Three sentences (211) that could be said to sum up the contents of this significant multi-authored volume are as follows: "... the date of nearly every Athenian monument of the period 530-470 BCE continues to be disputed. Scholars have connected key developments either with the reforms of Kleisthenes in 508/7 BCE or with the Persian Wars." The author Catherine Keesling goes on to state that "the pendulum has swung decisively toward the Persian War victories of 490 and 480/79 BCE as both the terminus post quem for important Athenian buildings and monuments, and the catalyst for the invention of the Classical style in Greek art."

In the past few decades it has become fashionable to challenge what were once considered rock-solid dates and evidence concerning early Greek art and architecture: the end of the Persian Wars, i. e. 480 (all dates are BCE), ushering in the Classical style; certain diagnostic features such as contrapposto (ponderation or weight shift in standing figures) characterizing Early Classical sculpture; the foundation of the Athenian Agora as a civic center; the advent of Attic red-figure vase painting c. 530; the dates of the Athenian Treasury at Delphi and the Athenaion at Syracuse; and even the age at which the pais (boy) Leagros could be called kalos (beautiful). These issues and more are tackled in this well illustrated publication which consists of papers delivered during a conference at the University of Vienna in 2019. The sixteen papers by a stellar cast of scholars/archaeologists address a range of considerations from the public to the private, myth and history, utilitarian to luxury goods - and even beyond Athens although it is the focal point of the volume. The various questions raised are neatly summarized in two introductory essays by one of the editors, Marion Meyer, and several indices, compiled by one of the authors (Giulio Amara), enhance the volume.

One of the key concepts is a gradual transition from the Archaic (600-480) to the Early Classical (480-450 BCE) as opposed to an abrupt change in style precipitated by political events such as the Kleisthenic/democratic reforms or the Persian Wars. Two authors focus on chronology in terms of sculptural development (Judith Barringer and co-editor Gianfranco Adornato). Both challenge the notion that the Early Classical begins suddenly with the second Tyrannicides statue group by Kritias and Nesiotes in 477/76, and argue convincingly with many examples including relief sculpture that there was a gradual transition with some Classical features beginning to emerge already in the Archaic period. A special category of relief sculpture, grave stelai, is the subject of a chapter by Anna Maria D'Onofrio who argues for the duration of funerary monuments up to the Persian Wars, contrary to the traditional account which terminates them with the advent of democracy. Both clients and artists, many of whom left Ionia after the revolt of 499, brought about innovations to these monuments (late kouroi, and larger reliefs).

Many chapters deal with this phenomenon in the realm of Attic vase-painting which was an important art form at the time and a lucrative export item. Essential to these arguments, and to the chronology of Greek art in general, is Susan Rotroff's thesis, based on pre- and post-Persian destruction pottery deposits in the Athenian Agora, that the advent of Attic red-figure, traditionally dated to c. 530-525, most be downdated. This chapter adds additional supporting evidence from recent excavations at Miletos and Eretria that bolsters her (and others') argument that the invention of the red-figure painting technique began about ten years later. Another chapter dealing with Attic vase painting (Kathleen Lynch) looks at the mass produced latest black-figure and black-slipped pottery of this transitional period, mostly stemless cups and oil flasks (lekythoi). These shapes were the least susceptible to breakage and so were exported widely throughout the Mediterranean when Attic 'fine' ware, in spite of its shoddy workmanship, still enjoyed a certain caché.

The imagery on these painted vases and its relationship to political, social and cultural institutions of the Athenian polis is the concern of several authors. The chapter by Marion Meyer presents a compelling case vis à vis a new type of libation scene in which a woman holding a wine jug and special cup known as a phiale confronts a fully armed warrior. While she represents the household (oikos), he is the citizen par excellence: a husband, warrior and a civic equal in democratic Athens. She links this new identity with the new institution of state burial prompted by the Persian Wars. Along a similar line Elena Walter-Karydi argues that much of the material culture appearing at this time features the goddess Athena (coins, temple pediments), the enhanced local hero Theseus (on metopes, cycle cups, and possibly atop the Marathon trophy), resulting in a new civic consciousness. Paolo Persano, who is republishing the pediment of the Temple of Apollo at Eretria, emphasizes the fact that the abduction of the Amazon Antiope here takes place within a battle context (unlike such numerous scenes on Attic vases); this is hardly surprising given the challenge of filling a wide pedimental space with this narrative.

From Eretria other sites outside Athens discussed here include Ikaria (in a contribution by Hans Goette considering the date of the theater of Dionysos), Syracuse (the uncoupling of the Temple of Athena to the battle of Himera by Giulio Amara) and Aegina (analysis of the temple's two well preserved pedimental groups by Raimund Wünsche).

Returning to the chapter on commemorative monuments cited at the beginning, Keesling makes very persuasive observations about the ways in which Athenian war memorials in Athens, Marathon and Delphi act deliberately to deceive the viewer by distorting the memory of the historic events or by their placement to resemanticize earlier monuments - just one of many instances of the re-writing of history.

While the papers in this volume clearly take a revisionist approach to an important issue, namely chronology, in Greek art history and archaeology, the conclusions are in most cases supported by evidence, primarily visual but also archaeological and epigraphic. For that reason this book will prove to be an important resource for historians of social history. Because most of the readers of this journal are presumably historians who might be interested in the effects of the cataclysmic changes taking place in Athens during this period and their effects on material culture, this reviewer cannot recommend this volume highly enough.

Jenifer Neils