In search of Attica: The spatial roots of Athenian politics and society
Résumé
While the city of Athens has attracted and continues to attract a great deal of public and scholarly interest, the surrounding region of Attica has remained in the city's shadow. Beyond the study of the region itself, its relationship to Athens has long been debated. To what extent was the countryside connected to the city? While the question finds a detailed answer on the eve of the Classical period with the reforms of Cleisthenes, which integrated every rural community into the architecture of the Athenian polis, it has proved far more complicated to explore the pre-Classical period from the Late Bronze Age onwards, which is often portrayed as a precursor to the eventual and complete unification of Attica under Athenian leadership. Without leaving the city of Athens out of the picture, the aim of this volume is to examine the spatial dimension of politics and society in pre-Classical Attica by exploring new ways of looking at space in current archaeological, geographical, and sociological research. This introductory chapter summarises the history of archaeological research in Attica, enquires about the spatial roots of politics and society, and discusses space in archaeological theory and practice.