ABSTRACT
We begin with the external cause: the revival of frequent exchanges with the eastern Mediterranean, after a long period of comparative isolation. Seen from a Near Eastern point of view, the Greeks were doubly fortunate in that they dwelt far enough away to escape the menace of Assyrian armies, but well within the range of maritime trade with the Levant coast. They could thus evolve their own political and social institutions without fear of foreign interference-even their nearer neighbours in the Anatolian hinterland gave them no trouble before the seventh century. At the same time, their eastward exchanges enabled them to learn from civilizations older than their own, and less seriously disrupted by the commotions at the end of the Bronze Age. Their creative powers were stimulated by the imagery of imported oriental artifacts, and by the recital of oriental myths; skilled techniques, especially in metalwork, were taught by oriental craftsmen who settled in Attica and Crete; and the mastery of the Phoenician alphabet put an end to over four centuries of Greek illiteracy.
