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Artifact & artifice : classical archaeology and the ancient historian / Jonathan M. Hall.

By: Hall, Jonathan M [author.]Material type: TextTextPublisher: Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, [2014]Copyright date: ©2014Description: xvi, 258 pages : illustrations, maps, plans ; 28 cmContent type: text Media type: unmediated | unmediated | unmediated Carrier type: volume | volume | volumeISBN: 9780226313382 (cloth : alk. paper); 0226313387 (cloth : alk. paper); 9780226096988 (paper); 022609698X (paper)Other title: Artifact and artifice | Classical archaeology and the ancient historianSubject(s): Archaeology and history -- Greece | Archaeology and history -- Rome | Christian antiquities | Church history -- Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600 | Greece -- Antiquities | Greece -- Historiography | Rome -- Antiquities | Rome -- HistoriographyDDC classification: 938 LOC classification: DE59 | .H35 2014
Contents:
Classical archaeology: the "handmaid of history"? The rediscovery of the past -- The opening up of Greece -- Philological archaeology -- The birth of prehistory -- Theory wars -- Delphic vapours. The triumph of science? -- The Delphic oracle -- The geology of the site -- Inspired mantic or fraudulent puppet? -- The Persian destruction of Eretria. A tale of two temples -- Yet another temple? -- Unmooring "fixed points" -- Science to the rescue? -- 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 -- Sokrates in the Athenian agora. The house of Simon -- The state prison -- Sokrates on death row -- 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 -- The city of Romulus. Untangling the foundation myths of Rome -- Romulus and Remus -- The early kings materialized? -- State formation and urbanization -- 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 -- Imperial austerity: the house of Augustus. The house unearthed -- From dux to princeps -- Reconciling the evidence -- 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 -- Postscript: the tomb of St. Philip -- Conclusion: classical archaeology and the ancient historian. Navigating between textual and material evidence -- Words and things -- Bridging the "great divide"?.
Summary: "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."-- Publisher's website.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Status Date due Barcode
Books Books The BIAA David H. French Library
Shelf 25 - Main Room 		A8 HALL 30492 Not for loan BOOKS-000000023399

Includes bibliographical references (pages 231-248) and index.

Classical archaeology: the "handmaid of history"? The rediscovery of the past -- The opening up of Greece -- Philological archaeology -- The birth of prehistory -- Theory wars -- Delphic vapours. The triumph of science? -- The Delphic oracle -- The geology of the site -- Inspired mantic or fraudulent puppet? -- The Persian destruction of Eretria. A tale of two temples -- Yet another temple? -- Unmooring "fixed points" -- Science to the rescue? -- 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 -- Sokrates in the Athenian agora. The house of Simon -- The state prison -- Sokrates on death row -- 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 -- The city of Romulus. Untangling the foundation myths of Rome -- Romulus and Remus -- The early kings materialized? -- State formation and urbanization -- 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 -- Imperial austerity: the house of Augustus. The house unearthed -- From dux to princeps -- Reconciling the evidence -- 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 -- Postscript: the tomb of St. Philip -- Conclusion: classical archaeology and the ancient historian. Navigating between textual and material evidence -- Words and things -- Bridging the "great divide"?.

"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."-- Publisher's website.