Ancient Greece: an Illustrated History

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Ancient Greece








AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY





























































Marshall Cavendish
Reference
New York







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Marshall Cavendish This publication represents the opinions
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Ancient Greece : an illustrated history.
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1. Greece--History--To 146 B.C. 2. Greece--Civilization--To
when this book was sent to press.
146 B.C.
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CONTENTS






Foreword 4 Macedon and Alexander

the Great 154
Bronze Age Greece 6
After Alexander 166
The Minoans 14
The Greek Legacy 174

Mycenae and Troy 26
Glossary 184
The Dark Age and

Greek Expansion 40 Major Historical Figures 187


Sparta and Athens 52 Index 188



From Tyranny to
Democracy 64



Greek Religion 80


The Birth of Drama 88



The Persian Wars 96


The Age of Pericles 110



The Great
Philosophers 122


The Peloponnesian

War 138











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FOREWORD







n the preface to his lyric drama “Hellas” gives them the background needed to interpret
I (1821), written the year before he died, the current circumstances. Such background is sore-
poet Percy Bysshe Shelley declared to readers ly needed, for the past has always served as the
throughout the English-speaking world that: prologue to the future. Beginning with a survey
“We are all Greeks. Our laws, our literature, our of Stone Age culture from the Paleolithic era and
religion, our arts, have their root in Greece.” For a study of the life of the island peoples inhabit-
citizens of the West, Shelley’s statement is as true ing Crete and the Cyclades, this book then
now as it was then. Take, for example, the evi- introduces its readers to the Bronze Age warrior
dence from our everyday language. Nouns in culture populated by the men and women who
common usage such as “democracy,” “tragedy,” were made immortal by the poet Homer in the
“odyssey,” “tyrant,” “theater,” and “poet,” as well Iliad: Agamemnon, Helen, Hector, and Achilles,
as the adjectives “spartan,” “stoic,” “comic,” among others.When the Mycenaean hegemony
“olympic,” “epic,” and “platonic,” testify to the fell apart, there followed a prolonged period of
enduring influence of the Hellenic past. decline, from whose ruins rose a system of city-
At no time in recent history have the peoples states such as those of Sparta, Corinth, Thebes,
of Europe and of Western civilization in general and Athens. These cities in turn created eco-
been as engaged as they are today in areas of the nomic engines, forms of art and architecture,
globe that were involved for centuries in repeat- structures of government, techniques of diplo-
ed conflicts and continuous cultural exchange macy, methods of warfare, and systems of philos-
with the Greeks. Scarcely a day passes in which ophy, religion, and law that are now applied
an event in the Near East, western Asia, or South worldwide. The successes, failures, biases, and
Asia does not make up some aspect of the daily shortcomings of these systems remain of great
news cycle. Looking back to the last century, the consequence to us. The warning made by the
British invasion of Iraq during the Anglo-Iraqi Greek historian Herodotus to his audience in
War in May 1941 marked the first time since the fifth century BCE still pertains: the divinities
Alexander the Great’s siege of the island city Tyre who sanction prosperity will just as frequently
in 333 BCE that armed forces of any nation had destroy it.
marched east from the eastern shores of the Over time, this pan-Hellenic network of
Mediterranean Sea to the Mesopotamian city of Greek-speaking city-states absorbed and was
Babylon. That invasion occurred roughly 70 itself absorbed by neighboring cultures. The
years ago. How little the world changes! network became truly multicultural as it spread
Covering the major periods of Greek histo- westward throughout the Mediterranean region
ry, Ancient Greece:An Illustrated History brings the into Sicily, portions of Italy, southern France,
past alive to a new generation of students and and the Iberian Peninsula,southward into Africa,




