Archaeology Magazine - May/June 1981 - 74

'
THE

BOOKSHELF

both served in their ranks, nor how it is
to be related to the phenomenon Cartledge exposes in detail, the great decline
in citizen numbers as the rich came to
rrfn
monopolize the land. Fitzhardinge has,
however, let the archaeological record
and
a
Lakonia,
Regional
Sparta
speak and the debate can now be carried
on with the artistic evidence clearly in
History of 1300-362 B.C. by Paul
TOOLS
Cartledge. 410 pages, 19 text figures, 2
view.
MATERIALS
Paul Cartledge has written a more
tables, bibliography. Routledge &
and suitably austere book
substantial
Kegan
Boston
1979
$22.50
Paul,
Ltd.,
EXCAVATION
and some helpful line drawmaps
(good
ARCHAEOLOGY
The Spartans of all Greeks require an
ings, but no plates) which is archaeological in a broader and more fundamental
PALEONTOLOGY
archaeological treatment. For critical
in
sense. He believes, quite rightly, that it
there
were
their
development
periods
FOSSIL CLEANING
is impossible to understand Spartan
never any written records. When their
FIELD & LABORATORY
history and culture except in the context
history could be written it was irretrievably distorted by the fabrication of a of the region in which it evolved,,
A completelineof toolsand equipment
mirage, that of a frugal, disci- Lakonia, and for over three centuries
potent
suitablefa the archaeologist/paleontoloof equals, totally commit- Messenia, in effect the southern PelogistisnowbeingofferedthroughSculpture
society
plined
HouseIndustries.
Ourlineoffineproducts
ted
to
a
military code of values. Out of ponnesos. The natural environment itincludebushand pickhammers,chisels
self and the scattered, modest archaeand carbide-tipped
these mists has emerged an intriguing
toolsfortoughon-site
fieldworkas wellas regularand miniature
to
be
the
the
ological evidence in the whole region
people reputed
paradox
sizesteelcleaningtoolsforworkinthe lab
from chance finds and surface surveys,
most austere in their way of life and
Formoreinformation,
writetoday
most hostile to the arts, the remains of as well as the all too few systematic
whose city, as Thucydides saw in the
1981
ofTools.
Materials
andAccessories
excavations, are an integral part of his
Catalog
Two
Dollars
never
late
fifth
could
b.c.,
subject. His knowledge is firsthand and
sugcentury
Inc.
House.
Sculpture
NY10016
York.
Dept33.38East30thSt. New
the rival of splendid Athens, seem up-to-date and he is almost always congest
'
J
to have enjoyed, for much of the Archaic siderate to the nonspecialist reader..
Period (seventh and sixth centuries
(The specialist may be puzzled that the
references in his admirably conceived
a
artistic
culture.
b.c.), vigorous
This paradox provides Fitzhardinge
gazetteer of sites, Appendix 1, are inwith his starting point. He offers chap- complete.)
ters on pottery, terracottas, ivory and
Beginning well before the title's date
bone carving, stone sculpture, bronzes of 1300 b.c., Cartledge shows what can
and poetry, before returning to the prob- and cannot be done with the archaeological evidence. One follows the gradual
lem he has posed. It is useful to have this
survey and even more to have the ample repopulation of Lakonia after the blank
illustrations of much material that is of the post-Mycenaean years, the definition of the character and affiliations of
not easily accessible. But it is not the
the essentially local Proto-Geometric
work of a specialist, and so has the
weaknesses as well as the strengths an pottery that lasted well into the eighth
amateur in the best sense can bring to century, the steady "Spartanization" of
Patented
such a task. Things sometimes go awry, the region as a whole through the suborand animadversions on the "gentry" or dination of the outlying communities,
the Periokoi, and the fluoresence of Ar"officer type" as seen in a small
with
intellichaic Sparta as the result of the unparalslender
"tall
and
bronze
Special Safari Package
leled feat for an early Greek state of
stare"
and
face
(page
unwavering
&
gent
postage
$1.00
handling
Regular
C4WIQR
Air
service
rush
$2.00
nor
art
neither
advance
104)
enslaving
neighboring Messenia, a rehistory
ww
Alaska
&Hawaii
$2.00
its equal in size and its
overview
is
an
But
book
the
criticism.
roughly
gion
* Provides
access
to
easy
equipment
wealth.
in
* Canbehungfroma beltorshoulder
we
us
and
not
have
the
agricultural
superior
given
specialists
strap
* Hi-impact
withthickfoam
As the society and its history become
polypropelene
have reason to be grateful.
padding
solidprotection
shock,
rain,snow
provides
against
more complex the archaeological record
As to the paradox itself, FitzhardanddustYetitweighs
lessthanonepound.
* Modular
plays a smaller part; of course in the
inge's answer is that Spartan austerity
unitsunscrew
tovarythecaselength
* Accommodates
fifth and fourth centuries the artistic
is first seen in the fifth century, after the
most
SLR's
withalmost
anylensbetween
16mm-300mm
attached Persian Wars, and was essentially the
level declines and archaeological evi(upto3'/r Diameter)
tothecamera.
notaccommodate
Nikon
(Will
as a whole becomes thin, significthat
of
dence
of
class
and
a
a
party,
expression
Pholomic
oranyautowinders).
metering
the egalitarian, poorer soldiers as con- ant facts in themselves. Cartledge is
OutsideofTexas,formoreinformation
or to placeorder,
trasted to the cultivated and cosmopoli- less concerned with the problem of
tan
Spartan austerity but, with other schol"gentry." Space does not permit him
TOLL FREE
CALL
the
historical
to
ars, does see a decline in artistic patronarguments
develop
1-800-231-1753
fully. It is hard to see why this ideology age as a result of social change, beginUseMasterChargeor Visa
came to predominate only in the fifth ning in the sixth century. He sees the
Safari
Camera
Inc.
Case.
IÌINHIÌh]
century since the hoplites, the heavy- decline as linked to the strain of perP.O.
Box19972
L
líüü^SJ
armed infantrymen, had been estab- petuating Sparta's distinctive dual
™
TX77024
Houston.
CaiaPl
lished as a force in Spartan life almost domination over the Periokic communJ11!111 *
713-465-2232
two centuries earlier, and rich and poor ities of the region and the far more
The Spartans by L.F. Fitzhardinge.
180 pages , 107 black and white photographs, 43 text figures, 2 tables, bibliography. Thames & Hudson, New York
1980 $16.95

Archaeology

Archaeology Magazine - May/June 1981

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - May/June 1981