Cult and Society in Early Athens. Archaeological and Anthropological Approaches to State Formation and Group Participation in Attica. 1000-600 BCE

Abstract

This doctoral thesis addresses the question of early Athenian statehood from the vantage point of the cultic remains. One of the main tenets of this book is that the principle stage for Athenian self-representation in the Classical Period, the cult of Athena on the Acropolis, was neither the only nor the first rallying point for the inhabitants of Attica in the Early Iron Age. It is argued that the Athenaioi (the “Men of Athena”) originated as an elite group, whose franchise did not extend beyond the Athenian plain. From the eighth century BCE many similar and more or less autonomous groups sprang up throughout the Attic peninsula, resulting in regionalism and political fragmentation. From the end of the seventh century and well into the sixth century BCE, a process of cultic exchange opened the way toward social and political integration, culminating in the reforms of Cleisthenes in 508/7 BCE. Cult and Society in Early Athens brings together for the first time the large body of cultic remains from Early Iron Age and Early Archaic Athens and Attica (1000-600 BCE).