Early Greece and the Bronze Age Ancient Greece

Greece – Bronze age Origins of civilization – Prehistory – History

Greece – Bronze age Origins of civilization – Prehistory Includes Paleolithic and other prehistorical categories – History

Greece – Bronze age Origins of civilization – Prehistory Includes Paleolithic (=old stone age) and other prehistorical categories – History

Greece – Bronze age Origins of civilization – Prehistory Includes Paleolithic (=old stone age) and other prehistorical categories Relies on old age of earth and very long natural history of human existence – History

Greece – Bronze age Origins of civilization – Prehistory Includes Paleolithic (=old stone age) and other prehistorical categories Relies on old age of earth and very long natural history of human existence – History Begins with evidence

Greece – Bronze age Origins of civilization – Prehistory Includes Paleolithic (=old stone age) and other prehistorical categories Relies on old age of earth and very long natural history of human existence – History Begins with evidence – Material

Greece – Bronze age Origins of civilization – Prehistory Includes Paleolithic (=old stone age) and other prehistorical categories Relies on old age of earth and very long natural history of human existence – History Begins with evidence – Material (bones, buildings, pots, etc.)

Greece – Bronze age Origins of civilization – Prehistory Includes Paleolithic (=old stone age) and other prehistorical categories Relies on old age of earth and very long natural history of human existence – History Begins with evidence – Material (bones, buildings, pots, etc.) – Textual

Greece – Bronze age Origins of civilization – Prehistory Includes Paleolithic (=old stone age) and other prehistorical categories Relies on old age of earth and very long natural history of human existence – History Begins with evidence – Material (bones, buildings, pots, etc.) – Textual (writing on metal, stone, bones, other media)

Greece – Bronze age Major periods of Greek history: – Ancient history Neolithic Bronze age Dark age / Iron age – Archaic Period – Classical Period – Hellenistic Period – Roman Period 150bc – 31bc

Greece – Bronze age 3 ages we deal with in ancient history:

Greece – Bronze age 3 ages we deal with in ancient history: – Neolithic

Greece – Bronze age 3 ages we deal with in ancient history: – Neolithic – Bronze

Greece – Bronze age 3 ages we deal with in ancient history: – Neolithic – Bronze – Iron

Greece – Bronze age 3 ages we deal with in ancient history: – Neolithic ( = new stone age) – Bronze – Iron

Greece – Bronze age 3 ages we deal with in ancient history: – Neolithic ( = new stone age) ~ bc – Bronze – Iron

Greece – Bronze age 3 ages we deal with in ancient history: – Neolithic ( = new stone age) ~ bc – Bronze – Iron

Greece – Bronze age 3 ages we deal with in ancient history: – Neolithic ( = new stone age) ~ bc – Bronze Technological advance in metallurgy – Iron

Greece – Bronze age 3 ages we deal with in ancient history: – Neolithic ( = new stone age) ~ bc – Bronze Technological advance in metallurgy Lasts till the late second to early first millennium – Iron

Greece – Bronze age 3 ages we deal with in ancient history: – Neolithic ( = new stone age) ~ bc – Bronze Technological advance in metallurgy Lasts till the late second to early first millennium – Iron Another technological advance in metallurgy

Greece – Bronze age 3 ages we deal with in ancient history: – Neolithic ( = new stone age) ~ bc – Bronze Technological advance in metallurgy Lasts till the late second to early first millennium – Iron Another technological advance in metallurgy Names based on materials in common use – assume overlap

Greece – Bronze age Comparative history (cf. timeline in your text)

Greece – Bronze age Comparative history (cf. timeline in your text) Ages & civilizations Western civilizationEastern civilization MesopotamiaEgyptGreeceChinaIndia Neolithic~ FloodOld kingdom / pyramids Preminoan / Minoan Indus valley civilization Bronze~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Sumer / Akkad / Hammurabi Middle and new kingdoms / Exodus (Minoan / Mycenaean civilizations) Shang / Western Zhou Harappan civilization Iron~ ~ ~1300’s OR ~500’s ~ Hittite, Assyria, Babylon New kingdom / last pharaohs Rise of polis / archaic and classical ages Western Zhou / Eastern Zhou Iron age vedic civilization

Greece – Bronze age Material remains give their names to this relative epochal dating system

Greece – Bronze age Material remains give their names to this relative epochal dating system Historicity relies on historiography

Greece – Bronze age Material remains give their names to this relative epochal dating system Historicity relies on historiography – Advent of hellenism in Greece (500’s sq.) – Writing in any language is necessary

Greece – Bronze age Early Bronze Age – bc – Crete and mainland Greece: civilization rises because of contact with palace-kingdoms of the East – 4 th millennium bc: Rise of civilization in Mesopotamia and Egypt

Greece – Bronze age Early Bronze Age – bc – Crete and mainland Greece: civilization rises because of contact with palace-kingdoms of the East – 4 th millennium bc: Rise of civilization in Mesopotamia and Egypt – Early bronze-age culture in Greece exists – the Aegean peoples

Greece – Bronze age Bronze age civilizations: – Cycladic (> <) – Minoan (> ) – Mycenaean ( )

Greece – Bronze age Middle Bronze Age bc – Early bronze-age peoples replaced by Indo- Europeans (cf. language) Early Greek speakers A fused Hellenic culture dependent on civilization: – Herders, farmers – Metallurgy – Pottery and clothmaking Patrilineal and Patriarchal

Greece – Bronze age Sources: – Heinrich Schliemann ( ) (Troy and Mycenae) – Sir Arthur Evans ( ) (Cnossus)

Greece – Bronze age Minoans – Crete a land of city-states ( ) – 1900: first palace; 1700: second palace – Palace is political, economic, and administrative center; focus of state and religious ceremony

Greece – Bronze age Minoans – Palace economy: redistribution and trade Requires record: WRITING (Linear A) – Art and Architecture Color, painting, and bulls – Eruption of Thera (1628bc)

Greece – Bronze age Mycenaeans – Late Bronze Age – bc – Chiefs evolve into monarchs – Shaft graves shift to tholos tombs – Cretan takeover: 1450bc – 1375bc: Mycenae becomes the dominant center in Greece – Mycenaean palace system, again requires WRITING: Linear B

Greece – Bronze age Mycenaeans – Walled citadels Focus on megaron (long rectangular hall) – Separate small kingdoms – Reach their zenith – In literature, the generations of the heroes (leading up to and including the heroes of the Trojan war) Cf. king lists

Greece – Bronze age Minoan and Mycenaean religion – Gods and goddesses – Honored with processions, music, dance – Propitiated with gifts and sacrifice Animal sacrifice Human sacrifice – Pantheon (be familiar with the big 12!)

Greece – Bronze age Warfare – Wanax – warrior king Heavy armor – Soldiers: large shields, bronze daggers and swords, two spears, bows and arrows – Mycenaean chariot

Greece – Bronze age Decline of bronze age Greece – : devastation – Sea peoples? Dorians? – Greece settles into the “Dark Age” ( bc)

Greek sources and the Bronze age Homeric epics: Iliad and Odyssey (You MUST be familiar with these) Hesiod: – Theogony (to understand religion and tradition of literature for the rest of the Greek material) – Works & days (cf. West’s edition) Herodotus (Finley, 29-31) Thucydides (Finley, )