Early Greece: The bronze and archaic ages

by Moses I. Finley

This admirable study has now been revised and enlarged by Professor Finley in the light of the latest archeological evidence and relevant scholarship. It provides, succinctly and authoritatively, the background information needed for a proper understanding of classical Greek civilization M. I. Finley here reconstructs the “preliterary” background to Greek civilization by an examination of recent archeological discoveries and a critical reappraisal of older archeological evidence. He discusses the problems that dependence on such evidence poses for the historian, for, although archeology reveals changes and even cataclysms, it rarely allows us more than a restricted view of a society under normal conditions. He points out the difficulties in reconciling the mythological “evidence” and the archeological, particularly in Crete and Troy, and analyzes and distinguishes the elements of historic fact and legend in the Iliad and Odyssey

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Greece, Ancient History, Prehistory, Archaeology, Ancient

149 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Sir Moses I. Finley was an American and English classical scholar. His most notable work is The Ancient Economy (1973), where he argued that status and civic ideology governed the economy in antiquity rather than rational economic motivations.

He was born in 1912 in New York City as Moses Israel Finkelstein to Nathan Finkelstein and Anna Katzenellenbogen; died in 1986 as a British subject. He was educated at Syracuse University and Columbia University. Although his M.A. was in public law, most of his published work was in the field of ancient history, especially the social and economic aspects of the classical world.

He taught at Columbia University and City College of New York, where he was influenced by members of the Frankfurt School who were working in exile in America. In 1952, during the Red Scare, Finley was fired from his teaching job at Rutgers University; in 1954, he was summoned by the United States Senate Internal Security Subcommittee and asked whether he had ever been a member of the Communist Party USA. He invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer.

Unable subsequently to find work in the United States, Finley moved to England, where he taught classical studies for many years at Cambridge University, first as a Reader in Ancient Social and Economic History at Jesus College (1964–1970), then as Professor of Ancient History (1970–1979) and eventually as Master of Darwin College (1976–1982). He broadened the scope of classical studies from philology to culture, economics, and society. He became a British subject in 1962 and a Fellow of the British Academy in 1971, and was knighted in 1979.

Among his works, The World of Odysseus (1954) proved seminal. In it, he applied the findings of ethnologists and anthropologists like Marcel Mauss to illuminate Homer, a radical approach that was thought by his publishers to require a reassuring introduction by an established classicist, Maurice Bowra. Paul Cartledge asserted in 1995, "... in retrospect Finley's little masterpiece can be seen as the seed of the present flowering of anthropologically-related studies of ancient Greek culture and society".[1] Finley's most influential work remains The Ancient Economy (1973), based on his Sather Lectures at Berkeley the year before. In The Ancient Economy, Finley launched an all-out attack on the modernist tradition within the discipline of ancient economic history. Following the example of Karl Polanyi, Finley argued that the ancient economy should not be analysed using the concepts of modern economic science, because ancient man had no notion of the economy as a separate sphere of society, and because economic actions in antiquity were determined not primarily by economic, but by social concerns.

Reviews

[Yann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cet ouvrage présente une large part d'histoire de la Grèce antique antérieur à l'âge classique: l'âge du bronze, puis du fer. On peut séparer l'ouvrage en deux parties parties principales.

La première traite de toute la période antérieure à l'invention de l'écriture, et qui est la plus difficile à comprendre, du fait la pauvreté en matériaux intelligibles, si ce n'est des ruines et vestiges épars. C'est la partie que j'ai trouvée la plus intéressante, car l'auteur explique assez bien les difficultés rencontrées par l'historien qui s'appuie sur l'archéologie, et les méthodes qu'il adopte pour essayer de débrouiller l'écheveau du temps. Une méthode de classement satisfaisante, car elle permet d'établir des comparaisons entre sites, c'est celle qui consiste à examiner la forme et la décorations de la poterie. J'ai aussi apprécié que Finley fasse preuve de prudence: du coup, les hypothèses qu'il avance sont prises à leur juste mesure, et non entouré d'un aura d'infaillibilité.

