Is it possible to trace the footprints of the historical Sokrates in Athens? Was there really an individual named Romulus, and if so, when did he found Rome? Is the tomb beneath the high altar of St. Peter's Basilica home to the apostle Peter? To answer these questions, we need both dirt and words – that is, archaeology and history. Bringing the two fields into conversation, "Artifact and Artifice" offers an exciting excursion into the relationship between ancient history and archaeology and reveals the possibilities and limitations of using archaeological evidence in writing about the past.
Jonathan M. Hall employs a series of well-known cases to investigate how historians may ignore or minimize material evidence that contributes to our knowledge of antiquity unless it correlates with information gleaned from texts. Dismantling the myth that archaeological evidence cannot impart information on its own, he illuminates the methodological and political principles at stake in using such evidence and describes how the disciplines of history and classical archaeology may be enlisted to work together. He also provides a brief sketch of how the discipline of classical archaeology evolved and considers its present and future role in historical approaches to antiquity. Written in clear prose and packed with maps, photos, and drawings, "Artifact and Artifice" will be an essential book for undergraduates in the humanities.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Abbreviations
Preface
1. Classical Archaeology: The "Handmaid of History"?
The Rediscovery of the Past
The Opening Up of Greece
Philological Archaeology
The Birth of Prehistory
Theory Wars
2. Delphic Vapours
The Triumph of Science?
The Delphic Oracle
The Geology of the Site
Inspired Mantic or Fraudulent Puppet?
Conclusion
Documents for Chapter 2
3. The Persian Destruction of Eretria
A Tale of Two Temples
Yet Another Temple?
Unmooring "Fixed Points"
Science to the Rescue?
Conclusion
Documents for Chapter 3
4. Eleusis, the Oath of Plataia, and the Peace of Kallias
The Archaios Neos at Eleusis
The Oath of Plataia
The Peace of Kallias
Restoring the Sanctuaries of Attica
Conclusion
Documents for Chapter 4
5. Sokrates in the Athenian Agora
The House of Simon
The State Prison
Sokrates on Death Row
Conclusion
Documents for Chapter 5
6. The Tombs at Vergina
The Discovery of the Tombs
The Political Dimension
Aigeai and Vergina
The Occupants of Tomb II
The Tomb and Its Contents
A Third Possibility
Conclusion
Documents for Chapter 6
7. The City of Romulus
Untangling the Foundation Myths of Rome
Romulus and Remus
The Early Kings Materialized?
State Formation and Urbanization
Conclusion
Documents for Chapter 7
8. The Birth of the Roman Republic
The Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus
The Fall of a Tyrant
The Nature of the Kingship
The Origins of the Consulship
"Etruscan" Rome
Conclusion
Documents for Chapter 8
9. Imperial Austerity: The House of Augustus
The House Unearthed
From Dux to Princeps
Reconciling the Evidence
Conclusion
Documents for Chapter 9
10. The Bones of St. Peter
The Discovery of the Tomb
Beneath St. Peter's
Peter in Rome
Peter on the Appian Way
Peter in Jerusalem
Conclusion
Postscript: The Tomb of St. Philip
Documents for Chapter 10
11. Conclusion: Classical Archaeology and the Ancient Historian
Navigating between Textual and Material Evidence
Words and Things
Bridging the "Great Divide"?
List of Ancient Authors
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Jonathan M. Hall is the Phyllis Fay Horton Distinguished Service Professor in the Humanities and professor in the Departments of History and Classics and the College at the University of Chicago. He is the author of three books, most recently "A History of the Archaic Greek World, ca. 1200-479 BCE".
Reviews
"In the shoes of a master sleuth, Hall, expert in many fields, guides his readers through nine prominent cases in which scholars have combined material and textual evidence to explain the archaeological record. Judiciously exposing errors and pitfalls and searching for methods that promise tenable results, he presents a thoroughly researched, well-written, and fascinating tale of history as an active, forensic practice that will help archaeologists and historians to collaborate more productively" – Kurt A. Raaflaub, Brown University
"Hall is one of our very best archaeo-historians, a specialist in ancient Greece who is as conversant with and as competent in handling the authentic but mute evidence of archaeology as the often-unsatisfactory written texts, and authoritative, especially in marrying the two different kinds of historical sources. In his latest book he ranges widely in period and place from archaic (preclassical) Delphi and Eretria to thirteenth-century CE Hierapolis in modern Turkey by way of classical Athens, Alexander's Macedonia, and regal-period Rome, among others. Like many of the best books in his field, this series of acutely researched and shrewdly argued case studies is firmly based on his teaching at the University of Chicago and will be a boon for instructors and students alike" – P. A. Cartledge, author of "After Thermopylae: The Oath of Plataea and the End of the Graeco-Persian"
"Too many books have been labeled thought provoking, but the verdict would in any case be an understatement here. 'Artifact and Artifice' targets one of the most basic tenets in classical studies that impact archaeologists and ancient historians alike in their everyday research operations. Hall surveys the driving theories of the 'Great Divide' to take us on an eventful journey to ancient places that are well known. Or are they? From the Pythia at Delphi to the Bones of St. Peter, from the Athenian agora to the House of Augustus, Hall discloses how our understanding is blurred by entangled preconceptions of visual and textual legacies. Accented with superb snapshots of the mind and rich illustrations, his case studies offer dazzling apercus into key themes in antiquity. 'Artifact and Artifice' should be in the hands of anyone interested in the field of classical studies" – Hans Beck, McGill University
