This study of the changing relationships between burial rituals and social structure in Early Iron Age Greece will be required reading for all archaeologists working with burial evidence, in whatever period. This book differs from many recent studies of state formation in that unique and particular developments are given as much weight as those factors which are common to all early states. The ancient literary evidence and more recent historical and anthropological comparisons are extensively drawn on in an attempt to explain the transition to the city-state, a development which was to have decisive effects for the subsequent development of European society.
List of figures and tables; Preface and acknowledgements;1. Introduction: the argument; Part I: 2. The living and the dead; 3. The social dimensions of early Greek burial; Part II: 4. Demography and space; 5. The burying groups; 6. Exclusion and retrieval; 7. Mortuary and display; 9. Pottery and population; Part III: 10. The rise of the polis; 11. Conclusion; Appendices; Bibliography; Site index; General index.