SEVEN BRANCHES OF ARCHAEOLOGY Greek archaeology subdivides naturally into seven branches. These are:— I. Topography.—This is naturally linked with geography and consists in the exploration of Greek lands and the noting of the ancient ruins they contain, the observation of their natural re sources, and finally the co-ordination of the results of such re search with the knowledge of the country to be derived from ancient writers. This sifting of the evidence forms the basis of our knowledge of the political and historical geography of Greece. A full understanding of the physical aspects of the country and its natural products, mineral or other, coupled with as full a survey as is possible of the ruins of ancient towns and hamlets, is essential to enable us to picture the land where the drama of Greek history was played, and art and literature had their birth. A classic example of topographical work is Leake's Travels in Northern Greece and a modern work of the same type is Stahlin's Das Hellenische Thessalien, while Frazer's monumental Commen tary on Pausanias is the outstanding instance of an attempt to stabilize our knowledge of Greece by the correlation of archae ological and literary material and of ancient and modern to pography.
The study of ancient inscriptions which may vary from a grave inscription of a few words to lengthy laws or decrees and fall into two large groups: (A) Inscriptions proper, by which we mean words inscribed on monuments or objects to de note their purpose, often mentioning the name of the deity or person concerned. These subdivide into: (I) Epitaphs, perhaps the largest class of all; these can be of historical importance, as, for instance, the epitaph of Dexileos, an Athenian cavalryman who fell in the Corinthian War about 395 B.C. ; (2) Dedications, varying from the official dedication of a building to a word or two scratched on a small bronze offered to a god. The serpent column from Delphi (now in the Hippodrome at Constantinople) re cording the names of the Greek cities that won the battle of Plataea against the Persians, and the bronze Etruscan helmet dedicated by Hieron, king of Syracuse, at Olympia after the battle of Cumae (now in the British Museum) show the historical value of such inscriptions. The fragments of the metrical dedication of the Athenians celebrating their victories over Boeotia and Chalcis in 506 B.C. is a useful check on the accuracy of Herodotus who quotes it. Most of the inscriptions celebrating victories at games, such as the famous inscription of Damonon of Sparta, who boasted that he and his son had won more races than anyone else, fall into this class. (3) Honorary inscriptions, such as the lines inscribed on the bases of statues erected to persons like Alexander and Hadrian, or those recording honours granted by a State to citizens or to natives of other States, when the honours usually consisted of the right to a front seat at festivals and proxenia and certain exemptions and immunities. (See INSCRIP TIONS.) (B) Documents both public and private or, on another classification, sacred and profane. These subdivide into: (I) Treaties and alliances, such as the treaty between Athens, Man tinea and Argos, which corrects the text quoted by Thucydides; (2) Laws such as the famous laws of G ort yn, which from their archaic language and their legal contents rank high in importance; (3) Decrees of the State or letters from kings, Roman emperors, or some other authority, regulating the affairs of subordinate States, such as the decrees of Eressos about tyrants which were confirmed by letters of Philip Arrhidaeus and Antigonus; (4) Financial records such as the famous tribute lists which form the basis for the study of Athenian finance in the 5th century, or the records of the treasures of the temple at Delos; (5) Building in scriptions such as those of the Erechtheum at Athens which give important architectural details; (6) Lists of names such as those recording the manumission of slaves, some of which from Athens give interesting information about trades, and lists of soldiers killed in battle or of ephebi; (7) Boundary stones recording political boundaries, the limits of sacred areas and the bounds of private property, the last including mortgage stones which give the name of the mortgagee and the amount of the mortgage. Among miscellaneous inscriptions come the potsherds scratched with the names of politicians which were used in voting at an ostracism in Athens. Several of these bear the name of Themis tocles himself, others that of Xanthippus, the father of Pericles, and yet others the name of .the great political opponent of Pericles, Thucydides the son of Melesias, whose ostracism in 444 B.C. left Pericles free to carry out his policy.
the study of Greek coins, which includes Iii. Numismatics, the study of Greek coins, which includes complicated subjects such as metrology, weight standards, the ratio of the metals to one another as well as the classification of the coins themselves and their study as original objects of art.