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FOREWORD
and eastward as far as the Hindu Kush and artifacts as well as presenting modern views of
northern India—where Alexander the Great ancient sites—sustains the reader’s interest.
made the final thrusts of his military campaign. Instructors will enjoy teaching from this book
Alexander’s death in Babylon in 323 BCE and students who learn from it will come away
marked the beginning of the Hellenistic Age. with a strong sense that “the glory that was
It may indeed be no exaggeration to say that we Greece,” vis-à-vis Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “To
are still living in the Hellenistic Age, because Helen” (1845), is no frothy sentiment of poetic
the Greek cultural diffusion, quickened by hyperbole,but in fact an assertion well worth the
Alexander’s wide reach and later extended by scrutiny and analysis of every generation.
the Romans and the Byzantines, has not yet
ended. Michele Ronnick
Ancient Greece:An Illustrated History has many Michele Ronnick is president of the Classical
merits and is a commendable asset to the 21st- Association of the Middle West and South and a pro-
century classroom. Its prose is clear and well- fessor in the Department of Classical and Modern
paced, and its pagination and format are visually Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Wayne State
attractive. In addition to the neat summations of University, Detroit, MI.
information arranged in time lines and the valu-
able details of geography conveyed by the vol- Additional related information is available in the
ume’s many maps, a positive boon is the book’s 11-volume History of the Ancient and Medieval
illustrations. World, second edition, and the corresponding
The images are large, mostly in color, and online Ancient and Medieval World database at
their varied arrangement—depicting actual www.marshallcavendishdigital.com.




































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BRONZE AGE


GREECE





n the third millennium BCE, a relatively sophisticated culture
TIME LINE
Igrew up on both the Greek mainland and the surrounding

c. 6500 BCE islands. In particular, the inhabitants of the Cyclades began to
Farming produce beautiful works of sculpture.
communities
established on
Greek mainland. Greece consists of mainland Greece on third millennium BCE. In addition to a
the Balkan Peninsula and a mass of knowledge of bronze, the invaders intro-
c. 3000 BCE
islands, large and small, scattered over the duced the swing-plow, which greatly
Distinctive culture
emerges on Aegean Sea and extending as far south as improved farming methods. The period
Cycladic islands Crete in the Mediterranean.The climate between around 2800 and 2600 BCE
in Aegean Sea. is volatile, with extreme fluctuations in (called Early Helladic I) was a time of
temperature, strong winds, and sudden great change. Walled hilltop villages
c. 2800 BCE
downpours of torrential rain. The main appeared, with a chief who ruled over
Invaders with
knowledge of agricultural products are olives, grapes, the surrounding farmland. Trading with
metalwork arrive and figs. In ancient times, both cattle and other communities, some of them over-
on Greek mainland; horses were grazed in the eastern central seas, led to the emergence of a wealthy
beginning of
Early Helladic I regions of mainland Greece. class, who built their houses of stone
period. rather than mud bricks. Along with the
Greece in the Stone Age rise of this merchant class came the
c. 2600 BCE
There is evidence of Stone Age hunters craftsman class and the use of symbols to
Beginning of Early
Helladic II period. living in mainland Greece in the mark goods and seal containers.
Sophisticated Paleolithic Age, and by the seventh mil- During the period called Early
stone settlements lennium BCE it seems that farming Helladic II (c. 2600–2100 BCE), this civ-
built.
communities were established. These ilization peaked, building settlements
c. 2100 BCE early farmers lived in villages of circular surrounded by towering stone walls and
Migrants from mud huts, grew grains, peas, and lentils, containing houses with several rooms.
central Asia and kept animals, such as pigs, cattle, Excavations at Lerna have uncovered
arrive on Greek goats, and sheep, for meat and milk.The what was probably an important civic
mainland to farmers supplemented their diet by building, the massive House of Tiles,
establish Minyan
culture. hunting and fishing and made stone tools which was built two stories high with a
such as axes and chisels.By the end of the balcony on the upper story. The house
c. 1500 BCE
Neolithic Age, people were living in takes its modern name from a number of
Traditional date walled towns, in which some large hous- small, flat tiles of baked clay that were
given for eruption
of volcano on es had a central hall—indicating that found in its ruins. The tiles may have
Greek island of some individuals had now become covered a sloping roof and are thought to
Thera. wealthier than others, or had even be the earliest roof tiles ever discovered.
become chieftains. From 2100 BCE onward, successive
On the mainland, metalworking waves of hostile migrants from central
invaders arrived in the first part of the Asia swept through the Balkan Peninsula


