Art and Identity in Dark Age Greece, 1100–700 BC

Explores how art and material culture were used to construct age, gender and social identity in Dark Age Greece.

Susan Langdon (Author)

9780521513210, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 October 2008

406 pages, 82 b/w illus.
26 x 19 x 3 cm, 1.14 kg

'In short, this is a spectacular book and, to my mind, one of the most intelligent analyses of Greek Geometric art ever written. Its brilliance lies in its simplicity … Well conceived and thought through, thoroughly researched, richly illustrated, and elegantly written, Art and Identity is a 'must-read' for anyone even remotely interested in early Greece. It will quickly take its place as a seminal study, one that will re-orient the way in which we look at pictures in the corpus of Greek Geometric figural representation …' John K. Papadopoulos, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

This book explores how art and material culture were used to construct age, gender and social identity in the Greek Early Iron Age, 1100–700 BCE. Coming between the collapse of the Bronze Age palaces and the creation of Archaic city-states, these four centuries witnessed fundamental cultural developments and political realignments. Whereas previous archaeological research has emphasized class-based aspects of change, this study offers a more comprehensive view of early Greece by recognizing the place of children and women in a warrior-focused society. Combining iconographic analysis, gender theory, mortuary analysis, typological study and object biography, Susan Langdon explores how early figural art was used to mediate critical stages in the life-course of men and women. She shows how an understanding of the artistic and material contexts of social change clarifies the emergence of distinctive gender and class asymmetries that laid the basis for classical Greek society.

Introduction
1. Art made to order
2. Geometric art comes of age: an archaeology of maturation
3. Virgin territory: the construction of the maiden
4. Maiden, interrupted: the art of abduction
5. The domestication of the warrior
Epilogue: back from the dark.

Subject Areas: Classical Greek & Roman archaeology [HDDK], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], History of art: ancient & classical art,BCE to c 500 CE [ACG]