Term derived from the Latin classicus (‘of the highest class’), used to designate a supposedly high point of a civilization. It is frequently the central term in a three-tier series: archaic (for preceding periods, with implications of primitivity), Classical (central period of greatest achievement), and ‘late’ (of subsequent periods, with implications of degeneracy and breakdown). In a broader sense, the term often describes the whole period of Greek and Roman antiquity.
The Macmillan dictionary of archaeology, Ruth D. Whitehouse, 1983Copied