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BRONZE AGE GREECE



























































and destroyed most of the fortified uncovered it in the late 19th century CE This marble
towns. In their place, the invaders built when he was excavating at Orchomenus, sculpture, made on
dwellings of more primitive, one-storied, a city in Boeotia that rose to prominence the island of Keros
houses.The invaders brought with them in the Mycenaean era. Schliemann around 2000 BCE,
a new kind of pottery, which was made named both the pots and the people who depicts a musician
on a wheel and whose angular shapes had produced them Minyan. These playing the harp.
seemed to imitate metal pots. This pot- Minyans spoke an Indo-European lan-
tery was first discovered by the German guage and have since come to be consid-
archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, who ered the first Greeks.


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ANCIENT GREECE











ITALY


Scoglio del
Tonno











SICILY






This gold goblet The invaders eventually integrated
dates to around with the indigenous inhabitants and
2100 BCE, an learned from them seafaring skills that
era known to had been notably lacking. The general
archaeologists level of culture remained low, however,
as the Early for the Minyans. They lived in simple
Helladic II period. “long houses” arranged in villages, and The Cyclades get their name from
some of the villages were enclosed the Greek word kyklos, meaning “circle,”
within walls. because they are arranged roughly in a
circle around the island of Delos, which
Island cultures was considered sacred to the god Apollo
Prior to the Early Helladic I period on (see box, page 11).The islands have been
the Greek mainland, another culture had inhabited since very early times.There is
started to develop on the Cycladic evidence of settlements on the larger
islands. Located in the southwestern islands, such as Kythnos, Mykonos,
Aegean Sea, the Cyclades are a group Naxos, and Milos, dating from the sixth
of more than 30 major islands formed millennium BCE.
from the peaks of mountain ranges sub- These early Neolithic settlers proba-
merged long ago. The islands are rocky bly came from southwestern Anatolia
and volcanic and are rich in miner- (present-day Turkey), and as they were
als such as gold, silver, obsidian, and seafaring people, they settled near the
marble, as well as the ores of lead, iron, coasts on the chosen islands.The settlers
and copper. grew barley and wheat, raised pigs, sheep,


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GREECE IN THE BRONZE AGE BRONZE AGE GREECE














Troy

GREECE
Aegean Sea LESBOS ANATOLIA

Orchomenus Gla



Mycenae
DELOS Miletus
MYKONOS
KYTHNOS PAROS NAXOS
Pylos
CYCLADES
MILOS
THERA

Mediterranean Sea

CRETE




and goats, and caught fish, particularly hard rock that the sculptors obtained
tuna, in the Aegean. There is evidence from Naxos. Details were then often
from some excavated sites that these peo- picked out in red and blue paint.
ple were familiar with copperworking The figurines are extremely distinc-
from around 4000 BCE. tive in their style. To begin with, they
almost always portray women rather than
Cycladic art men.The elongated figures stand upright
From around 3000 BCE, the Cycladic with the head tilted back, while the arms
islanders began to develop a distinct cul- are usually folded across the chest, with
ture of their own. They became expert the left arm above the right.The legs and
at carving small, elegant figurines in feet touch one another.The statues vary
the pure white marble that they found in size enormously; the smallest are only
on the islands of Paros and Naxos. 2 inches (5 cm) tall, while the largest are
Archaeologists have discovered these almost life-size.
statuettes in burial chambers.To achieve Archaeologists are unsure about the
a smooth surface, the figures were purpose of these statuettes. Because
rubbed with emery stones, a dark, very many of these figurines were found in


