Sources and Documents: Artefacts

Ancient Greece: City and Society

In this second lecture on sources for ancient Greece, Dr Gillian Shepherd looks at some of the practicalities surrounding the study of material culture (such as the dating of objects) and also at issues of survival, excavation and the methodological issues to bear in mind when assessing the significance of archaeological evidence. She goes on to describe two “success stories” where archaeological and textual evidence have been successfully combined to reconstruct two features of the Athenian navy which was so critical to Athenian prosperity: the Arsenal at Pireaus, the monumental building where the rigging for the ships was stored, and the trireme Olympias, a modern reconstruction of an ancient warship.

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