The Archaic period was the time when Greek civilization, so to speak, was born. The inheritance of the Mycenaean world, and of even older Bronze Age and Neolithic cultures in Greece; the traditions of other Greek population groups, such as the Dorians, who had emerged only after the fall of the Mycenaean world; certainly the strong influences from the Near East which had reached Greece during the Dark Age and the early Archaic period—all these ingredients contributed to the rise of Greek civilization. This was a civilization that despite its inherited traditions and borrowings from older and other cultures was a completely new phenomenon that in its turn was going to leave its mark on a large part of Europe and the Near East. It was in the Archaic period that the polis developed as the typically Greek state, the foundation on which democracy could arise.
Economic life was enriched in the Archaic period by the invention of money. The invention was in fact made in Lydia in the late 7th century BC: small pieces of elektron, electrum, a natural alloy of gold and silver, were stamped on one side with a mark stating and guaranteeing their weight and hence their value. The purpose of the invention was possibly to pay mercenary soldiers, Greeks among them. Around 600 BC, Greek cities such as Ephesus and Miletus minted their own “coins”: pieces of silver with the stamp or emblem of the city. In the course of the 6th century, many Greek poleis in Europe, among them Athens, adopted the same custom: while still under the turannis, Athens started minting coins with the owl of the goddess Athena for an emblem. Coinage in this way also became an expression of the autonomy of a polis. Whereas in Lydia the circulation of the first coins had been extremely limited, in Greece in the 6th century, coinage was much more widely employed. Before long, smaller bronze coins meant for small transactions were minted. With this, the economy certainly did not become fully monetized as yet, for barter would always remain important throughout antiquity, but the introduction of coinage nevertheless greatly stimulated commercial activity.
Unmistakably, in the 7th and 6th centuries BC there was more wealth in Greece than there had been in the preceding period, though it was far from equally distributed. Material culture had evidently improved. Since the late 8th century BC, some poleis began to build temples in stone for the more important city gods, and in the 7th century they began to embellish sacred spaces with free-standing sculpture, while the art of painting, in murals and on pottery, flourished throughout the Archaic period. Religious festivals developed into occasions for the performance of music, dance and poetry. Some sanctuaries functioned as oracles and attracted visitors from far afield, especially Delphi in Central Greece, with its oracle of Apollo. Also, games with competitions in wrestling, boxing, athletics, music, and dancing (activities typical for the aristocratic elites in the Archaic period), which were dedicated to the gods and connected with religious festivals, attracted participants and audiences from many poleis. That was especially true of the games held at the sanctuary of Zeus in Olympia on the Peloponnese. Such events stimulated contacts between Greek states and enhanced a certain all-Greek or Panhellenic sentiment. That sentiment would be invoked by those states that in the beginning of the 5th century BC were determined to defend themselves against the coming Persian attack.
World History
