For the period from ca. 1300 to 800 B.C., for which no political narrative can be given, the book will focus on providing a general description of the political and social structure (e.g. of the Mycenaean kingdoms) on the basis of both archaeological and textual evidence (e.g. the Linear B tablets for the Mycenaean period). From ca. 800 B.C. onwards, however, political narrative in chronological order will increasingly provide the book's backbone. Important issues of social, cultural, and economic history will have a place, albeit a subordinate one. After 323 B.C. (death of Alexander the Great) the book will provide a concise narrative of the Hellenistic world down to the death of the final Hellenistic monarch, Cleopatra VII, in 30 B.C.
