Editing Sparta (section)

===Prehistory, "dark age" and archaic period===
The prehistory of Sparta is difficult to reconstruct because the literary evidence was written far later than the events it describes and is distorted by oral tradition.<ref name="Herodot, Book I, 56.3">Herodot, Book I, 56.3</ref> The earliest certain evidence of human settlement in the region of Sparta consists of [[pottery]] dating from the Middle [[Neolithic]] period, found in the vicinity of Kouphovouno some two kilometres ({{convert|2|km|abbr=off|disp=output only}}) south-southwest of Sparta.{{sfn|Cartledge|2002|p=28}}

This civilization seems to have fallen into decline by the late [[Bronze Age]], when, according to Herodotus, Macedonian tribes from the north (called [[Dorians]] by those they conquered) marched into the Peloponnese and, subjugating the local tribes, settled there.<ref name="Herodot, Book I, 56.3"/> The Dorians seem to have set about expanding the frontiers of Spartan territory almost before they had established their own state.{{sfn|Ehrenberg|2002|p=31}} They fought against the [[Argive]] Dorians to the east and southeast, and also the [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]]n Achaeans to the northwest.  The evidence suggests that Sparta, relatively inaccessible because of the topography of the Taygetan plain, was secure from early on: it was never fortified.{{sfn|Ehrenberg|2002|p=31}}

[[File:Lycurgus.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Lycurgus of Sparta|Lycurgus]]]]

Nothing distinctive in the archaeology of the Eurotas River Valley identifies the Dorians or the Dorian Spartan state. The prehistory of the Neolithic, the Bronze Age and the Dark Age (the Early Iron Age) at this moment must be treated apart from the stream of Dorian Spartan history.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}

The legendary period of Spartan history is believed to fall into the Dark Age. It treats the mythic heroes such as the [[Heraclids]] and the [[Perseids (mythology)|Perseids]], offering a view of the occupation of the Peloponnesus that contains both fantastic and possibly historical elements. The subsequent proto-historic period, combining both legend and historical fragments, offers the first credible history.

Between the 8th and 7th centuries BC the Spartans experienced a period of lawlessness and civil strife, later attested by both Herodotus and Thucydides.{{sfn|Ehrenberg|2002|p=36}} As a result, they carried out a series of political and social reforms of their own society which they later attributed to a semi-mythical lawgiver, [[Lycurgus of Sparta|Lycurgus]].{{sfn|Ehrenberg|2002|p=33}} Several writers throughout antiquity, including Herodotus, Xenophon, and Plutarch have attempted to explain Spartan exceptionalism as a result of the so-called Lycurgan Reforms.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0210%3Atext%3DConst.%20Lac.%3Achapter%3D1 Xenophon, Constitution of the Lacedaimonians, chapter 1]</ref><ref>Xenophon, ''Constitution of the Lacedaemonians'', 1</ref><ref>Herodotus, 1.65–66</ref><ref>Plutarch, ''Life of Lycurgus'', 6.1–2</ref>