Greece - History

Palaeolithic period

The term Paleaolithic derives from the Greek "paleos" (old) and "lithos" (stone).

The first evidence of human life in Greece dates back to the Palaeolithic period between 120,000 - 10,000 B.C.

This period is characterized by the utilization of knapped stone tools, although humans at the time also used wood and bone tools. Other organic commodities were synthesized as tools, including leather and vegetable fibers; however these have not been preserved to any great degree.

Inhabitants of the cave were probably seasonal hunter - gathers. Paleaolithic diets consisted primarily of animal flesh, fruits and vegetables.

Neolithic period

The Neolithic period in Greece dated approximately 7,000 - 3,000 B.C. It was then that Greek civilisation grew and flourished. Many remains of settlements and burial chambers of this period have been discovered in Thessaly, Macedonia and the Peloponnese.

The main characteristics of this era are the climate stabilization and the settlements of people. The economy of the region became steady with organized and methodical farming, stock rearing and, bartering and sculptures like pottery. People stopped traveling from region to region and permanent settlements in Greece. They domesticated animals like sheep and goats and grew plants and crops and their lives were less complex and simple. The Neolithic Greece people can be said as the first 'farmers'.

The houses were made of stone foundations with a roof made of a thick layer of clay and timber. They were one room houses measuring 10 to 50 square metres.

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age, a period that lasted roughly three thousand years, saw major advances in social economic, and technical advances that made Greece the hub of activity in the Mediterranean.

The art of metalworking arrived from the east around 3,000 B.C. The use of Bronze in tool making and weaponry was a rebirth for the civilization settled in Greece. Mining and metalworking were the first specialized industries, and the invention of the wheel during this time revolutionized transport.

The second millennium B.C. gave birth to some great civilizations: the Minoan on Crete, the Mycenaen on the Mainland and the Cycladic in the islands of Centre Agean.

The period is characterized by a rapid growth of population and a rapid development of trade. The Cyclades islands are located between Crete and Mainland and were an importand trade centre between Europe and Asia.

Minoan period

3,100 - 2,100 B.C. - ealy Minoan period

2,100 - 1,700 B.C. - middle Minoan period

1,700 - 1,420 B.C. - late Minoan period

Archaeological evidence testifies to the island's habitation since the 7th millennium B.C. After the 5th millennium B.C. we find the first evidence of hand-made ceramic pottery which marks the beginning of the civilization Evans, the famed archaeologist who excaveted Knossos, named "Minoan" after the legendary king Minos. Sir Arthur Evans defined the Minoan period of Crete as a major civilization from 1,900 - 1,300 B.C. Besides Knossos, there were Minoan palace centers in Phaestos and Kato Zakros that were destroyed, probably by an earthquake, in about 1,700 B.C. or by the eruption of the volcanic island Thera which caused massive tidal waves (tsounami). The palace center of Knossos was subsequently rebuilt. An enormous palace filled with rooms and narrow passageways is thought to have given rise to the legend of the labyrinth, built by Daedalus, with the Minotaur at its center that Theseus successfully traversed with the aid of a ball of string given him by the Minotaur's half-sister Ariadne. We believe the government of the Minoans was a bureaucratic monarchy.

The Minoans had developed significant naval power and for many centuries lived in contact with all the major civilizations of the time without being significantly threatened by external forces. Their commercial contact with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia undeniably influenced their own culture, and the Minoan civilization in turn appeared as the forerunner of the Greek civilization. The Minoans are credited as the first European civilization. No one today doubts the contribution made by the Minoan and Mycenean empire to the creation of the Greek civilization.

The most important Minoan art is their ceramics, but they are also known for their frescos, landscapes and stone carvings.

The Minoans raised cattle, sheep, goats and they grew wheat, barley, vetch, chickpeas, figs, olives and grapes.

The Minoans traded with Greece, Turkey, Syria,Egypt, Spain and Mesopotamia. The most important Cretan exports were grain, oil, wine, ceramics, copper, tin, gold and silver.

