Urban Planning in the Greek Motherland: Late Archaic Tegea

Abstract

Greek urban planning in the Archaic period has essentially been a history of colonial foundations, mainly in Magna Graecia and Sicily. The Greek homeland has often been considered as a place where early cities developed by chance and without any regular layout before the Hippodamean revolution in the early Classical period. The newly discovered urban plan of Late Archaic Tegea in Arkadia challenges this view, showing that the art of urban planning was as well developed in Greece as in the colonies. This new evidence puts the Greek urban development in a new light and explains how the Classical achievements in urban planning were rooted in a tradition in the Greek homeland and not only in the colonies.