Ancient Origins IRAQ Tour

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The Acropolis of Athens by Leo von Klenze (1846) (Public Domain)

The Birth Of Greekness And The Great Land Grab

During the Archaic period in the eighth century BC, a tipping point was reached in Greece. Perhaps as a result of better nutrition and of changes in marriage practices, so that women married younger than they had before, the population increased dramatically over the course of the century, particularly in the second half, on both the mainland and the islands. The results of this population increase make the eighth century one of the most dynamic periods of Greek history.

Homann Heirs finest and most appealing maps of the ancient Greek World. (1741) (Public Domain)

Homann Heirs finest and most appealing maps of the ancient Greek World. (1741) (Public Domain)

Land Grab and Expansion

A growing population needs new land, and everywhere we find signs of expansion, at home and overseas. At home, large villages (as they were at the time) such as Athens and Corinth generated further villages, occupying more of the land that would in due course of time become Attica and Corinthia. The most extreme case of this kind of internal expansion was pursued by the Spartans. Sparta had already taken over and developed its home territory of Laconia in the ninth century BC, and by the end of the eighth it had also annexed the most fertile part of neighboring Messenia, awarding itself an enormous territory, compared to others.


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