Mycenaean civilisation

The Mycenaen civilization flourished between 1,600 B.C. and 1,100 B.C. with the collapse of their Bronze-Age civilization, commonly attributed to the Dorian invasion. The major Mycenaen cities were Mycenae and Tiryns in Argolis, Pylos in Messinia, Athens in Attica, Thebes and Orchomenus in Biotia, and Iolkos in Thessaly. In Crete, the Mycenaens occupied Knossos. The Minoan civilization spread from Crete to the Agean islands, the coast of Asia Minor, and mainland Greece. After 1,450 B.C. the center of Agean political power moved to Mycenae on the Greek mainland and was called the Mycenaen civilization.

Mycenaen centers were fortified palaces and administrative centers and not as in Crete true cities. The bulk of the Mycenaen population lived in scattered villages where they worked either communal land or land help by nobles or kings. The nobility was under the close control of the kings.

However in Mycenaen art, it tends to be very naturalistic enhanced with curvilinear. Due to the fact that they were so involved with war, unlike the Minoans, their art is affected. Their art was often more crude, powerful, and abstract than the Minoan.

The Mycenaens buried their nobles in beehive tombs (tholoi), large circular burial chambers with a high vaulted roof and a straight entry passage lined with stone. They often buried daggers or some other form of military equipment with the deceased. The nobility were frequently buried with gold masks, tiaras, armor, and jeweled weapons. Mycenaens were buried in a sitting position, and some of the nobility underwent mummification, whereas Homer's Achilles and Patroclus were not buried but crematad with gold ums, instead of gold masks.

The most important item of export was olive oil and the royal family hold a monopoly on the production of olive oil.

Dark Age

The downfall of the Mycenaean age came swiftly and was due to multiple causes. Upon the advent of its destruction, the Iron Age Dorians invaded the Greek peninsula from the north (estimated time 1,200 B.C to 1,100 B.C.). Atop the invasion, civil war also entered mainland Greece, directly following the Dorian invasion. What followed was a period known aptly as the Greek Dark Ages.

The Dark Ages lasted from 1,100 B.C. until 800 B.C., or relatively to the time of Hellenic or Classical Greece. During this time the culture of Greece dwindled. Little is known of how many cultural elements were lost during the Dark Ages, but characteristic of the Dark Age, is the gradual decimation of any urbanized culture on the Greek mainland. In addition, many of the elements left from Mycenaean culture were destroyed, and writing, which had been so important during the Mycenaean, was not practiced. The great trading empire which had begun with the Minoans and was inherited by the Mycenaean's, was destroyed in the Dark Ages. Trade with Asia Minor, the Middle East, and Egypt stopped entirely. Artistic elements of the time portray simple geometrical designs and patterns.

Archaeological records indicate that in the Dark Age most people lived in small communities in remote areas supported by subsistence farming. Organizationally Greece was a chiefdom society. Most trade and contacts with cultures in the Near East and elsewhere lapsed.

But some good things also happened during this time. Knowledge of how to make tools and weapons out of iron spread from the Hittites around the Mediterranean Sea, and so the Greeks also learned how to work iron. Iron is harder than bronze and cheaper to get, because you can mine it in Greece itself instead of bringing tin from far away. Because iron was cheaper than bronze, more people could use it, even poor people. And without the kings and the palaces, people were generally more equal. The rich people weren't as rich, so the differences between people weren't so big.

Geometric period

The roots of Classical Greece lie in the Geometric period of about ca. 900 to 700 B.C., a time of dramatic transformation that led to the establishment of primary Greek institutions. The Greek city-state (polis) was formed, the Greek alphabet was developed, and new opportunities for trade and colonization were realized in cities founded along the coast of Asia Minor, in southern Italy, and in Sicily. With the development of the Greek city-states came the construction of large temples and sanctuaries dedicated to patron deities, which signaled the rise of state religion. Each polis identified with its own legendary hero. By the end of the eighth century B.C., the Greeks had founded a number of major Panhellenic sanctuaries dedicated to the Olympian gods.

Geometric Greece experienced a cultural revival of its historical past through epic poetry and the visual arts. The eighth century B.C. was the time of Homer, whose epic poems describe the Greek campaign against Troy (the Iliad) and the subsequent adventures of Odysseus on his return to Ithaki (the Odyssey). A newly emerging aristocracy distinguished itself with material wealth and through references to the Homeric past.

Their graves were furnished with metal objects, innately precious by the scarcity of copper, tin, and gold deposits in Greece.

