Pomeroy et al. Ancient Greece, introduction

Remember to review visuals, including maps

Periodization:

Late Bronze Age 1600-1200

Dark Age / Iron Age 1200-700

Archaic period 700-480

Classical period 480-323

Hellenistic period 323-30

Pomeroy et al. Ancient Greece, chapter one. Early Greece and the Bronze Age.

Remember to review visuals, including maps

Places:

Anatolia – modern day Turkey, Hittite Empire

Pylos -  one of the largest late Bronze Age palace centers

Mycenae – center of Mycenaean palace-state

Crete – island south of Aegean peninsula, center of Minoan civilization

Knossos – large Minoan palace taken over by Mycenaeans

Mesopotamia

Aegean Sea

Cyclades

Peloponnesus

Peoples

Minoan civilization – created a vast trading empire centered on Crete. They created a distinct culture while borrowing in places from their trading partners. Minoan culture would later heavily influence the Mycenaean Greek culture. (What’s the evidence for this influence?)

Mycenaean civilization – flourished in the Late Bronze Age and controlled parts of the Peloponnesus and Aegean islands. Their centralized redistributive local economy was bolstered by a prosperous trading empire which collapsed suddenly around 1200 BC.

Egyptians – important trading partners of the Mycenaean Greeks and one of the “large” states during the Bronze Age. At around 1300 BC, Egypt was at the height of its power and was a major social, political, and economic force in the Near East.

Hittites – another of the Mycenaean's important contemporaries. Evidence for the Mycenaean Greek prestige can be found in diplomatic documents with the Hittites.

Events

3000 – Bronze metallurgy introduced to Greece, causes population growth, beginning of Early Bronze Age

2000 – Minoans and Greeks begin trade

1450 – Greeks conquer Crete and largely assimilate its people. Already similar Minoan and Mycenaean cultures fuse

1400 – Mycenaean palace administration begins to spread to other Greek cities

1375 – palace at Knossos burned, marks Crete's decline

1400-1200 – heyday of Mycenaean culture and civilization

1200 – fires devastate Mycenaean palaces one by one, beginning of “Dark Ages”

1150 – Mycenaean civilization completely eradicated

Important Terms:

subsistence agriculture

redistributive economy

Linear A

Linear B

Shaft graves

Tholos tombs

survey archaeology

wanax

Palace of Nestor

Grapes, Olives, Grain (Mediterranean triad)

Important Topics:

-Rise of Minoan trading civilization and their cultural and social influences on Mycenaean Greeks

-Rise of Mycenaean palatial administrations

-Palace structures and decoration

-The invasion or destruction of several important empires (Egypt, Hittites, Mycenaean Greeks) by outside forces (“sea peoples”, “Dorian invasion”)

-Importance of Bronze as a tool for agriculture and warfare

-Greek geography and climate as a factor in the development of proto-Greek peoples

-Social stratification of Mycenaean Greek culture as a consequence of palace distribution system

-First real development of Greek religious identity (what are the elements?)

Pomeroy et al. Ancient Greece, chapter two. The “Dark Age” of Greece.

Remember to review visuals, including maps

Places:

Cyprus – Became a major Mycenaean refuge and trading port

Egypt – One of the few remaining old civilizations, though in decline

Phoenicia –  nation whose syllabic alphabet would lead to development of the Greek alphabet

Nichoria and Lefkandi – two sites which demonstrate the nature of kings/chiefs in the Greek Iron Age

Athens – one of the few palace-cities of the bronze age to remain inhabited during the Dark Age

Ionia

Peoples and Persons

Cypriots – with its pivotal location as a port to the Near East, Cyprus flourished during the Greek Dark Age. Their script and material remains suggest, if not a Mycenaean presence, at least some sort of adoption of Mycenaean culture.

Homer - 8th century Greek poet who wrote (or at least performed) the Iliad and the Odyssey, which heavily influenced, not only later generations, but Greek national identity. While primarily exaggerated for “epic distance,” the poems nonetheless provide a wealth of information on Greek ideas and customs. The poems also exemplify the rich history of oral composition in Ancient Greece.

Hesiod – contemporary of Homer who authored Works and Days and Theogony. Works and Days is largely autobiographical and gives insight into the lives of average Greek citizens while Theogony gives the genealogy of the Greek gods.

Events

1200-1000 – Dissolution of old nations and rise of new ones leads to political instability in the Near East

1050 – smelting of iron ore becomes central to Greek smiths (breakdown of copper trade)

1050 – Ionian migration

825 – earliest evidence of major resurgence in overseas Greek trade

800 – development of the Greek alphabet;  the Iliad and the Odyssey are transcribed within the next century

Important Terms:

Dark Age (due to archaeological obscurity)

basileus / qasireu

thêtes

xenia (guest friendship)

kleros

dêmos

oikos

boulê (council)

timê

panhellenism and festivals

alphabet vs. syllabary

Heroön (= apsidal proto-geometric building at Lefkandi)

Iliad

Odyssey

Theogony

Works and Days

Important Topics:

-Development and refinement of Protogeometric (1050-900 BC) and Geometric (900-700 BC) styles which eventually lead to a resurgence of natural themes (at first animals, then people). These vases would later incorporate scenes of Greek religion

-Iron metallurgy becomes important in Greece as trade routes collapse, leaving few sources of copper or tin.

-Overseas migration as a result of Mycenaean collapse, and later on, due to a scarcity of good, arable land for kleroi

-Invention of Greek alphabet allows for an easy-to-learn phonetic system.

-The dissolution of the palace-centric system gives rise to chiefdoms led by basileis. As these chiefdoms grew in size, they would later develop into the city-states of classical Greece

-Rise of Panhellenism as Greeks once again came into regular contact with outsiders (barbarians)

-Formalization of Greek temples and festivities which would resonate as a common chord amongst Greek peoples

-Migration and colonization during Iron Age and early Archaic period

-Essential differences between Late Bronze Age and Dark (Iron) Age, and between Dark (Iron) Age and Archaic period

-Slavery (how common? where did slaves come from?)

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