This study of the changing relationships between burial rituals and
social structure in Early Iron Age Greece will be required reading for
all archaeologists working with burial evidence, in whatever period.
This book differs from many topical studies of state formation in that
unique and particular developments are given as much weight as those
factors which are common to all early states. The ancient literary
evidence and the relevant historical and anthropological comparisons are
extensively drawn on in an attempt to explain the transition to the
city-state, a development which was to have decisive effects for the
subsequent development of European society.