Burial and Ancient Society
The Rise of the Greek City-State

This study explores the relationship between burial rituals and social structures in Early Iron Age Greece.

Ian Morris (Author)

9780521387385, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 29 March 1990

276 pages
25.4 x 17.8 x 1.7 cm, 0.493 kg

'Burial and Ancient Society by Ian Morris is an important book … Unconvinced by the arguments for very rapid population growth and population decline in Attica … Morris argues that the evidence reflects changes in the proportion of the total population buried in archaeologically visible ways, rather than changes in the size of the population … No doubt the debate will continue, but this is a significent contribution to it.' Greece & Rome

This study of the changing relationships between burial rituals and social structure in Early Iron Age Greece will be required reading for all archaeologists working with burial evidence, in whatever period. This book differs from many topical studies of state formation in that unique and particular developments are given as much weight as those factors which are common to all early states. The ancient literary evidence and the relevant historical and anthropological comparisons are extensively drawn on in an attempt to explain the transition to the city-state, a development which was to have decisive effects for the subsequent development of European society.

List of figures and tables
Preface and acknowledgements
1. Introduction: the argument
Part I: 2. The living and the dead
3. The social dimensions of early Greek burial
Part II: 4. Demography and space
5. The burying groups
6. Exclusion and retrieval
7. Mortuary and display
9. Pottery and population
Part III: 10. The rise of the polis
11. Conclusion
Appendices
Bibliography
Site index
General index.

Subject Areas: Anthropology [JHM], Classical Greek & Roman archaeology [HDDK]