Continuity Or Discontinuity?

The origin of the Ancient Creek City-state has been one of the key issues in the study of the Greek history.There are two main views about its origin in academic community:the continuity theory and the discontinuity theory.The discontinuity theory argues that the Greek City-states that originated in the Dark Ages were essentially different from the previous kingdom of the Mycenaean civilization;the continuity theory holds that the Ancient Greek City-state was the continuation of the Mycenaean civilization to some extent.There are serious differences in the political system and culture between the Mycenaean civilization and the Ancient Greek City-state civilization.The king called wanax and its subordinate bureaucracy were the center of power in Mycenaean kingdoms,and the latter,the citizen community managed the city affairs.And some political terms of the Ancient Greek City-state founded frequently in the Mycenaean civilization,and the archaeological discovery for the community after the destroy of Mycenaean civilization,both show that there were certain contact between the Greek City-state and Mycenaean civilization.On the basis of previous studies,this paper attempts to put forward the following view:after the demise of the Mycenaean civilization,there is an apparent retrogression of the Greek civilization in the social,economic and cultural,and the Greek history suffered great setbacks.This is beyond doubt.However,the Greek City-state is not broken out in the air,and its embryos should exist in the Mycenaean civilization demise among the small community.On this point,archaeological excavations provide the main evidence.The discontinuity theory completely split the Greek City-state civilization with the Mycenaean civilization.We have to say this is too much absolute.The continuity theory is a revise of the discontinuity theory.Rather than to say the Greek city-state civilization is the continuation of the Mycenaean civilization,it is better to say that it is a major setback after the turn with a setback.That means,it has a certain continuity with the Mycenaean civilization and show some significant changes at the same time.