Another major source of information about ancient Greece is art, artifact, and architecture, which together are aspects of archaeology. This source of information tells us about the physical realities of life for the ancient Greeks, such as what their homes, temples, and cities looked like; how they dressed; and their general levels of health.
One of the most important issues addressed in archaeology is the matter of chronology, or the study of when things happened. The Greeks did not have one specific date that they used to arrange their history, as modern societies do with, for example, the birth of Christ or the Hijra. Sometimes dates might be kept according to which Olympiad they occurred in, that is, in which four-year period since the first Olympics in 776 b. c.e. Or, one might refer to who was priestess at Eleusis when an event took place. Often in Athenian inscriptions, the Archon year is listed, stating who was Archon, or chief executive officer, during that particular year. By consulting a list of priestesses of Eleusis or Archons of Athens, one might deduce the order of events presented, but this only works in limited areas for very limited pieces of knowledge and does not always help in placing these events into modern reckonings of time (e. g., autumn of 403 b. c.e.).
Archaeology provides a number of means to reckon time, both relative (when one event occurred in relation to another) and absolute (exact dates b. c.e. or c. e.). The most basic means of determining relative chronology in archaeology is stratigraphy. Stratigraphy refers to the layers (strata) of discarded and buried materials under the surface of the land. Consider, for example, having a garden. Every year, you add new layers of soil and mulch before planting flowers or tomatoes, and these new layers cover over what had been on the surface the year before. A discarded gum wrapper, a penny, and an old shoelace get covered over by the new layer. The next year, a bottle cap gets covered over, along with a baseball card and a doll's head. In the study of stratigraphy, the archaeologist attempts to discern and study these individual layers, marking the passage of time and the material culture present in each layer (for example, the continued presence of Bazooka bubble gum in year X, as manifest by the discarded gum wrapper).
The basic tenet of stratigraphy is that the deeper the layer and its related objects are, the older it is, with newer layers accruing on top. There are, of course, some exceptions to this rule, including wells, which later might be used for disposing of garbage, and rat holes, which allow one to find a chocolate bar wrapper in fifth-century Athens. But in general this principle of stratigraphy works, and the archaeologist can use it to determine what rooms in a building are older than others, or what style of pottery was popular before another.
Pottery is the single most important tool in the study of the Greek chronology. Pottery has been produced since the Neolithic (New Stone Age) period all the way down to modern times, so it allows for a continuous archaeological record. Once it is fired, pottery is essentially indestructible in small units, although it is still rather fragile in the form of entire vessels. So a pitcher or bowl is used until it breaks and is then tossed into the rubbish heap, where its shards remain forever for later researchers to find. Furthermore, decorative styles of Greek pottery change frequently, at least every quarter century, so there is a massive amount of easily distinguishable material for the archaeologist to study (see chapter 9). For example, one style of pottery from Athens is called Black Figure, as the pictures decorating the vessels are painted in black on a reddish background. This style appears mainly from the late seventh century until about 525 b. c.e. Therefore, objects or building levels found in context with fragments of Black Figure pottery might be dated within this period. But this is only a rough use of pottery for dating, as individual styles and painters can be identified, which narrows the chronological scope even further. In general, pottery may provide a date within twenty-five years at most, and within fewer years if the work of an individual painter is recognized.
Changes in architecture also provide information about chronology, and stratigraphy allows archaeologists to know which layers or portions of a building come before or after others. Just as in modern times, fashions in architecture changed during ancient times, due to both taste and technological innovation. For example, the early Greek temples were long and narrow, because the Greeks did not yet have a good way to roof a broad building. Over the course of the late Archaic and Classical periods, temples become increasingly short and broad, that is, square, as people learned to make wider roofs. This is particularly evident at the Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis: The remains of the longer, narrower foundations are still visible sticking out from under the still-standing fifth-century structure.
Styles also simply changed over time, most evident in the orders of Greek architecture (see chapter 9). Doric temples with broad, almost pillow-like capitals are older than Doric buildings with rather small, straight capitals, both of which predate the popularity of Ionic buildings on the mainland, which in turn predate the Corinthian style. Fashions in decorative edges and sculptural programs also allow for an understanding of chronological progression in Greek architecture. When a building is considered alongside pottery remains found in the same context as the architectural elements, one might determine that such and such a wall was constructed just when Red Figure pottery was coming into fashion to replace Black Figure, because there is Black Figure pottery under the floor but Red Figure embedded beside the wall. Thus, we might date this wall to c. 520 b. c.e.
Another, although later and less frequent, source of chronology is coinage.
Coins begin to appear in ancient Greece around 600 b. c.e., starting as plain lumps of metal, then with images stamped on one side, and finally with fully decorated obverse (front) and reverse (back) images. The images present on coins, especially images of kings, queens, or other leaders, allow one to know when a coin was minted and, to a certain extent, give information concerning the context in which the coin was found. Coins are less practical for chronology than pottery, as coins might stay in circulation far longer than a broken pot: Think of the penny in the garden scenario given above. It could be a penny from 1947, even though you didn't drop it in the garden until 1999.
Beyond just chronology, archaeology also answers many of our questions about the physical realities of life for the ancient Greeks, in some cases even better than the written sources. For example, classical Athens was a male-dominated society, with many of the arts, sciences, and politics being in the hands of men. As a result, we do not have a "woman's voice" in the records of daily living to tell us about women's thoughts, reactions to life, or even basic education. All we tend to know about women from this period is what the male authors and artists have chosen to tell us. However, certain items produced in classical Athens were made specifically for women, such as White Ground lekythoi pots, in which they brought oils and perfumes to the graves of their family members (a woman's responsibility). Being made for women, these lekythoi are decorated with scenes from women's lives, which provide much information about women's day-to-day realities, including scenes of grave visits, spinning or weaving in the house, and even reading to their siblings and children (one of our few bits of evidence that women were literate at this time). The pictures also let us see what women were wearing, and even give some information as to what the interior of the houses looked like. These lekythoi, beyond just being objects of art worthy of admiration, shed considerable light on the lives of women during a specific period of Greek history. This is just one example of the use of art as a means of understanding the life and mentality of a people.
Modern techniques in archaeological science are uncovering increasingly greater amounts of information about the health, diet, and even class of the ancient Greeks. Careful sifting of soils allows for the recovery of seeds, shells, bones, and even pollen in the ancient layers, showing what the ancient Greeks grew and ate on a daily basis. Likewise, palaeozoology, the study of animal remains, lets us see what animals the Greeks hunted or domesticated and used on a daily basis. Physical anthropology, the study of human remains, lets us see the general health of the Greeks during life, the causes of death and people's ages at death, and even changes in bone structure due to daily activities. Excessive bending of the foot arch, for example, indicates a lower-class female, as this change was produced either crouching by the fire to work or climbing up the hilly terrain in search of sheep or water. A spear wound to the skull, by contrast, seems to indicate a more martial lifestyle.
Finally, the relatively new sciences of neutron activation analysis, applied to pottery, and lead isotope analysis, applied to metals, reveal for the first time where ceramic and metallic items were made (although this does not apply to gold). It is therefore possible to know if a Greek-style pot found in Cyprus, for example, was an import and thus a sign of trade or was actually made on the island and is thus a sign of a relocated Greek population.
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