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ANCIENT GREECE
The early
inhabitants of
Greece were skilled
at metalworking.
This gold
headband from
around 2100 BCE
depicts a group of
warriors.

















tombs, and because the form was usually
female, it is thought they may represent
goddesses who would protect the dead.
They could also have been votive fig-
ures (objects of prayer).
The first modern discoveries
of Cycladic figurines were made
in the 1880s CE. In the early 20th
century CE, the statuettes became
fashionable with art collectors who
admired them for their purity and
simplicity of form.
Cultural developments
This Early Cycladic era is divided
into two separate periods: Early
Cycladic I (c. 3200–2700 BCE) and
Early Cycladic II (c. 2700–2400
BCE), based on significant burial-site
finds at Grotta-Pelos and Keros-Syros,
respectively. Besides the female figurines,
other artifacts found in tombs of this
This ancient Greek Early Cycladic period include a seated
sculpture depicts a male marble figure, depicted playing a
man carrying a calf. musical instrument, plus items such as
Much of Bronze Age bowls, bottles, and vases. Because the
Greek life revolved quality and quantity of goods vary from
around farming. grave to grave, archaeologists believe that


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different levels of society were beginning BRONZE AGE GREECE
to be seen on the Cyclades at this time. DELOS
As well as the beautiful white marble
of the Cyclades, another substance of
The island of Delos figures in many Greek legends.The
benefit to the whole region was obsidi-
very creation of the island was the subject of a myth.
an. This black, glassy volcanic rock was
Poseidon, the god of the sea, together with Zeus, king of
found on Milos and was prized for mak-
the gods, was supposed to have used
ing knives or scraping tools. The
columns made of diamonds to secure
islanders were able to profit by trading
an enormous rock to the sea bed; this
in obsidian.
rock became Delos. Delos was des-
Moving inland tined to be the birthplace of the
moon goddess Artemis and her twin
A significant shift in the population of
brother, the sun god Apollo, who was
the Cyclades took place around 2500
also the god of poetry and music and
BCE.The communities that had been
is often depicted holding a lyre (a form
living in simple villages close to the
of small harp).
coasts to facilitate their fishing activities
started to move into the central parts of
When the Ionians occupied the
the islands and to build citadels,
Cyclades, they designated the
making the people less vulnera-
island of Delos as their reli-
ble to attack. One particular
gious capital, because they
citadel, found at Kastri on
believed themselves to be
Syros, was encircled by a wall
descended from Apollo. By
with six towers.
the eighth century BCE, a large
From around 2000 BCE, the
religious festival dedicated to
grave goods become more
Apollo was being held annually
sophisticated, and it is thought
on Delos.
that the Cycladic islanders may
have had contact with, and been
influenced by, the Minoan civiliza-
tion that was developing on the
nearby island of Crete. In more than results. Ash and volcanic debris
500 tombs excavated near Kastri, rained down on Thera and the sur-
terra-cotta, marble, and gold vessels rounding islands.The explosion was
have been found, along with pins so violent that it actually split Thera
made of bronze and silver that were into several pieces, resulting in one
probably used to fasten garments. large island and several smaller ones;
The fact that these pins are engraved much of the original island disap-
with designs also found in Egypt and peared into the sea. Volcanic debris
mainland Greece suggests that the was lifted high into the atmosphere
Cycladic islanders were regularly trad- and deposited thousand of miles away.
ing with those countries. One town that was devastated by
the eruption was Akrotiri. As the vol-
Volcanic eruption
Some time around 1500 BCE (or possi-
bly earlier; see box, page 12), a volcano Cycladic art is highly distinctive.This
on the southerly island of Thera (present- statuette from around 2600 BCE depicts a
day Santorini) erupted with cataclysmic woman standing with her arms folded.


