The Importance Of Material Evidence In Athenian Democracy

Since these ancient people did not work with writing, this made an obstacle for the archaeologists; who had to create artifacts to help with their studies. They did all they could do, except ignore what can’t be ignored: ancient Americans’ past events.

Government is a form of political structure that rules over a group of specific people and while stability is important, in most societies government is fluid in its form and changes over time. As different forms of government take power, typically the laws will favor one demographic over another. While the Athenian democracy favored the masses, oligarchic sympathizers like Pseudo-Xenophon, displayed their discontent with it. In his negative critique of Athenian democracy titled “The Constitution of the Athenians,” Pseudo-Xenophon supports the oligarchic system over the democratic one, yet still maintains a respect for the Athenian’s democracy as he comments on its longevity and stability. His commentary contrasts with the funeral oration that Pericles gave during a public funeral, where Pericles praises the strength of the Athenian democracy and its perseverance regardless of a plethora dead during the Persian Wars. Despite the differences, both as Pseudo-Xenophon and Pericles appeal to the political ideals of their audience while at the same time maintaining their own political beliefs.

The history of archaeology plays an important role in the controversial issues surrounding the science. Archaeology has only recently become a concrete science. Although mankind has always had an interest in the past, the root of archaeology is believed to have started in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. During this time period, artifacts were mainly sought after for collecting. The upper class of the Renaissance period collected artifacts from places such as Rome and Greece to display in their homes as art. As time went on, the lure of historical art and artifacts increased. “Classical archaeology” is the direct result of this curiosity. The “classical archaeologists” were mainly wealthy men that collected artifacts for their homes and studied where they

Evolution of Democracy and the Athenian Constitution Democracy is defined in modern times as government by the people. To put that in perspective and better understand all that democracy entails we must consider its origins. It is surprising indeed that even today tyrannies and dictatorships exist in the world when more than two and a half thousand years ago the ancient Athenians had developed a functional and direct form of democracy. What contributed to this remarkable achievement and how it changed the socio-political scene in Athens is what will be considered in this paper.

With the rise of the second-wave civilizations and empires, 500 B.C.E. to 500 C.E., distinctive political, cultural, social and economical features were highlighted (Strayer 120). These empires included: the Persian Empire, the Roman Empire, the Egyptian Empire, the Chinese Empire, and the Greek Empire. Each sovereign had individual methods in order to forge unity and ensure political authority throughout his or her reign. The systems were comprised of utilizing fear, establishing laws and government, incorporating customs and religious beliefs, the right to rule, etc. Regarding the following of laws, there became a significant distinction between the use of “power” and “authority”. Power denotes the appliance of force or threats of one, such

The Representative voting system in the Athenian government was more democratic, than the Roman Republic. In Athens, the first 6000 male citizens voted for their elected officials. Athen’s voting system is truly democratic because the male citizens voted on roles in the government, and sign up for roles. In Rome, all full male citizens could vote, while leaving out the other two types of citizenship that cannot vote2. Only having full citizens is less democratic because the other two citizens could not vote. The Athenian Democracy and Roman Republic both have restrictions on their voting system, but Rome had more restrictions on citizenship.

The general public did not create, ‘We, the people’, but by 50 or so white men who owned property. The Athenian democracy followed a similar rule; to be on the Athenian senate, one had to be a male who owned property and was not a slave. This trend has been seen throughout the western world in establishing democracies; the hegemonic power controls the laws of the state. But now, with technology, we are able to empower the disenfranchised and have a more equal representation. And with more holistic and comprehensive laws due to having a more equal representation of the people, which may create less corruption.

The Athenian democracy is discomforting for a contemporary American because of the personal rights citizens obtain today that Athenians do not, and because of the lack of greek legitimacy in their political system, due to rationality. However, the life of an Athenian is quiet interesting, in the way it allows us to view the positive and negative elements of the Athenian society, in contrast of today 's culture, from how it runs, how they studied Greek politics, their perspective of what a citizen should be and its responsibilities, and their acts of rationality.

