Art In the visual arts, the archaic period is characterised by a shift towards representational and naturalistic styles. It was the period in which monumental sculpture was introduced to Greece, and in which
Greek pottery styles went through great changes, from the repeating patterns of the late
geometric period to the earliest
red-figure vases. The early part of the archaic period saw distinctive orientalizing influences, both in pottery and in sculpture.
Sculpture At the beginning of the archaic period, Greek sculpture mostly consisted of small bronze works, particularly of horses. Bronze human figures were also produced, and both horse and human figures are primarily found in religious sanctuaries. Towards the end of the eighth century, horse figurines became much less common, disappearing "almost completely" by 700 BC. In the seventh century, Greek sculpture saw a strong Eastern influence, with mythical creatures such as griffins and sirens becoming much more popular. Also in the seventh century BC, Greek sculpture began to directly represent gods, a practice which had disappeared after the end of the Mycenaean period. This was inspired in part by
ancient Egyptian stone sculpture: the proportions of the
New York Kouros exactly correspond to Egyptian rules about the proportion of human figures. In Greece, these sculptures best survive as religious dedications and grave markers, but the same techniques would have also been used to make cult images. which were developed around the middle of the seventh century BC in the
Cyclades. Probably the earliest kore produced was the
Dedication of Nikandre, which was dedicated to
Artemis at her temple on
Delos between 660 and 650 BC, while kouroi began to be created shortly after this. Kouroi and korai were used to represent both humans and divinities. Some kouroi, such as the
Colossus of the Naxians from around 600 BC, are known to represent
Apollo, Over the course of the sixth century, kouroi from
Attica become more lifelike and naturalistic. However, this trend does not appear elsewhere in the Greek world. The genre began to become less common over the last part of the sixth century as the elites who commissioned kouroi declined in influence, and by around 480 kouroi were no longer made.
Pottery The period saw a shift in the decoration of Greek pottery from abstract to figurative styles. During the
Greek Dark Ages, following the fall of the
Mycenaean civilisation, Greek pottery decoration had been based around increasingly elaborate geometrical patterns. Human figures first appeared on Greek pots in Crete in the early part of the ninth century BC, but did not become common on mainland Greek pottery until the middle of the eighth century BC. The eighth century saw the development of the
orientalizing style, which signalled a shift away from the earlier
geometric style and the accumulation of influences derived from
Phoenicia and
Syria. This orientalizing influence seems to have come from goods imported to Greece from the Near East. At the beginning of the seventh century BC, vase painters in Corinth began to develop the
black-figure style. At the same time, potters began to use incisions in the clay of vases in order to draw outlines and interior detailing. This adoption of incision, probably taken from eastern metalwork, allowed potters to show fine details of their decorations. As the archaic period drew to a close, red-figure pottery was invented in Athens, with the first examples being produced about 525 BC, probably by the
Andokides painter. The invention of the red-figure technique in Athens came at around the same time as the development of other techniques such as the
white ground technique and
Six's technique.
Literature black-figure vessel with double alphabet inscription, showing new letters ΥΧ[Φ]Ψ, and ΥΧΦΨΩ. Probably early 6th c. BC The earliest extant Greek literature comes from the archaic period. Poetry was the predominant form of literature in the period. Alongside the dominant
lyric and
epic traditions,
tragedy began to develop in the archaic period, borrowing elements from the pre-existing genres of archaic Greek poetry. By the sixth century BC the first written prose in Greek literature appeared. From the ninth century BC objects inscribed with Phoenician writing began to be brought into the Greek world, and it was from this
Phoenician script that the
Greek alphabet developed in the eighth century BC. By the middle of the eighth century BC, pottery inscribed in Greek begins to occur in the archaeological record. The earliest known inscriptions in Greek tend to identify or explain the object on which they are inscribed. Possibly the earliest known Greek inscription is found on a jug from the first half of the eighth century BC, discovered in Osteria dell'Osa in
Latium. Most early inscriptions were written in verse, though some from
Ionia were in prose, influenced by the prose traditions of Ionia's eastern neighbours. The performance of the poetry could either be private (most commonly in the
symposium) or public. Though there would certainly have been a pre-existing literary tradition in Greece, the earliest surviving works are by
Homer. Homer's poetry, though it dates to around the time that the Greeks developed writing, would have been composed orally – the earliest surviving poetry to have certainly been composed in writing is that of
Archilochus, from the mid-seventh century BC. In contrast with the Classical period, in which the literary culture of Athens dominated the Greek world, the archaic poetic tradition was geographically spread out.