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ANCIENT GREECE
THE EXPLOSION AT THERA



he volcanic eruption on the island of Thera several decades, this theory was acknowledged to
Twas one of the major events to occur in the be true. However, from the 1970s onward,
Mediterranean region in the second millennium archaeologists increasingly began to dispute the
BCE.Ash from the explosion was thrown so far date, as radiocarbon evidence began to suggest
into the sky that some of it has been found in that the disaster may have occurred much earlier,
Greenland and North America.The eruption around 1625 BCE.
would have caused huge tidal waves to crash into
other Aegean islands, including Crete, which is In 2006, a new theory was proposed in an article
why the aftereffects of the explosion have some- published in the magazine Science. Research by
times been blamed for the downfall of the Danish geologist Walter Friedrich suggested that
Minoan civilization. the eruption occurred between 1627 and 1600
BCE. Friedrich’s conclusion was based on radio-
Traditionally, the date of the Thera eruption has carbon dating of an olive branch that was buried
been placed at around 1500 BCE.That date was in the lava. Friedrich’s theory did not settle the
originally put forward in 1939 because pottery argument, however.While many geologists and
found buried by the eruption on Thera closely archaeologists have supported his claims, others
resembled Egyptian pottery from 1500 BCE. For have questioned his findings.





























The island of
Santorini, called
Thera in ancient
times, is now a
popular tourist
destination.





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BRONZE AGE GREECE
cano exploded, enormous boulders came into that of the Mycenaeans.The Cyclades
crashing down on the town and the were also in contact with the Phoenicians,
sky darkened with ash. Next, tons of who visited the islands to trade for pre-
molten lava engulfed the hapless town, cious metals. By around 1000 BCE, the
which was buried under 16 feet Cycladic culture had completely disap-
(5 m) of debris and so preserved almost peared. Most of the islands had been set-
intact, rather like the later Roman town tled by Ionians from Anatolia, while
of Pompeii. Dorians from northwestern Greece had
occupied Milos and Thera.
Cycladic life Two young boys
When the town of Akrotiri, on Thera, See also: box in this fresco
was eventually excavated, it gave a very The Minoans (page 14) • Mycenae and Troy found in the town
clear picture of what life was like in the (page 26) of Akrotiri.
Cyclades before around 1500 BCE.The
people lived in houses consisting of sev-
eral rooms, arranged on either two or
three stories. The narrow streets of the
town were equipped with a simple
drainage system for removing sewage.
The houses contained wooden furniture
and pottery and, on the ground floor,
large earthenware jars for storing food-
stuffs such as grain, vegetables, dried fish,
wine, and oil.
One room in each house was
arranged as a shrine and decorated with
wall paintings (frescoes) showing land-
scapes with animals, birds, and flowers
such as lilies and crocuses. In other hous-
es excavated at Phylakope on Milos, fres-
coes have been found depicting battles,
festivals, and, in one famous painting, a
school of flying fish.
Because no human remains have
been found at Thera, it is thought that
the inhabitants may have had time to
escape, but where they went is a mystery.
Another mystery linked to Thera is that
of the lost world of Atlantis, which was
the subject of later Greek legends. It has
been thought that these legends may
refer to Thera.

End of Cycladic culture
From around 1500 BCE, the Cyclades
came increasingly under the influence of
the Mycenaeans on mainland Greece,and
Cycladic culture was gradually absorbed


13






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THE


MINOANS





he Minoan culture, which flourished on Crete between around
TIME LINE
T2500 and 1450 BCE, was one of the first major cultures to