the study of Greek construction which has had a profound influence on subsequent building. Apart from the great temples such as the Parthenon at Athens and all the smaller shrines, there are hundreds of ancient buildings of more secular use, such as the Propylaea or gateway to the Acropolis at Athens, the Stoa of Attalus in the market of Athens, and the theatres, colonnades, and other buildings to be found on every important Greek site. With them can be grouped fortifications and private houses. The study of the gradual development of Greek architecture, and the methods by which the ancients over came the problems confronting them, provide lessons of the greatest value to modern architects. True, of many Greek build ings little more than the foundations exist, but a study of these and of the fallep blocks of the superstructure enables us to re construct the building on paper even if only in part, and the evi dence of a single stone when observed by the trained eye may lead to important results. Thus the discovery of the foundations of a building is of the greatest assistance in visualizing it.
the study of ancient pottery, which has in recent years been highly developed. Broken pottery is the commonest of all objects found on an ancient site, and is intrinsically the most worthless, and therefore for the archaeologist in many ways the most valuable, for it is unlikely to be stolen or to be forged. Whole vases found in tombs have of course a market value, but these may have no archaeological value if removed from the ground by illicit or irresponsible excavators. Thus on the excava tion of an ancient site it is a priori probable that the latest pottery will be found near the surface and the oldest deepest down, and SO On. (See STRATIGRAPHY and SEQUENCE DATING.) Thus by careful excavation stratum by stratum the archaeologist can obtain a stratified sequence of the potsherds from any given site. These can be dated by the evidence of inscriptions or by that previously obtained from other sites, and thus provide a ceramic history of the site in question and a test by which buildings and other objects can be dated in their turn, and they even serve to correct false impressions or ideas that have hitherto held the field. A classic instance of stratification is the "Persian Stratum" on the Acropolis of Athens which consists of damaged objects used as filling on the restoration of the buildings on the Acropolis of ter the destruction of Athens in 48o B.C. The study, too, of the pottery that prevails in a given stratum shows the commercial and cultural influences prevailing at that period and throws light on the economic or political orientation of the city where it is found, and on the social customs and the prosperity of its citizens. There are of course pitfalls for the unwary or the inexperienced. The strata are not always laid down on mathematically level ground, but may slope down the side of a mound. The earlier strata may be dug into in laying the foundations of a later build ing and so be partially disturbed, but proper observation of this enables the later building to be more nearly dated. Again, when the accumulation of debris over a long period of years has made a mound, the site may be levelled for later constructions by cutting off the top and throwing down to the sides as was done at Troy by the builders of the 9th, or Graeco-Roman city. Further, when in early days a particular type of pottery has been very commonly used on a site the soil becomes so full of fragments of it that every later stratum can hardly help containing a few pieces. This sometimes leads to error, as occasionally attempts are made to date a building by the earliest objects found in it. As a rule unless there are special circumstances to be taken into account a building, tomb or whatever it is should be dated by the latest object found.
Greek pottery divides into the following groups : Neolithic.—This in turn subdivides into that found on the main land and that found in Crete. (See AEGEAN CIVILIZATION.) Bronze Age, which has three divisions: Early, about 3,500– 2,200 B.C.; Middle 2,200-1,600 B.C.; Late I,600—I,I00 B.C.; and the pottery of these three periods is further subdivided accord ing to the regions where it is found as Minoan, Cycladic or Hel ladic. Under Middle Minoan comes the pottery formerly called Kamares ware, under Early Helladic Urfirnis ware, under Middle Helladic Minyan ware and Matt-painted ware, and the pottery called Mycenaean is to be classified according to its provenance as Late Minoan, Late Cycladic or Late Helladic. Each of the three divisions of the Bronze age has further chronological sub divisions. (See AEGEAN CIVILIZATION.) Early Iron Age.—The pottery of this period is still far from well known and is marked by the gradual predominance of geo metric ornament, by the introduction of new shapes, by a different quality of paint, and in general by an artistic decadence which so often coincides with an improvement in the material con comitants of life.
