Robin Osborne's Greece in the Making is still probably the best widely available standard text on this, the second edition (make sure you get the second edition!) came out in 2009 so it is a bit out of date but not in any real ways that should drastically impact your purposes.

If you want something that is a bit more "flavorful" I would recommend Moses Finley's The World of Odysseus. In terms of details it is going to be quite out of date but as something to think with and to break your mind out of modernist habits of thought it would be very useful, as well as for a guide to how to read ancient sources. It is also short and extremely well written.

If you have any specific aspects of Archaic Greek society I would be happy to dig through my sources but those two should be a good intro to the topic.

Hi there - we're happy to approve your question related to your creative project, and we are happy for people to answer. However, we should warn you that many flairs have become reluctant to answer questions for aspiring novelists and the like, based on past experience: some people working on creative projects have a tendency to try to pump historians for trivia while ignoring the bigger points they were making, while others have a tendency to argue with historians when the historical reality does not line up with what's needed for a particular scene or characterization. Please respect the answers of people who have generously given you their time, even if it's not always what you want to hear.

Additionally, as amazing as our flair panel is, we should also point out that /r/AskHistorians is not a professional historical consultation service. If you're asking a question here because you need vital research for a future commercial product such as a historical novel, you may be better off engaging a historical consultant at a fair hourly rate to answer these questions for you. We don't know what the going rate for consultancy work would be in your locality, but it may be worth looking into that if you have in-depth or highly plot-reliant questions for this project. Some /r/AskHistorians flairs could be receptive to working as a consultant in this way. However, if you wish for a flair here to do this work for you, you will need to organize this with them yourselves.

For more general advice about doing research to inform a creative project, please check out our Monday Methods post on the subject.