c. 3000 BCE emerge in Europe. Much of what is known about the Minoans has
People living in been gained through excavations at Knossos.
Aegean begin to
make bronze by
mixing copper In the spring of 1900 CE,there was great extending over 6 acres (2.4 ha). Evans
and tin; dawn of excitement on the island of Crete in the named it the Palace of Minos (see box,
Minoan culture
on Crete. Mediterranean Sea. British archaeologist page 18). The 1,400 rooms, which
Arthur Evans and his team had just included ceremonial chambers, were
c. 2000 BCE unearthed the first signs of a sophisticat- connected by corridors and staircases,
First large palace ed Bronze Age civilization on the island. and many of the walls were decorated
complexes built at The excavations were centered on a large with elaborate paintings showing young
Knossos and
Phaistos. mound, called Kephala (or Knossos), in men and women and more sea creatures.
the north of the island. Local legend had There were also paintings of bulls, sug-
c. 1700 BCE
it that this was the site of a great palace gesting that the palace was indeed the
Early palaces belonging to the mythical King Minos. source of the Minotaur legend.
destroyed, either
by invaders or by According to the legend, Minos’s palace The site that Evans had discovered
an earthquake; was home to a monster known as the was the center of a Bronze Age culture
later rebuilt. Minotaur, which lived in a labyrinth and that flourished on Crete from around
devoured young men and women as sac- 2500 to 1450 BCE. It was the first
c. 1525 BCE
rificial victims (see box, page 20). sophisticated civilization to develop in
Kings based
at Knossos reach The first finds were fragments of pot- Europe; it was a civilization centered on
height of power. tery decorated with images of sea crea- trade and an efficient bureaucracy, and
tures such as starfish,dolphins,sea urchins, unlike most other early civilizations, it
c. 1500 BCE
and octopuses.The subject matter of the seemed entirely unwarlike. Prior to the
Volcanic eruption
on nearby island designs suggested that the pottery was Minoans (as Evans called these people),
of Thera results in produced by a seagoing people. Even life on Crete had been primitive.
vast quantities of more exciting were the fragments of a
ash showered wall painting that showed a man in a The Neolithic period
over Crete.
loincloth carrying a vase. Similarly Before around 6000 BCE, Crete may
c. 1450 BCE clothed figures had been painted on the have been uninhabited, but in the sixth
Minoan civilization walls of ancient Egyptian tombs, where millennium BCE, groups of people
comes to end. they were identified as the Keftiu (island from Anatolia settled in mainland Greece
Palaces burned
down, possibly people) paying tribute to the pharaoh. It and on Crete, bringing with them a
by Mycenaean seemed that the Cretans and the Keftiu knowledge of farming. These early
invaders. could have been one and the same.
Very soon, evidence of walls, floors, This mosaic depicts the Greek hero Theseus
and columns came to light, indicating killing the Minotaur.According to legend, the
the presence of an enormous palace Minotaur lived in a maze on Crete.


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ANCIENT GREECE
Cretan settlers found a large island (the This ivory figurine was found in the
fifth largest in the Mediterranean) with palace at Knossos. It dates to around the
mountains covered in trees and a large 17th century BCE.
fertile plain in the center.The warm cli-
mate made it a favorable Early Minoan (3000–2000)
area for growing crops. BCE), Middle Minoan
The farmers grew (2000–1600 BCE), and
barley, oats, and Late Minoan (1600–1050
wheat, as well BCE). However, other
as pulses and historians have chosen
peas. They kept to divide Minoan his-
goats, sheep, cattle, and pigs tory into three alternate periods
and supplemented their diet by spanning a shorter time: First Palace
hunting and fishing.They fashioned pots (1900–1700 BCE), Second Palace (1650–
out of clay by hand and made axes and 1540 BCE), and Third Palace (1450–
chisels from stones that they ground to 1200 BCE).
a sharp edge. During the Early Minoan period, the
Minoans started to use bronze to make
The Bronze Age metal tools such as daggers, adzes, and
Around 3000 BCE, people living in double-headed axes. They grew olives
the region of the Aegean discovered and grape vines and traded the resulting
how to make bronze by mixing cop- olive oil and wine with neighboring
per with tin, so beginning the peri- peoples in the Aegean, taking to the sea
od known as the Bronze Age. in ships propelled by a combination of
The people living on Crete in the oars and square sails attached to masts.
early Bronze Age built houses of The Minoans used seals to stamp
mud bricks.The houses had sepa- impressions on wet clay, possibly to seal
rate living rooms, kitchens, and storage jars to guard against theft.
workrooms.The Cretans became They also began building extensive
skilled metalworkers, producing settlements, although few traces of
beautiful jewelry in gold and them now remain.
silver.
At the same time that the The age of the palaces
Minoan civilization was devel- It was in the Middle Minoan
oping on Crete, other cultures period that the Minoans started
were developing in different parts to build great palaces at sites such as
of the Mediterranean region. One cul- Knossos, Phaistos, Mallia, and Zakro.
ture arose on a group of islands in the These palaces consisted of a complex of
Aegean called the Cyclades. The early buildings surrounding a large open court
inhabitants of the Cyclades are most and the main royal residence.The build-
famous for the finely wrought figurines ings, which served as the island’s admin-
that they carved out of stone.The Greek istrative center, included workshops for
mainland saw the rise of another culture, craftsmen and artisans, plus special stor-
the Helladic, which in its later stages was age rooms for oil, wine, grain, and other
known as the Mycenaean civilization. farming produce.
When Arthur Evans was excavating The first palaces have disappeared
the palace at Knossos,he divided Minoan almost completely, but there have been
history up into three main periods: numerous smaller finds from this period.


