Boeotia Project, Volume III: Hyettos. The origins, florescence and afterlife of a small Boeotian city

Abstract

The urban and rural survey of the Greco-Roman town of Hyettos in Boeotia provides powerful insights into the rise and decline of a typical small city-state in a well-defined landscape. We follow village beginnings from Neolithic, early-farming times through the Bronze Age and into the dramatic appearance of the city in the Archaic era. Following an early Hellenistic climax the town and its countryside are transformed to a lesser agglomeration by the Imperial Roman period. After Late Antiquity and the final abandonment of the city, the survey reveals a return to a landscape of small rural communities, with a final reorganization into the present village network. Throughout, the volume combines archaeological surface ceramic survey with architectural study, geology and soil science, geophysics, geochemistry, aerial photography, and a steadily richer documentary record.