Classical archaeology is the archaeological investigation of the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

civilizations of

Ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...

and

Ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 B ...

. Nineteenth-century archaeologists such as

Heinrich Schliemann Johann Ludwig Heinrich Julius Schliemann (; 6 January 1822 – 26 December 1890) was a German businessman and pioneer in the field of archaeology. He was an advocate of the historicity of places mentioned in the works of Homer and an archaeologi ...

were drawn to study the societies they had read about in Latin and Greek texts. Many universities and foreign nations maintain excavation programs and schools in the area – such is the enduring appeal of the region's archaeology.

Cultures discussed

Classical archaeology in its strictest, most traditional sense applies only to the study of Classical Athenian culture and the culture of the Roman Republic and Empire. However, over the course of the last century, the field has expanded to include discussions of the elaborate mosaic of cultures that produced the civilizations of Ancient Greece and Rome. Classical archaeologists interested in Greece frequently discuss Crete and the

Minoan civilization The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings were from 3500BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000BC, and then declining from 1450BC ...

present on that island during the Bronze Age. They also discuss the

Helladic Helladic chronology is a relative dating system used in archaeology and art history. It complements the Minoan chronology scheme devised by Sir Arthur Evans for the categorisation of Bronze Age artefacts from the Minoan civilization within a his ...

and

Geometric Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is ca ...

periods, as well as occasionally discussing the

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

period as it pertains to Greece. Even during the Classical period, it is completely untrue to say that Greece had one true culture – a great deal of regional variation was present, and much of the study of Greek archaeology lies in examination of these regional differences. Greek archaeology covers the Hellenistic period as well, frequently compelling the classical archaeologist to examine the Greek influences present in all the areas that were part of

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Maced ...

's empire, including much of the Middle East and Egypt. Classical archaeologists interested in Roman civilization discuss the influence of the

Etruscans The Etruscan civilization () was developed by a people of Etruria in ancient Italy with a common language and culture who formed a federation of city-states. After conquering adjacent lands, its territory covered, at its greatest extent, rou ...

and other early cultures present on the Italic Peninsula. They also discuss the subcultures present within the Roman Republic and Empire based on regional differences, and any discussion of the later empire requires at least a partial segue into the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

Excavations

While inspired by ancient texts and sometimes using them to interpret artifacts, classical archaeology would not exist without ancient artifacts. Though much of classical archaeology (like any kind of archaeology) is performed by scholars in their studies, the most vibrant and crucial parts of classical archaeology are the archaeological excavations, more commonly known as "digs". Excavation techniques at first were modelled after excavations in Egypt and the Near East and searched for large artifacts and walls without much care for the delicate remains that might have existed in the ground around these artifacts. Many of the earliest sites still cannot be dated in a satisfying manner because the

stratigraphy Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock (geology), rock layers (Stratum, strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary rock, sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigrap ...

, soil layers with embedded artifacts used to determine the age of a site, was completely stripped away. Early excavations also often failed to record the items they found in sufficient detail, making it difficult to date artifacts, determine precisely where they were found, or establish a connection between objects that may have been found together. Over time, excavation techniques have greatly improved and the amount of information gleaned from each excavation is exponentially greater than that recorded in early excavations. While excavation reports now take many years to compile due to the level of detail included and analyzed.

References

External links

The Beazley Archive
is a collection of Classical artifacts

– A site with many links to classical archaeology sites {{Authority control

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

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Cultures discussed

Excavations

See also

References

Further reading

External links