THE AEGEAN, 1100-900 B.C.; I. S. Lemos: The Protogeometric Aegean. The Archaeology of the Late Eleventh and Tenth Centuries BC (Oxford Monographs on Classical Archaeology). Pp. xxiv + 245, ills, maps, pls. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Cased, £110. ISBN: 0-19-925344-7

• Published in: The Classical Review Vol. 54; no. 1; p. 210
• Main Author: Snodgrass, A M
• Format: Book Review
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Cambridge University Press 01.04.2004
• ISSN: 0009-840X; 1464-3561

[...]not only can the period no longer be considered one of isolation, but it shows palpable advances in the direction of state-formation: L. has no diculty in establishing a case for these propositions, but does not acknowledge that they are in part a product of the geographical limits that she has set to her book. [...]if the adoption of the Protogeometric style of pottery is in itself proof of interaction and exchange of ideas, to draw that implication for the area in which this style prevailed is no more than a circular argument. What we have instead is an extremely valuable, detailed survey of the more advanced regions. [...]she is right to extend the geographical spread of Submycenaean, even if the claim that there are settlement deposits of this era at Nea Ionia (Volos) appears thinly supported (at p. 12 n. 73not at p. 7 n. 46, where we expect it). First is the provenance of the object, followed by the preservation.