Ends and beginnings: political change and daily life at Sardis in Late Classical and Early Hellenistic times
Date
DOI
Authors
Berlin, Andrea
Version
OA Version
Citation
AM Berlin. "Ends and Beginnings: Political Change and Daily Life at Sardis in Late Classical and Early Hellenistic Times." In:
Archaic and Classical Western Anatolia: New Perspectives in the Ceramic Studies. Proceedings of the Second KERAMOS International Conference at Ege University, Izmir,
3-5 June 2015. R. Guöl Guörtekin Demir et al., eds. Colloquia Antiqua 19. Peeters: Leiden, 2017.
Abstract
The fame of Sardis is tied to its history as a royal city, beginning in the 7th century BC and continuing down into the 3rd century BC, when the city was made the capital of the Seleucid province of Cis-Tauric Asia. This glittering resume highlights political eras and focuses attention on the lives of well-connected elites – but at the same time obscures the lives of regular people. This dichotomy inspires a question: can we identify a connection between changing political regimes and everyday life? Three assemblages of household pottery from Sardis provide evidence to answer this question. The first dates to ca. 350 BC, the second to the late 4th/early 3rd century BC and the third to the mid-3rd century BC. A close look allows us to see that it was not until the mid-3rd century BC that those two spheres – politics and daily life – meshed for everyday Sardians.