Economy of Ancient Greece: New Approaches

What was the material underpinning of Greek Society? How did the production and distribution of resources connect individuals and states an what ancient mentalities and ideologies governed this exchange? New scholarly approaches and new evidence have drastically changed how we understand the ancient economy in recent decades. This course will survey key issues in the ancient economy such as Mediterranean ecology, trade, the invention of coinage, taxation, consumption, agriculture, slavery, and connectivity. In the process, we focus closely on the primary sources, in the form of literacy, archeological, numismatic, and epigraphic evidence, while also considering current scholarly methodologies and controversies.