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Archaeology, Myth‐History and the Tyranny of the Text: Chaldike, Torone and Thucydides
Author(s) -
Papadopoulos John K.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
oxford journal of archaeology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.382
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1468-0092
pISSN - 0262-5253
DOI - 10.1111/1468-0092.00091
Subject(s) - prehistory , history , archaeology , post medieval archaeology , perspective (graphical) , mythology , schism , historical archaeology , prehistoric archaeology , archaeological record , classics , art , law , visual arts , politics , political science
By focusing on Thucydides’‘Chalkidic Torone’ against the backdrop of modern historians’ neglect of archaeological evidence, this paper highlights not only another case of ‘history being written by the winners,’ but the persistent problem of privileging written documents over archaeological material in Aegean prehistory and classical archaeology. The practice of using literary historical records as direct historic analogues continues to be one of the methodological cornerstones of textual history. Such a neglect of archaeological evidence by historians of early Greece, South Italy and Sicily contributes to the current schism between prehistory and history. Even when the material record is used in historical inquiry, it is in a framework already defined or informed by written sources. By adopting a more integrated approach, this paper echoes Kent Lightfoot’s (1995) perspective that archaeology is poised to play a pivotal role in the reconfiguration of historical studies.