Geometric Pottery.—By 90o B.C. the Iron Age was well estab lished in Greece and the geometric style of ornament predomi nated. This is sometimes known as Dipylon pottery, because it first became known from vases found in the cemetery outside the Dipylon gate at Athens. About 800-750 B.C. the geometric style began to modify under the influence of oriental motives derived through the Greek colonies on the coast of Asia Minor and Cyprus, and probably, too, through contact with Phoenician traders. This modification is known as Phaleron ware from the site of its first discovery. Then about 75o B.C. what is known as Proto-Corinthian pottery had a great vogue. This consists of small vases delicately made with fine linear ornamentation care fully designed and often combined with friezes of animals and warriors, well and minutely drawn. These vases are called Sic yonian, from the view recently advanced that they were manu factured there. They are, however, the forerunners in many respects of the next great phase of Greek pottery.
Orientalizing.—Towards the end of the 8th century B.C. oriental influence which had gradually permeated the geometric style became the chief characteristic of Greek pottery. Just as the geometric style, though uniform, had many local variations all over Greece according to the circumstances of the place of manu facture and of the quality of the clay employed, so now the orientalizing style throughout the Greek world produced a great number of local styles, and many of these have not yet been definitely placed. The style flourished more in the islands and along the Asiatic littoral where we find Aeolic, Clazomenian, Milesian, Samian, Rhodian, Delian and Melian wares. Even Naucratis had a special fabric of its own, and on the mainland we have Corinthian, Chalcidian, Boeotian, Attic and Laconian wares. Many of these local wares, like the Boeotian and the Laconian developed on their own lines in the succeeding periods, but never attained to any great importance, for Attic pottery eclipsed the rest of the Greek fabrics and became the great standard. It seems to have been extensively exported, especially to Etruria, where its products found a ready market among the Etruscan nobles. Thus Attic pottery from the 6th century onwards is the great centre of Greek ceramics, and we have two main styles : (I ) Black-figured ware in which the designs are painted in black on the red ground of the vase and picked out with incisions and with added purple or white paint. This ware flourished during the 6th century, and shortly before 50o B.C. gave way to another style which was practically its converse; (2) Red-figured ware, in which the ground is painted black and the designs are reserved in the red colour of the vase, while details are rendered with black lines. These last two classes of pottery, from the elegance and beauty of their drawing, rank more as paintings than as pottery. With them must be grouped a contemporary ware in which the designs were painted on a white ground. Particularly noticeable are the white lekythoi which were made specially to be placed in graves and decorated with unfixed paint. These pro vide us with some of the best Greek paintings and drawings known.
With the degeneration of the red-figured style in Attica at the close of the 5th century the Greek colonies in Italy took the lead and produced quantities of large vases decorated in a florid and over elaborate style. In Greece itself the red-figured wares gave place to less pretentious vases intended more for use than as works of art. Good pottery covered with the excellent black glaze which was the secret of the Attic potters, was produced in great quantities, but the ornament was limited to incisions assisted by simple patterns in white paint laid on the black surface. Cer tain simple forms of white grounded ware were still made, but or dinary designs of flowers, fruit, musical instruments and the like were the sole decoration. The principal decorated ware from the 4th century onwards was moulded pottery which includes a large class of vases usually known as Megarian bowls. These are often covered with a uniform black glaze which is seldom of good quality and in later examples tends to be thin and grey. The decoration at first consisted of figure subjects as on the earlier black and red-figured wares, and Homeric subjects were specially popular. Designs based on the acanthus, shells, scales and other motives popular in Greek decorative art are common and figures of Erotes are often added. With these comes a class of black pottery ornamented with moulded medallions or figures applied to the surface. Here the motives employed are usually figures of maenads, satyrs, and other Dionysiac subjects, amazons and gods and goddesses. Moulded wares became popular in Italy as Arre tine pottery and so spread throughout the Roman world as "Samian Ware" (now usually called terra sigillata) which was the characteristic tableware of the first two centuries of the Christian era. Two probable reasons may be assigned for the decay of Greek pottery after the 5th century. The general increase of wealth and luxury due to the renewed intercourse with the riches of Asia especially after the campaigns of Agesilaus and Alexander, inspired the upper classes, the patrons of the vase painters, with the fashion of using silver plate for their tables. At the same time the new age of adventure beginning in the 4th century caused a change in art which was henceforward practised more for its own sake than as the means of ennobling objects of ordinary domestic and social use.
