Faculty Affairs and Academic Programs
Grace Erny
Social Sciences; Public Policy; Public Affairs
Ancient Greek and Roman Studies
UC Berkeley
Rural Variations: Materializing Inequality in Archaic Crete
My first monograph project, tentatively titled Rural Variations: Materializing Inequality in Ancient Crete, investigates emerging forms of inequality on the Mediterranean island of Crete in the seventh through the fourth centuries BCE, a time of profound cultural change across the ancient Greek world. I take an innovative archaeological approach to understanding the new social order that materialized during this time. Through spatial and functional analysis of rural landscapes, architecture, and artifacts, I clarify the economic and social relationships that linked rural sites to one other and to larger centers, challenging established narratives about egalitarianism in ancient Greece. I provide a new glimpse into the material culture and built environments of rural Cretan communities and foreground these populations as political and social agents, rather than relegating them to the background in a narrative of urbanization and state formation. Drawing on comparative evidence from other Mediterranean regions, I suggest that Cretan communities used traditionalist, conservative styles of material culture to both forge collective identities and reinforce internal hierarchies. The focus on Crete, often seen as marginal to the main currents of ancient Greek history, reveals the diversity of Greek social formations beyond the best-known cases of Athens and Sparta. I plan to publish this monograph with the University of California Press using their Open Access publishing program. A proposal has been favorably received by the UC Press subject editor in premodern history.