La seconde fait intervenir plus largement les quelques sources écrites dont nous disposons: en premier lieu, les plus anciennes que sont les poésies d'Homère, puis Hésiode, et enfin les ouvrages de l'âge classique qui explorent ces temps anciens: Hérodote, Thucydide, Aristote. Cette partie fait office de synthèse claire et construite des connaissances que nous avons de cette période, mais elle ne se substitue pas, à mon avis, à la lecture de ces œuvres, car Finley est par nécessité trop schématique. Une autre réserve, c'est peut être l’intérêt un peu trop exclusif de Finley pour la politique, au détriment d'autres aspects comme le commerce, la vie quotidienne, la santé, le régime de vie. Son prisme d'analyse sent aussi un peu trop la guerre froide: parler de bourgeoisie et de lutte des classes pour ces périodes antiques me parait singulièrement anachronique et déplacé.

On trouve par contre quelques illustrations et cartes qui, sans être d'une qualité renversantes, sont les bienvenues. Cet ouvrage embrasse donc une période à cheval avec celle du livre de Claude Mossé, La Grèce archaïque d'Homère à Eschyle: VIIe - VIe Siècles av. J. C, en remontant plus loin dans le passé. Un livre plutôt intéressant.

[Justin Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not too much to say here: no doubt this is slightly out of date, but Finley is so cautious--he's perfectly willing to say that we don't know this or that, rather than make uneducated guesses--that I doubt he steers us wrong too much. Otherwise, this is an ideal book on ancient Greece for me personally, since I can't handle the self-congratulatory liberal cheer-leading that goes on every time anyone talks about classical Greece. This book ends before classical Greece. Q.E.D.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 5 out of 5]

This particular book is an interesting one, and it sets out a goal that is simultaneously modest and ambitious and manages to succeed with it.  That goal, of course, is to write a history of what is essentially a prehistoric period in Greece, namely the period before classical Greece came to pass, where archaeology and interpretations of palace texts from the Late Bronze Age and passages of Homer are almost all one has in the way of texts.  The author carefully and correctly notes that this book is a history but not a narrative, because properly speaking the materials for narrative history do not exist for this time and place.  Rather than filling a book with speculations about things that one cannot know based on the limitations of the material, the author does a good job at pointing out what can be known and what can be guessed and where the ignorance lies and overall manages to accomplish this worthwhile task without whining about it.  I can respect that.  If this is not a time or place where I would be likely to do very much in the way of research and writing myself, I can respect someone who does a difficult task well and without complaint.

This book is a small one at less than 150 pages long and is divided into two parts.  After figures and maps, plates, a chronological table, acknowledgements, a preface, and a note on proper names, the book begins properly with six chapters on the Bronze Age in Greece (I).  This includes an introduction (1) as well as a discussion of what it means for the coming of the Greeks (2) as well as a discussion of what can be known from the Cyclades and Cyprus (3) as well as Crete (4) concerning the Greek culture and language that could be found there, and then closes with a discussion of Mycenaean civilization (5) and the end of the Bronze age in destroyed and abandoned cities (6).  The second part of the book discusses the archaic age that followed (II), which contains chapters on the dark age (7), archaic society and aristocratic politics (8), what we can know about Sparta (9) and Athens (10) during this period as aristocracy had to be broadened out among other equals, and then closing with a discussion of the culture of archaic Greece (11) insofar as it can be known.  After this the book closes with a select English bibliography and an index.

For me at least, this book was enjoyable largely because of the wit the author took to the task of writing a history of a preshistorical age and comment on what sort of history can be known about it.  To be sure, the archaic age does include more history than the Bronze Age, and correspondingly it includes a great deal of material that can properly be considered historical when it comes to Athens and Sparta, for example, if few other regions in Greece, and even if a narrative history or a political understanding of the consolidation of power as the Archaic period progressed is beyond our understanding except in a very limited fashion.  Still, what is i n here is generally enjoyable and manages to be balanced to the extent that it can be based on available sources.  The author even manages to note that the Cyclades were important religiously despite not being political politically, something that the author views as significant.  There are a lot more significant hints here than there are outright speculations of the sort that is common in ancient history, and as far as I am concerned, significant but indirect hints are definitely to be preferred.