which properly comes under art and embraces all forms of plastic and toreutic, and can be subdivided into the following groups : (I) Sculpture proper, which is limited to figures carved in the round or in relief by the artist direct from the stone or marble. A minor branch is gem engraving in which subjects are carved either in intaglio or in cameo directly on the stone; (2) Modelling, which applies to figures small or large modelled in clay intended as independent works of art or else as models for large figures to be executed in marble or bronze. The votive terra-cotta statuettes which are found in such numbers in excavat ing Greek sanctuaries and tombs, though usually cast in moulds, fall into this class and so do the well-known Tanagra and similar figurines which were made in moulds for funeral furniture; (3 ) Metal casting especially bronze, the favourite material for many of the greatest Greek sculptors. Polyclitus for instance worked principally in this technique. A subdivision of this group is jewellery made by casting in gold and silver small objects which were then fitted together to make earrings, necklaces, and other ornaments; (4) Metal chasing, which is practically confined to the precious metals ; (5) Carving in materials other than stone or marble, which is usually restricted to small objects such as statuettes of ivory, but in the earlier days of Greek art according to the literary evidence there were statues of wood which have not been preserved.
We have nothing left of the frescoes or easel Vii. Painting.—We have nothing left of the frescoes or easel pictures of the great masters of Greek painting like Polygnotus or Apelles and a history of Greek painting has to be constructed mainly from the literary sources. The vase paintings, however, of the Attic black and red-figured styles and of the white grounded vases supply much beautiful and valuable material for estimating the style and manner of the Greek painters. The painted grave stones from Pagasae which are not earlier than the 4th century represent industry rather than art, but still provide useful evidence as to methods and technique.
None of the seven branches of Greek archaeology are absolute ly independent for they often over-lap each other. Inscriptions may be found on buildings, on statues, on vases and on coins. Coins themselves, being struck from engraved dies in intaglio approach one of the subdivisions of sculpture, and ceramics and vase-painting are also closely connected. Famous statues, too, were often imitated in coin types. Then topography and study of the ancient remains from the geographical point of view take into account practically all the other branches. Thus a hoard of coins containing a large number of bronze coins of a city, the site of which is doubtful may solve its identification. Still every Greek archaeologist, though he naturally specializes in one or two branches only, should have a sound working knowledge of the others.
In addition to the seven great branches which divide Greek archaeology according to subject, there are two chronological divisions, the pre-historic and the historic. It is hard to say where the first ends and the second begins, but for practical pur poses the division may be put at 776 B.C., the Greeks' own tra ditional date for the first Olympiad and the beginning of their chronology.
The prehistoric age subdivides into the usual periods : Palaeolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Carly Iron Age. The Palaeolithic Age is not yet established for Greece, though a few isolated palaeoliths are reported. The Neolithic and Bronze Ages are described under AEGEAN CIVILIZATION. The Early Iron Age is a natural evolution from the last phase of the Bronze Age affected by the infiltration of external elements, probably northern, which the Greeks described as the Dorian Invasion or the Return of the Heracleidae. It is characterized by the use of the "geo metric" pottery mentioned above, iron swords of a Danubian type, bronze safety-pin brooches often with spiral ornaments, bronze figurines of animals, long bronze pins and sometimes ivory plaques and figurines. This culture is not that of a particular tribe or people, but of a phase in the evolution of Greek art, for in the civilization of a people community of inspiration is more important than community of race. Early in the 8th century a great increase in oriental influence due partly to Phoenicians and Etruscans and partly to the Greek colonies in Asia Minor in augurated the orientalizing period of Greek art and here the historic age begins.
