Around the same time, society was transforming from scattered chieftain systems to the polis (city-state) system, where households were politically unified around a central government in a capital city. On a basic level, power began to belong to states with strong hoplite armies, evidenced by Corinth (the origin of this helmet) gaining power early, relative to other states. Besides being the primary method of combat employed by Greeks for centuries to come, the introduction of the hoplite vastly changed the power structure of Greece. Individual soldiers, called hoplites, would wear this armor weighing about seventy pounds and fight side by side in a tight formation called a phalanx. This type of helmet, along with a breastplate, greaves, and hoplon shield, made up the armor used in hoplite warfare, developed between 725 and 650 BC. The next object, the Corinthian Helmet, is made of bronze and is a remnant of the Archaic period, dating to circa 550 BC.
In its early days, Greece consisted of these types of scattered settlements, where the extremely limited quantity of power available belonged to those wealthy enough to bury an extravagant gold bowl like the one displayed. This building had a tile roof and was larger than those around it, indicating wealth inequality. A House of Tiles has been excavated at Lerna on the Peloponnese, dating back to this period. Not much evidence of societal structure has survived, but is evident that there was a form of stratification. During this time, Greek civilization was beginning to take root. Originating in the Early Bronze Age, the bowl must have belonged to an extremely wealthy family who had the resources to bury such a luxury. The bowl, standing almost a meter tall, was undoubtedly expensive to create, and is thought to have been used as a grave offering rather than a functional eating vessel. The first object is a “gold hammered bowl”, dating back to between 3000BC and 2800BC and estimated to be from Makrykapa, Euboea.
The museum’s primary agenda is impress upon the viewer not only the magnitude of the changes Greece saw over time, but more importantly the concept of Greece as an idea, as a culture, as a region, but not as a single unified state. The artifacts are ordered by the chronology of the power-holder they represent, not by the chronology of their origin, although these often coincide. This museum seeks to capture the diversity of hegemony in Greece through artifacts representing the groups with the most power across the span of Greek history. It is instead characterized by roots dating back to the foundations of civilization, constantly shifting power dynamics between individually governed states linked by geography and race, and a swift conclusion to independence brought on by foreign domination. Of course, ancient Greek history no more resembles this tale than it resembles United States history. When the average person thinks about ancient Greece, he or she often misguidedly envisions a history much closer to that of Rome: a mythical founding perhaps, followed by domination of a single Greek state, concluded with a gradual decline into global irrelevance.
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