This course will begin with the Greek ‘Dark Age’ following the destruction of Mycenaean civilisation at the end of the 12th century BC, and examine the economic, artistic and intellectual flowering which culminated in the vastly influential culture of Classical Greece.  Chronologically, the course will start around the 10th century BC, but focus mainly on the Archaic period from c. 750 to the Persian invasion of 480/79 BC.  Topics to be covered will include urbanisation and the development of the polis, religious cult and sanctuaries, and developments in warfare, political ideas, art and literature, and philosophical thought.  The Archaic period of Greek history is today an area of energetic debate.  Historians, partly influenced by modern theories of memory, have challenged many comfortable views about the period by discounting much of the evidence ‘preserved’ in later writers.  On the other hand, archaeological evidence continues to accumulate.  In this course, students will read selections (in translation) from ancient authors such as Homer, early lyric poets, Hesiod and Herodotos, but will also make use of archaeological and artistic evidence from a number of key sites.