Ancient Greece

Intro – 1. Roster – 2. Introduction – 3. Syllabus (online/onscreen) – 4. Schedule (online/onscreen) – 5. questions; break? – 6. Greece introduction – 7. Geography – 8. Slides: Franchthi etc.

Beginnings History of civilization: how to date? Definition of “text” Hunter/gatherer vs. producer/settler Definition of “culture” Definition of “civilization”

Beginnings Various ages: paleolithic, neolithic, bronze, iron The marks of civilization: cities, metals, and WRITING

Ancient Greece Evidence for the study of history – Material evidence – Written evidence

Ancient Greece Evidence for the study of history – Material evidence Metal artifacts Terra cotta artifacts – Written evidence

Ancient Greece Evidence for the study of history – Material evidence Metal artifacts Terra cotta artifacts – Written evidence Media: clay, stone, metal, papyrus, parchment Language

Ancient Greece Evidence for the study of history – Material evidence Metal artifacts Terra cotta artifacts – Written evidence Media: clay, stone, metal, papyrus, parchment Language – A FRACTION of what once was

Ancient Greece Evidence for the study of history – Material evidence Metal artifacts Terra cotta artifacts – Written evidence Media: clay, stone, metal, papyrus, parchment Language – A FRACTION of what once was – Implications?

Ancient Greece Sources for the study of Ancient Greece – 3000bc-700bc Some Linear B tablets (Late Bronze Age) Dark Age silence Oral tradition (cyclic epic) = Homeric literature – 700bc-480bc Homer & Hesiod Archaic poets Later writers looking backwards (e.g. classical historiographers, and Xenophon and Plutarch on Sparta)

Ancient Greece Sources for the study of Ancient Greece – 480bc-323bc Historiographers Drama Philosophy Oratory – 323bc-31bc Limited historiography Public record Literary scholars and academic interest

Ancient Greece Greece: the Land.

Ancient Greece Greece: the Land. – Hellas – Crete – Anatolia – The Aegean – The size of Alabama

Ancient Greece Greece: the Land. – Mountains vs. arable land – Travel & trade – Climate, soil, & rainfall

Ancient Greece Greece: the Land. – Mostly farmers, some herders – Decent living – The pantheon reflects reality

Ancient Greece Greece: the Land. – Diet staples – Animal domestication – Always a land of small-scale farmers

Ancient Greece Greece: the Land. – Devotion to one’s own agr. plain – “Ancestral Earth”

Ancient Greece Greece: the Land. “The primary disunifying force throughout Greek history was the perpetual tension between those citizens who had much land and those who had little or none.” (Pomeroy, et al., A brief history of Ancient Greece (2009), 13)

Ancient Greece Franchthi General Dating: Now we can start talking about HISTORY Neolithic Period: Early Neolithic:ca. 6,000 – ca. 5,000 b.c. Middle Neolithic:ca. 5,000 – ca. 4,500 b.c. Late Neolithic:ca. 4,500 – ca. 4,000 b.c. Final Neolithic:ca. 4,000 – ca. 3,000 b.c. Bronze Age:ca. 3,000 – ca. 1,150 b.c.

Ancient Greece Franchthi Earliest Evidence of human habitation in Greece: -Petralona Cave -Middle Paleolithic finds in Thessaly  hunter-gatherers typical of the Paleolithic period Franchthi Cave -located in the NE Peloponnese near the Argolid Gulf -finds date ca. 20,000 – 3,000 b.c. -provides critical evidence for transition from hunting and gathering to settled farming (the “Neolithic Revolution”).

Ancient Greece Franchthi

Ancient Greece Sesklo I.Features of Neolithic Period in Greece: -Appearance of settled communities -Domestication of animals and crops -Permanent buildings -Presence of obsidian at Neolithic site at Knossos and at sites in Thessaly and elsewhere indicate a “network of sea-borne contacts.” (O. Dickinson, The Aegean Bronze Age.) II. Features of Neolithic sites -most sites were in open positions -only identifiable permanent site is the farming village -permanence indicated by building materials and plan of buildings

Ancient Greece Sesklo III. The Farming Economy -Wheat, barley, lentils, peas and vetch were grown. -Livestock included sheep and goats, sometimes cattle and pigs. IV. Neolithic Sites in Thessaly in Northern Greece -Most intensive development of transition to a more settled way of life occurred in Thessaly and western Macedonia. -‘Type’ Sites of Sesklo and Dimini are most important examples -‘type site’ – a typical representative of a group of culturally similar sites

Ancient Greece Sesklo