Archaic Period

The archaic period in Greece (750 B.C. - 480 B.C.) is a period of Ancient Greek history. The term originated in the 18th century and has been standard since. This term arose from the study of Greek art, where it refers to styles mainly of surface decoration and plastique, falling in time between Geometric Art and the art of Classical Greece. As it is transitional to the latter it is considered "archaic." Since the Archaic period followed the Greek Dark Ages, and saw significant advancements in political theory, and the rise of democracy, philosophy, theatre, poetry, as well as the revitalization of the written language (which had been lost during the Dark Ages), the term archaic was extended to these aspects as well.

During the archaic period sculpture emerged as a principal form of artistic expression. Dating from the beginning of this period are magnificent statues of nude walking youths, the kouroi, which suggest Egyptian prototypes but which are distinctive in stylization and tension of movement (e.g. Kouros, Metropolitan Mus.). Draped female sculptures from the archaic period suggest Middle Eastern influence (e.g. Hera of Samos, Louvre).

The Greek world of the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. consisted of numerous autonomous city-states, or poleis, separated one from the other by mountains and the sea. Greek settlements stretched all the way from the coast of Asia Minor and the Aegean islands, to mainland Greece, Sicily, North Africa, and even Spain. As they grew in wealth and power, the poleis on the coast of Asia Minor and neighboring islands competed with one another in the construction of sanctuaries with huge stone temples.

Classical period

The Classical Age of Greece begins with the Persian War (490-479 B.C.) and ends with the death of Alexander the Great (323 B.C.). Besides war and conquest, in this period of Ancient Greece, the Greeks produced great literature, poetry, philosophy, drama, and art. Classical Greece includes the period known as the Age of Pericles. In this period the Greek civilisation made great cultural achievements, laying the foundations of the Western civilisation. It has been immensely influential on the politics, educational systems, philosophy, art and architecture of the modern world. In this period powerful city states flourished in Greece and democracy developed.

The Classical period of Ancient Greece produced some of the most exquisite sculptures the world has ever seen. The art of the Classical Greek style is characterized by a joyous freedom of movement, freedom of expression, and it celebrates mankind as an independent entity (atomo). During this period, artists begin to expand the formal aesthetic boundaries while they worked in expressing the human figure in a more naturalistic manner. They were able to replace the strict asymmetry of the figure with a free flowing form more true to life, while they approached an ideal aesthetic vision through stone and bronze.

Golden Age of Pericles

The Golden Age is the term used to denote the historical period in Ancient Greece lasting roughly from the end of the Persian Wars in 448 B.C. to either the death of Pericles 429 B.C. or the end of the Peloponnesian War in 404 B.C. Pericles - an Athenian general, politician and orator - distinguished himself above the other shining personalities of the era, men who excelled in politics, philosophy, architecture, sculpture, history and literature. He fostered arts and literature and gave to Athens a splendor which would never return throughout its history. He executed a large number of public works projects and improved the life of the citizens. Hence, this important figure gave his name to the Athenian Golden Age.

Pericles (meaning "surrounded by glory") had such a profound influence on Athenian society that Thoukydides, his contemporary historian, acclaimed him as "the first citizen of Athens". Pericles promoted the arts and literature; this was a chief reason Athens holds the reputation of being the educational and cultural centre of the ancient Greek world. He started an ambitious project that built most of the surviving structures on the Acropolis (including the Parthenon). This project beautified the city, exhibited its glory, and gave work to the people. Furthermore, Pericles fostered Athenian democracy to such an extent that critics call him a populist.

Under Pericles, Athenians lived modestly and without great luxuries, as there were no citizens with enormous wealth. The economy was based mainly on maritime trade, although agriculture and craft related industries were also important.

Education took place at home until children turned seven, when they were sent to school. There they learnt reading, writing, calculus and music. Physical Education classes, where children were prepared for military service, were also compulsory. At the age of 18 men entered the navy and learnt to handle weapons.

Athenian society was a patriarchy, that is, all rights and advantages were granted to men and only they gained positions of power, while the role of women was limited exclusively to looking after the household. There were, however, free and independent women, called hetaerae. Besides being wives, they were also known for being highly cultured and influential in intellectual and political circles. However they also posed a threat to the conservative customs of Athens. Pericles' wife, Aspasia of Miletus, was one of these women.

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