Territorial and Border Surveillance in the Greek World

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeologies of Surveillance: Seeing and Power in the Material World" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Greek world formed a giant mosaic of city-states and leagues stretching over the entire Mediterranean and delimited by political borders. Like today, crossing a border was not innocuous, as states imposed their rule of law and enforced strict surveillance over their territories. This paper examines archaeological and textual evidence to argue that three forms of surveillance were commonly found in the Classical Greek world (fifth–third centuries BCE). First, a form of “natural surveillance” was innate to the occupation of the countryside, endorsed by social groups and citizen militia that lived in a continuous network of secondary settlements found in the territories of Greek city-states. Second, “institutional surveillance” was implemented by state personnel, as scouts, forest rangers, watchmen, and mountain and border patrols were regularly set up to watch the borderlands. The third form of surveillance, more infrastructural and military in nature, sees wealthier states increasingly investing energy and resources to support large-scale surveillance strategies by building towers, forts, fortresses, signal stations, linear barriers, and roads. These forms of surveillance, which operate jointly or separately at different levels, attest to the importance of territorial security and protection for the Greek city-states.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeologies of Surveillance: Seeing and Power in the Material World   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40011.0