During the dawn of the Greek civilization, rulership consisted of one king that rule the entire occupied land. Such system included only family members, tribe members, and wealthy individuals to receive whatever good the empire had to offer. It took many years until new reforms came about in regards of rulership. The Athenian democracy was developed by the efforts of the leaders and philosophers who were encouraged to think and answer the why freely. Although it was called a democratic system, only male citizens had the opportunity to participate. In this essay, I will discuss how the Athenian democratic system was developed, why, and the efforts of the Greek thinkers in developing the Athenian democracy. Additionally, we will have the chance to examine if it was truly democratic.

Ancient artifacts tell us much to all of what we know about our worlds past, these crucial remnants of past cultures allow us to physically see what was essential and valued by these ancient peoples. Artifacts tell us about suspicions, beliefs, everyday life and everything in between — without these crucial remnants of culture, we could not even begin to understand what was before us. Although these artifacts are useful for learning and understanding ancient civilizations, there is much debate about the morality of other countries buying and “owning” these historical pieces. Every civilization, past and present leaves behind a cultural trail everywhere it goes thus making exploration of different countries so very easy.

Aristotle once said, “In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.” To make democratic ideas work to their advantages, the people of Athens had to vote for superiors, rather than simply observe. Like other forms of government, democracy has its strengths and its weaknesses. It was very organized and fair, giving people rights and freedoms, and participation in the rule of the city. Though, there were some negatives.

The Ekklesia was the assembly in Athens. It consisted only of men, they were able to make laws. The ordinary citizen in Athens was allowed to voice their views on certain matters. This allowed them to engage in debates around the laws of Athens and was a very different set up to how things were done in Sparta. The minimum number needed for a meeting to be viewed as valid was 6000 members. If the members were absent from the meeting with no legitimate reason for their absence, then they would be fined severely for not attending. The Thetes (serfs), the Zeugitai (ordinary soldiers), the Hippeis (horsemen) and Pentakosiomedimnoi (500-bushel men) were all members of the Ekklesia and most were part of the Boule. The Thetes were the only ones that were not part of the Boule but were part of the Ekklesia.

It can be easy to confuse the work of archaeologists and historians. While both spend time and effort to study the past, the evidence they use can be very different. One way that they are different is that archaeologists use physical evidence to understand the past much more than historians. Because they often study the time before humans could write, archaeologists use this physical evidence to fill in holes about the past. They see how this evidence changes over time and also how it may stay the same. Archaeologists consider this to be more objective than the evidence used by historians because physical evidence isn't changed by human lies. For example, archaeologists would use the physical things left by a group while historians would use a letter written by the head of the group. However, this letter may not be objective. So, these different kinds of evidence can lead archaeologists and historians to the same or different research conclusions.

In the classical period, Athens paved the way for future forms of government and established one of the earliest democracies. However, even though participation was made more accessible throughout the varying social classes, the reality of Athenian democracy was that limitations put in place by state and practice moulded the system into more of an accessible oligarchy than a rule by the people. As progressive as Athenian democracy was to its contemporary systems of government, in some ways, what was occurring in Athens was no more than an accessible oligarchy, and the groundwork for this was laid in the practice and principles of democracy itself. After overthrowing the dynasty of Pisistratus, Cleisthenes, a champion of the demos, set the stones for the first iteration of democracy (Herodotus 5.69). Throughout Attica, representatives from each of the ten clans would lead for

The settlement site is where residual evidence of past activity is preserved and able to be investigated through its archaeological record. To understand how the record in settlement sites is formed, we must first understand what we are looking for. The Archaeological Record can be split into three sections; material remains of the past, material culture, and sources used by archaeologists (Lucas, 2012). For this topic we will be concentrating on material culture. Material culture refers to the physical objects and artefacts used by a society. These can be both organic - a substance which was once living, like plants or bacteria - or inorganic - a substance derived from non-living matter.