Carol G. Thomas

The arrival of new disciplinary approaches to ancient fields of study is embraced in this volume of Publications of the Association of Ancient Historians. This volume considers the world of the Classic civilizations viewed through the lenses of recent approaches to historical material. Stanley M. Burstein considers Egypt and Greece in the light of Afrocentrism as a means of exploring ethnicity in the study of antiquity. Nancy Demand applies the outlook of gender studies to ancient history with the resultant concepts of participation and power. Ian Morris delves into the role archaeology takes in the understanding of ancient Greece, and Lawrence Tritle explores psychology and history in an analysis of Thucydides, a foundational writer of Classical history. These cross-disciplinary studies demonstrate the flexibility and breadth of the historical undertaking in an environment of continual growth and change.

Noting the standard reservations of Classicists regarding the Greek Bronze and Dark Ages, Carol Thomas declares the Pre-Classical period of ancient Greece to be the locus of much historical information. Both the metaphor and the fact of Troy serve as emblems of this historical enterprise as Thomas organizes her work around the subjects encountered by those approaching this time-frame: the tools (method and dating) and the evidence (writing and oral tradition). A brief account of the war is given in the context of both an actual war and a metaphor. These tools allow her to reconstruct the Mycenaean Age and the Dark Age prior to Classical Greece. A necessary requisite for consideration of the history of Classical Greece, this volume is accessible to scholars and interested laity alike.