Mark Munn

Professor of Ancient Greek History and Archaeology

321 Weaver Building University Park , PA 16802

Pronouns: He/Him

Research Interests: Greek history, historiography, epigraphy, and archaeology; ancient warfare; Anatolian history and archaeology; Greek and Anatolian religions

Accepting grad students for Fall 2025

Biography:

I study the history of classical Greece through its literary and its material culture and in its broader Mediterranean context. Classical Athens and its political and intellectual history is one focus of my research and teaching. I am especially interested in the development of historical thought represented by Herodotus and Thucydides and their successors in the fourth century BCE. Archaeological survey and the study of fortifications and territorial defenses, including the excavation of ancient Panakton, inform my approach to exploring the physical context of the ancient Greek past. I am also keenly interested in tracing the influence on the Greeks of the diverse cultures of the eastern Mediterranean from the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic era. I study the archaeology of elite behavior and the influence of religious beliefs across cultures, with a particular focus on Phrygian and Lydian culture, and how these Anatolian peoples influenced both the Persian rulers of Anatolia and their Greek and Macedonian neighbors. Through my teaching and guiding student research I am committed to helping students develop new perspectives across traditional boundaries of disciplines and genres in the study of the ancient Greek and Mediterranean world and its relevance to us today.

Recent Courses:

CAMS005 - Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations
CAMS083S - First-Year Seminar in Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies
CAMS100 - Ancient Greece
CAMS593 - Research Seminar

Education Details:

Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 1983

B.A., University of California at San Diego, 1974

Publications:

Selected Publications According to Subject Fields

(click on headings to access PDFs of publications in Penn State ScholarSphere)

GREEK HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY

Pelasgians on the Attic-Boiotian Frontier (chapter forthcoming 2025)
Introduction to Hellenistic Monarchies in the Mediterranean World: Building a New World Order? (chapter forthcoming 2025)
Inscriptions from Panakton (Hesperia 2021)
Panakton and Drymos, a Disputed Frontier (chapter 2010)
The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (book 2006)
Panakton a Late Medieval Village (Hesperia 2003)
The School of History: Athens in the Age of Socrates (book 2000)
The First Excavations at Panakton (Boeotia Antiqua 1996)
the Defense of Attica: The Dema Wall and the Boiotian War of 378-375 B.C. (book 1993)
On the Frontiers of Attica and Boiotia: Results of the Stanford Skourta Plain Project (chapter 1990)
Agesilaus’ Boiotian Campaigns and the Theban Stockade of 378-377 B.C. (Classical Antiquity 1987)
Review of Ober, Fortress Attica (American Journal of Archaeology 1986)
Studies on the Territorial Defenses of Fourth-Century Athens (dissertation 1983)

GREEK HISTORY AND HISTORIOGRAPHY

Herodotus on the Death of Atys and an Anatolian Heroic Archetype (article under review 2024)
Why History? On the Origin of Historical Writing (chapter 2017)
Alexander, the Gordian Knot, and the Kingship of Midas (chapter 2008)
ΚΤΗΜΑ ΕΣ ΑΙΕΙ, The Occasion of Thucydides' History (chapter 2006)
The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (book 2006)
Thucydides on Plataea, the Beginning of the Peloponnesian War, and the 'Attic Question' (chapter 2002)
The School of History: Athens in the Age of Socrates (book 2000)

GREEK HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY

The Sophists between Aristocracy and Democracy (chapter 2023)
Eros and the Laws in Historical Context (chapter 2013)
From Science to Sophistry-The Path of the Sun, the Shape of the World, and the Place of Athens (chapter 2007)
The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (book 2006)
The School of History: Athens in the Age of Socrates (book 2000)

GREEK HISTORY AND RELIGION

Before the Magna Mater, The Mother of the Gods and Empire (chapter 2019)

The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (book 2006)
The School of History: Athens in the Age of Socrates (book 2000)

ANATOLIAN HISTORY, RELIGION, AND ARCHAEOLOGY

Introduction to Hellenistic Monarchies in the Mediterranean World: Building a New World Order? (chapter 2024)
Herodotus on the Death of Atys and an Anatolian Heroic Archetype (article under review 2024)
'Midas Lawagetas' and the Lord of Those Who Assemble at Kastolos (article under review 2024)
The Phrygian Inscription W-03 on the Arslan Kaya Monument (Kadmos 2024)
The Greek Text of the Vezirhan Stele, A Sacred Marriage and Dedication to an Unnamed Goddess (Epigraphica Anatolica 2022/2024
Earth and Water, the Foundations of Sovereignty in Ancient Thought (chapter 2009)
Kybele as Kubaba in a Lydo-Phrygian Context, Anatolian Interfaces (chapter 2008)
Alexander, the Gordian Knot & the Kingship of Midas (chapter 2008)
The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (book 2006)