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THE MINOAN WORLD THE MINOANS




CRETE
Knossos
Mallia
Phaistos Gournia Zakro
Troy
ANATOLIA
Aegean
Sea



GREECE Athens
Mycenae
CYCLADES

CANAAN
Thera
Mediterranean
Sea

CRETE









One of the most striking of these finds is have a small central court that possibly
a type of thin-walled pottery called served as an air and light shaft. Some of
Kamares ware, which was produced on a the houses are shown with window
potter’s wheel and decorated with spirals openings painted bright red, which
and plant motifs in red, orange, yellow, might indicate that the early inhabitants
and white on a blue-black background. of Crete used oiled parchment as an early
This refined pottery was crafted by spe- type of windowpane.
cialized potters both for the domestic
market and for export. The palace at Knossos
A collection of small plaques found Around 1700 BCE, all the Minoan
in the palace at Knossos gives a good palaces were destroyed, either by earth-
idea of the architecture of this period. quakes or invaders. They were all soon
The plaques are made of faience (a fine rebuilt, however. The new palace at
grade of pottery covered with a glaze) Knossos became even more elaborate
and depict city houses built of stone, than its predecessor, with at least three
bound together with large wooden stories and many rooms, including a
beams. All the houses have a least two magnificent throne room. The kings of
floors and a flat roof, and many appear to Knossos reached the peak of their power


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ANCIENT GREECE
THE PALACE OF MINOS



he Palace of Minos excavated by Arthur Evans was a stately throne carved out of gypsum and
Tat Knossos is one of the most fascinating backed by a colorful mural depicting griffins (a
archaeological sites of the ancient world.The site kind of mythical animal). Evans thought that this
covers a vast area around 3 miles (5 km) from room might have been used by the king to
the north coast of Crete, and it is thought that as receive visitors, although others have suggested it
many as 30,000 people lived and worked there might have been used for religious ceremonies.
in its heyday.
The eastern side of the palace contained the
Digging down, Evans discovered a palace five sto- royal apartments.The king’s room was a large
ries high in places, with the floors connected by a double room with a light well at one end and a
grand staircase.The whole palace was skillfully veranda facing east. Motifs of double axes were
designed to let light in and allow air to circu- carved on stone blocks found in the room, and
late—and to protect the occupants from the for this reason it was named the Hall of the
fierce summer heat. In winter, the doors would be Double Axes.The queen’s hall was decorated with
closed so that fireplaces could provide warmth. paintings of dolphins and a dancing girl. It con-
tained a bathroom in one corner, with an earth-
One very grand room was the throne room, enware bathtub that was probably filled by ser-
which opened off the central courtyard. Inside vants.A hole in the floor leading to the drains
made emptying it simple. In an adjoining room,
there was a toilet.This was simply a hole in a
stone slab with a drain beneath that carried the
waste away to a stream.

