Time and the other Greeks

This chapter argues that the dominant historical periodization of the early Greek world (ca. 1400–700 BCE) is premised on a specific master narrative that relies on Orientalist tropes. This narrative is most clearly articulated in the work of Moses Finley and has become a major force in Anglo-American scholarly literature. Finley and others characterize the Bronze Age as essentially Near Eastern in character, a characterization that was premised on the (inaccurate) perception that Mycenaean states were rigid, monarchical, centralized, and bureaucratic. The dramatic and sudden collapse of the Mycenaean palatial system ca. 1200 BCE provides a clean break, with hardly any vestiges of the old order surviving through the Early Iron Age, a period that is understood to contain the sources of Classical institutions and structures. Thus, the Oriental Bronze Age is temporally juxtaposed with the European Iron Age, so that Greek history contains within itself the narrative of civilizational progress from East to West, but expressed in temporal rather than geographical terms. This state of affairs is not only problematic in theoretical and political terms but also does a poor job of explaining the archaeological and textual evidence

Ancient history · Greeks · Classical Antiquity Studies · Historical Astronomy and Related Studies · History

• The Peculiar Hellenic Alloy

  Anne Duray•American Journal of Archaeology•2025

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