[David Álvarez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Con todas las precauciones de un trabajo científico, no tiene, sin embargo, ninguna audacia y, en el fondo, ningún interés. Se limita a resumir de forma árida y aburrida debates y problemas sobre el origen histórico de los griegos, con poca o nula originalidad y estilo. Pocos libros sobre Grecia me han aburrido tanto como este.

[Tamara Pandolfi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un libro de un gran autor que quedó muy, muy viejo. La pretension de una historia arqueologica parace no sobrevivir la tentacion de la atenas y esparta clasica con fuentes escritas, como buen historiador que es.

[anbrs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vraiment hyper intéressant, tout ce que j’ai vu en cours et même bien plus. Ça synthétise super bien !!

[Aidan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice compact work. Well postulated, and argued. A professional and a credible author who can be taken seriously throughout. Interesting bibliography at the end.

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And I like these old books where the author(s) didn't write a 100-page introduction to their 200-page work. These old books where the introduction actually says something relevant in a clear and concise way, like it's meant to.

[Josho Brouwers · Rating 3 out of 5]

A clear and concise introduction on Early Greece, written by the late Moses Finley. Originally published in 1970, the book obviously has become somewhat outdated, which is the sole reason for my relatively low rating. In less than 150 pages of text, the reader is introduced to the Aegean Bronze Age, starting ca. 3000 BC, the so-called "Dark Age" (Early Iron Age), and finally the Archaic period.

A historian by training, Finley is clearly more at home with the Archaic period than the Bronze Age, and much of the space in the book is devoted to the later period. Archaeology features prominently in his discussion of the Bronze Age, only to fade into the background and almost completely disappear when he turn his attention to Archaic Greek politics, philosophy, and culture. As a result, his treatment of the Bronze Age cannot really be recommended in the light of more recent work, but his overview of the Archaic period remains of interest.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I suspect if you left out all the detailed descriptions of site surveys and pottery fragments in other books on the ancient world, you'd end up with a book about this size: ~140 pages providing an overview of Greek and pre-Greek Aegean cultures.

One possible issue for the lay reader is that Finley's interpretation may not agree with that of other scholars. (The thing I remember offhand is that the volcanic explosion of Thera had nothing to do with the end of Minoan civilization.) But this book was written 30 years ago - so has new data come to light in that time, or are the points of disagreement simply topics that scholars are still debating?

[Katrin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a rather quick lecture about archaic Greece. I liked that questions were raised who lived first on Greek soil and who the "greek" settlers were and where they came from. The book stayed specific on a few topics and did not thrive to explain the two ages more profoundly. I was thus left wanting more information this book could not give. Still it was a good read with interesting ideas and thoughts.

[Michael Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essential tool for understanding Greek pre-history.

[Al · Rating 2 out of 5]

Small book which gives a very brief overview of the Bronze Age. Some good information on Knossos and the poalace culture of Mycenae.

[Sol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un increíble libro que sintetisa en unos cuantos capítulos la historia de Grecia contada por arqueólogos y contruida mediante los descubrimientos más relevantes para los mismos.
Es impresionante la cantidad de datos que abarca, la forma tan sencilla en que el autor (y el traductor) permite que el lector comprenda rápidamente algunas cuestiones técnicas o tan antiguas que podrían ser impensables en nuestro siglo.
Totalmente recomendado por si te pica el bichito de la curiosidad por la historia de Grecia.
Pdt: Eso no implica que Finley sólo relate sobre esas islas lejanas para unos tantos, también agrega otros países cercanos a la misma que sería relevante conocer.