ancient Cretan city (contra Viviers 1994: 238-239).
39 This is Prent’s (2005: 441-476) argument, and one that I agree with. Certainly there is little or nothing that unites the various structures that have claimed to be andreia, which comprise everything from hearth temples to armouries (see also Bergquist 1990: esp. 39-43). I have presented arguments to this effect elsewhere (Whitley forthcoming).
40 As this and others dating to Middle Minoan to Late Minoan times (such as “guard towers”) seem to be located along Venetian/Ottoman kaldirimia (see Whitley, Prent & Thorne 1999, 228-34).
41 This is MM IB deposit A, now fully published (Macdonald & Knappett 2007: 57-68). Drinking vessels with a pronounced “hierarchical” structure can also be discerned in the MM IIA deposits, D and E (Macdonald & Knappett 2007: 85-120), though here they are less pronounced.
42 I am using this term in Chris Tilley’s (1994) sense, to mean the embodied relationship humans have with their natural and cultural environment.
43 Key assemblages from Knossos with kraters and deep bowls include the LMIIIC levels of the Stratigraphical Museum extension (Warren 2005; Hatzaki 2005; Hatzaki 2007: 248-251). The similarities to assemblages further East (such as Palaikastro Kastri) and West (such as Khamalevri; see Andreadaki-Vlazaki & Papadopoulou 2005) are striking.
44 Remark made at the Crete/Cyprus conference, November 2006, now published (see Cadogan et alii 2012: 5) The reference is to the “green line” that runs through modern Cyprus, dividing the “Turkish” north from the “Greek” south. The point is that this line is entirely artificial – it results only from force majeure.