Sappho and
Alcaeus, for instance, were from
Lesbos, while
Pindar came from
Thebes, and
Alcman from
Sparta. The beginnings of
Greek tragedy also have their roots in the archaic period, though the exact history is obscure. The competition in tragedy at the
Great Dionysia began in the 530s BC.
Religion in
Corinth, the first Greek temple to be built in stone. Evidence from
Linear B tablets shows that the gods worshipped in archaic and classical Greece shared names with those worshipped by their Mycenaean predecessors. However, the practice of religion changed significantly in the archaic period. The most significant change of the eighth century was the development of permanent
temples as a regular feature of sanctuary sites, where in the Dark Ages there had probably been no building specifically used for cult purposes. In the seventh century, this development of temples continued with the appearance of the first monumental stone temple buildings, beginning with the temple of
Apollo at
Corinth. Along with the introduction of temples came an increase in the number of dedications at cult sites. In the eighth century, some sanctuaries – for instance at
Olympia – begin to attract dedications from outside the local area. but the eighth century saw an explosion in the number of dedications: 160 animal figurines are known from the 9th century, compared to 1,461 from the 8th. Bronze tripods and jewellery have also been discovered as dedications at archaic Olympia. Though most of the dedications from the 8th century were manufactured in the
Peloponnese, dedications also came from
Attica, and even as far afield as Italy and the eastern Mediterranean. According to Greek tradition the first games at Olympia had been established by
Heracles, but these had fallen out of practice until they were revived in 776 BC.
Delphi {{multiple image
Delphi, on the slopes of
Mount Parnassus, had been continuously occupied from the Bronze Age, but the first evidence of a sanctuary there dates to the eighth century BC when dedicatory bronze tripods and
votive figurines begin to appear in the archaeological record. In the last quarter of the eighth century, the number of offerings at Delphi significantly increased, and there is evidence that these offerings were beginning to come from across Greece. This pan-Hellenic interest in the sanctuary at Delphi was presumably driven by the development of the
oracle there.
Funerary practices The archaic period saw a series of changes in Greek funerary practices, with a significant increase in the diversity of Greek burial practice. In Athens, the Dark Age practice had been to cremate adults and then bury the remains in a pottery vessel, along with pottery and metal
grave goods. Soon after 800 BC, burial superseded
cremation as the primary way of disposing of adult bodies, and grave goods declined in both quantity and quality; at the same time, the pots used as grave markers became significantly more elaborate. By the last third of the century, children and adults began to be buried together (previously there had been separate cemeteries for adults and children). Grave goods began to be left in trenches specifically for offerings which were separate from the graves themselves. Around 700 BC, Athens changed from
inhumation back to cremation – but this time, cremation in the grave rather than on a separate pyre. Also around 700 BC, burial in Athens was almost entirely confined to specific cemeteries outside of the settlement. Some other mainland cities, such as
Argos and
Corinth, also saw a reduction in grave goods. In Athens in the sixth century,
Solon passed laws restricting the extravagance of funerals, and similar restrictions were also implemented at
Gortyn,
Mytilene, and
Sparta.
Philosophy The archaic period saw the beginning of philosophical and scientific thinking in Greece, and the Greeks' interaction with other cultures from Italy, Egypt, and the Near East in this period had a significant impact on their thought. In the archaic period, the boundaries between disciplines had not yet developed, and so the thinkers who were later identified as philosophers also engaged in practical pursuits:
Andrea Nightingale describes them as "pragmatic and
polymathic". For instance, ancient traditions about
Thales of Miletus, traditionally identified as the first philosopher, also show his skill in such diverse fields as astronomy, engineering, politics, agriculture, and commerce. ==Military developments==