Citadel to City-State. The Transformation of Greece, 1200-700 B.C.E.

Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1999. XXXII,199p. Paperback. Nice copy. ?Thomas and Conant?s book, ?Citadel to City-State?, fills (a) noticeable gap in the literature in an exemplary fashion. It does it as well in a manner which provides the reader with a concrete, interesting series of themes to stimulate her/his mind as the centuries move by. They (Thomas and Conant) selected five reasonably well excavated settlements in southern and central Greece to stand as the exemplars for the contemporary situation and the ongoing transformations of Greek society between 1200 and 700 B.C. (?) Thus, for the late-thirteenth to twelfth centuries there is Mycenae; Nichoria for the eleventh; Athens for the tenth; Lefkandi for the ninth; Corinth for the eight; and Ascra for the early seventh. Each settlement?s particular situation provides them with an opportunity to expand on how this is similar or not to the situations of other, contemporary settlements as well as to the larger picture and trends of cultural transformation. This latter theme forms the intellectual framework which the information presented in the book attempts to illuminate. (?) ?Citadel to City-State? serves as an excellent summarization of our present knowledge of the not-so-dark Dark Age as well as an admirable prologue to the understanding of the subsequent Archaic and Classical periods. In conclusion, for scholars not specializing in this period as well as for advanced undergraduates and graduate students (whether or not they are ?archaeologists?) this book does truly serve as an affective and intelligent introduction to the complexities and importance of the Dark Age. Its readability and manageable length make this task less daunting. The book constantly stimulates the reader a a regular pace. What more can one want for the Greek ?Dark Age?? (DAVID RUPP in Phoenix, 2000, pp.360-62).