With this, the classical age, our outlook is different. In the time of unwritten history or legend archaeology itself is history, because the incidents of a people's life are reflected in its material remains. In other words prehistoric archaeology is a manuscript from which history can be deciphered. On the other hand in the classical age history is written. Archaeology then becomes an illuminator and interpreter of history and is best studied under its separate branches described above which form the subjects of special articles. (See ARCHITECTURE. ART. CER Greek archaeology is not complete in itself, because inevitably it impinges upon the archaeology of the countries that are the neighbours of Greece. Man is a social animal and lives by con tact with his own kind. Archaeology is one way of studying the material results of the contact of man and man. Similarly no race can live for long in a state of complete isolation and the result of the contact between one race and another is reflected in their archaeology which thus provides a means of gauging the extent of the influence of one race upon another. For pre-historic times there is archaeological evidence that Greece was in contact with surrounding races. The marked influence which Egypt and Crete exerted upon each other is well known. So we find con nections between the Aegean civilization and Palestine, Cyprus and Asia Minor, where Troy is the classic example. Northwards there are clear evidences of intercourse between prehistoric Greece and Macedonia and the Danubian and Carpathian areas. West wards there are hints of relations with Italy, and the Aegean civilization (q.v.) touched Sicily and Sardinia. So no true student of the Aegean civilization can appreciate its full value without considering its neighbours and in chronology the Egyptian con nections are of vital importance. With the beginning of the classical period and the 'dawn of history the relations of Greek archaeology naturally became more intricate. The connection with Egypt and Asia Minor still remains and there is great uncertainty as to the amount of the debt of Greece to Phoenicia during the orientalizing age. These contacts are of the utmost value for chronological questions. Northwards again Macedonia, Thrace, and the Danubian and Euxine districts become of genuine histori cal importance through their contacts with Greek archaeology. The dating of the monuments in those regions is due in large part to our knowledge of Greece. For the Adriatic the same holds true and further west in Italy the case is far stronger. Sicily and southern Italy were studded with Greek colonies and their rela tions with the indigenous cultures provide a reflex of their relative importance and also most useful chronological comparisons, and Etruscan archaeology is throughout illuminated by our knowledge of Greece. Sardinia, the east coast of Spain and the south coast of France were fringed with Greek colonies, and so Greek archae ology illustrates these with great profit to history. These instances show how important it is not to allow the detailed study of Greek archaeology to exclude all view of any other. Two further points of the utmost importance for study of human development occur for note. When Alexander overran the Persian empire and through Macedonia made Greece mistress of the Near East he spread Greek culture which is illustrated by hundreds of monu ments throughout the East as far as the borders of India. The influence of Greece on Asia is revealed by Greek archaeology and it was upon this union of East and West that the foundations of Christianity were laid. Secondly, when Rome became mistress of the Mediterranean the culture she adopted was that of Hellenistic Greece, the very culture which Alexander and his successors had propagated. Greek archaeology reveals this to us in the houses of Rome and Pompeii and the adoption by Rome of Hellenistic cul ture, which Greek archaeology verifies, assisted the rapid growth of Christianity under the Roman empire. Constantine's official adoption of Christianity was one of the greatest landmarks in world history and Greek archaeology helps in no small measure to appreciate why and how this change was inevitable.
