Routledge, 2003. Hardcover. Brown cloth covered hardcover with gilt lettering to spine. Very good dust jacket with minor sun fading to spine and wear to front top cover. 8vo. (6.25 x 0.75 x 9.5 inches) Clean text free of marks or underlining. B&W illustrations. Includes maps, diagrams, notes, bibliography and an index.

Fast shipping in a secure book box mailer with tracking. Like new / Very good. Item #202923
ISBN: 9780415089968

Early Greek States Beyond the Polis
Ethnicity in the ancient world is currently a subject of considerable debate. Catherine Morgan's study focuses on this topic as it applies to areas of ancient Greece which have been previously neglected in research, and which lie outside the well-known poleis (such as Athens). She explores the different tiers of identity by which mainland Greeks constituted their communities during the Early Iron Age and Archaic period.

Based on extensive archaeological investigations, Morgan shows that these supposed 'backwaters' in fact rival in complexity even the most advanced poleis as often conceived. The book asks fundamental and wide-ranging questions including:

• What were early Greek states outside the polis really like?

• How did the early Greeks conceive their political identities?

• What was an ethnos?

• How backward were mountain-dwellers?

It becomes clear that the political identity of each community was constructed of a web of associations, including relationship to a polis, an ethnos or groups within these, which could be weighted differently depending on the perceived advantage to that community.

Rather than being separate and alternative forms of state, poleis and ethne could both, at different times and with varying enthusiasm and motivation, be identified with by communities.

Highly illustrated with more than eighty photographs, maps and plans, and replete with up-to-the-minute archaeological data, this important new work is necessary reading for everyone studying the archaeology and history of the peoples of early Greece.

Price: $104.95