For over half a century, the Swiss School of 91探花视频 in Greece (ESAG) has conducted excavations in Eretria which have revealed a wealth of information regarding most of the site's history. Nevertheless, the Archaic period remains a desideratum despite systematic study (mainly published in the "Eretria" series). While a number of built structures and other material remains dated to that period have been individually studied, it has been difficult to offer a global picture od the city and its development between the beginning of the sixth and the beginning of the fifth centuries BCE. My current project therefore assembles all known archaeological and literary data pertaining to Eretria in the sixth century and compares it with contemporary material from selected contexts to better understand the city at the turn of the Archaic and Classical periods. By examining the archaic ceramic material in particualr, this research aims to fill a gap in our knowledge of Eretria during a key phase in the historyu of the ancient Greek world.
Herodotus tells us that Eretria, along with Athens, supported the Ionian Revolt (499-493 BCE), and was thus sacked by the Persians in revenge. Yet, whereas the assemblages in Athens attesting to the Persian destruction (or Perserschutt), are well documented, this issue has so far never been studied for Eretria. This presentation will therefore provide an overview of the context of a pit excavated in the Eretrian agora during the 1980s, which is likely linked to the Persian destruction of the city, as well as of its unpublished material. In doing so, it will address questions of chronology, the assemblage type, and the city's commercial networks. We will also ask what can be drawn from this material for the history of the city, and by extension the wider Greek world, during this transformative period in Greek history.