The materials for the study of Greek archaeology are housed in various museums all over Europe and in America. The mu seums of Greece take precedence because their contents are mainly the product of scientific excavations and have not lost their contexts and the sculptures they contain have not suffered from restoration. The National museum at Athens is famous for its sculptures, vases, bronzes, the Acropolis museum for archaic sculptures, the Epigraphical museum for inscriptions. The mu seums of Olympia, Delphi and Delos house the great finds from the excavations of those sites and that of Candia contains the finds from Cnossus and Crete in general. Other important museums in Greece are those at Thebes, Volos (for paintings) , Samos (for sculptures), Nauplia and Corinth (both for prehistoric pottery), Sparta (for Spartan art), Thera, Corfu, Chalcis, Ther mon and several others. In Italy Rome leads the way with the Museo delle Terme for sculpture, the Vatican for sculpture' and vases, the Capitoline museums for sculpture and the Villa Giulia for vases. At Naples the National museum has unrivalled sculp tures, as also has the Uffizi at Florence, where in the Museo Archeologico are Greek objects found in Etruria. The museums of Palermo for sculpture, Syracuse for vases, Taranto for vases and terra-cottas are important, and there are many other museums with Greek objects all over Italy. In France the Louvre is the principal museum with great treasures of Greek art. In Germany there are many museums. Berlin has in the State museums fine sculptures and vases and in the Ethnological museum Schliemann's finds from Troy. At Munich the Glyptothek contains the Aegina pedimental figures and other sculptures and the Museum fur Antike Kleinkunst contains valuable vases. Dresden (Alberti num), Cassel, Heidelberg, Hildesheim and other German towns have good collections. In Great Britain the British Museum in London has the Elgin Marbles and a fine series of vases, the Fitzwilliam museum in Cambridge and the Ashmolean at Oxford have vase collections, too, and the latter a fine prehistoric col lection as well. In Turkey the Constantinople museum has good sculptures and some of the finds from Troy, and in Egypt the Alexandria museum has a good collection of objects illustrating the later stages of Greek art. In Denmark at Copenhagen the Ny-Carlsberg Glyptothek has sculptures and the National museum vases. In Holland the Scheurleer museum at The Hague and the Leyden museum, and in Belgium the Musee du Cinquantenaire at Brussels have good vases and terra-cottas. In Russia the Hermitage museum at Leningrad has sculptures and vases, and several of the south Russian towns such as Odessa have good collections from the Greek colonies on the Black Sea. In America the Metropolitan museum in New York and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston both have good collections of sculpture and vases, while the university museums at Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Harvard have useful collections.
publication of the results of research in all Bibliography.-The publication of the results of research in all seven branches of Greek archaeology and of the material yielded by excavations is catered for by a large number of periodicals in the principal countries of Europe and in America and by the issue by specialists and others of learned monographs treating some particular section of the whole field. The principal periodicals are: in Greece the Ephemeris Archaiologike, and the Archaiologikon Deltion; in Austria the Jahreshefte of the Austrian Archaeological institute, in France the Revue Archeologique and the Bulletin de Correspondance Helle nique; in Germany by the Jahrbuch of the German Archaeological institute, the Athenische Mitteilungen, and many others; in Great Britain by the Journal of Hellenic Studies and the Annual of the British School at Athens; in Italy by the Monumenti Antichi of the Accademia dei Lincei and the Annual of the Italian school at Athens; and in the United States by the American Journal of Archaeology. The monographs dealing with special aspects of Greek archaeology fall into three classes: (I) Monumental collections or catalogues of a particular class of object, such as the great Corpus of Greek inscrip tions (Inscriptiones Graecae) issued by the Berlin academy or the Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum published under the auspices of the Union Acadsmique Internationale and scientific catalogues of famous museums such as the German catalogue of the Vatican sculptures and the British catalogue of the Capitoline collections and the British Museum catalogue of Greek coins. (2) Comprehensive publications of the objects found in great excavations with full and scientific commentaries such as the German publications of the excavations at Olympia, Thera and Aegina ; the French publications dealing with Delphi and Delos which are still in progress; and the Greek publica tions dealing with Epidaurus and the Acropolis at Athens. (3) Monographs on particular topics which range from handbooks of the usual type for students, such as the histories of Greek sculpture by E. Gardner, Overbeck, Collignon, and Picard, to scientific mono graphs of the first class which lay the foundations for the study of a particular subject. Here we can class in topography Woodhouse's Aetolia; in epigraphy Cavaignac's treatise on the Tresor d'Athenes; in numismatics Svoronos' Nomismata ton Ptolemaion; in architecture Penrose's Principles of Athenian Architecture, and the American monograph on the Erechtheum ; in Ceramics Beazley's books on Attic black and red-figured vases ; in sculpture Joubin's Sculpture Archaique, or Furtwangler's Masterpieces and in painting Pf uhl's Meisterwerke Griechischer Zeichnung and Malerei. Of equal importance are the great portfolios of plates of sculpture and of portraits published by Messrs. Bruckmann of Munich. See also A. Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain (1882) , and A Century of Archaeological Discoveries (1908) ; J. P. Droop, Archaeological Excavation (1915) .
(A. J. B. W.)