As well as these grand rooms, there was a multi-
tude of smaller rooms, all connected by corridors
and staircases, together with vast numbers of
underground storage rooms for the goods
brought in from the surrounding countryside.The
palace was a hive of activity. In addition to the
king, queen, and nobles, there were priests, store-
keepers, accountants and scribes, plus many ser-
vants and slaves. In the workshops around the
palace, there were craftspeople such as jewelers,
painters, potters, and carpenters busily plying
their trade to produce the wonderful artifacts of
the Minoan culture.

A pithos, or storage jar, stands amid the excavated
ruins of the palace at Knossos.The palace complex at
Knossos contained many storage rooms that would
have contained pithoi such as this. Pithoi were
usually used as containers for wine and olive oil.





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between around 1550 and 1500 BCE, striking. They were long, narrow base- THE MINOANS
dominating the Aegean region and trad- ment rooms containing rows of enor-
ing extensively with the Greek mainland, mous storage jars called pithoi in which
the Aegean islands, Anatolia (present-day grain, oil, and wine were kept.
Turkey), Egypt, and the Canaanite
Syrian coast. Social structure
The basic plan at Knossos—which Minoan society was divided into several
was echoed in the other palaces—was regions and groups. Presiding over the
that of a large central courtyard sur- country as a whole was the king. Below
rounded by reception halls, living quar- the king were the nobles, who were
ters, workshops, and storerooms. The provincial rulers living in country man-
palace was not protected by fortifica- sions. A group of officials controlled the This artist’s
tions, and its western side looked out operations of the merchants, who con- illustration depicts
over wide agoras (public courtyards used tributed to the region’s wealth through how the palace at
for ceremonies and gatherings). The trade. In particular, merchants supplied Knossos may have
whole palace was supplied with water imported materials such as ivory to the looked.The palace
through an elaborate system of pipes, craftsmen who lived and worked in the was spread over
while drains and conduits removed waste palace. Below these classes came the a large area
water and sewage from the site. The farmers, who produced the agricultural and contained
storerooms at Knossos are particularly goods that were so important for the several floors.






















































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ANCIENT GREECE

THE LEGEND OF THE MINOTAUR

According to Greek mythology, the When the son of Minos was mur-
god Poseidon sent a snow-white bull dered by the king of Athens, Minos
to King Minos of Crete, intending demanded that every nine years
that the king should sacrifice the bull Athens should send seven young
to Poseidon.When Minos refused men and seven young women to
to do this, Poseidon, in revenge, Minos in compensation.These
made Pasiphaë, the wife of Minos young people were fed to the
and queen of Crete, fall in love with Minotaur. Finally, the Athenian hero
the bull.As a result of this affair, she Theseus decided to put an end to
bore a child—a monster with a this practice. He offered himself as
human body and a bull’s head— one of the victims and sailed with
that was called the Minotaur. the others to Crete.Ariadne, the
daughter of Minos, fell in love with
To keep the Minotaur Theseus and offered to help him
safe, Minos commis- escape his fate. She gave him a ball
sioned the architect of thread, which he tied to the
Daedalus to build a entrance to the maze and unwound
labyrinth so complex as he went.At the center of the
that nobody could find maze, he found the Minotaur asleep
the way through it.When and killed him.Then, with the help
the maze was complet- of the thread,Theseus made his
ed, the Minotaur was escape, together with the intended
locked inside. victims he had rescued.






Minoans’ wealth.There was also a class of
scribes, who were kept busy recording
stocks of produce on clay tablets.
The Minoans had a highly developed
religious life, and many priests and
priestesses lived in the palaces. Rather
than building temples to their gods, the
Minoans held religious ceremonies in
their houses, at hilltop shrines, or in
special rooms in the palaces. Many gods
This drinking and goddesses were worshipped, but it
vessel made in the seems that one goddess, the mother (or
shape of a bull’s earth) goddess, was supreme. She watch-
head was found at ed over animals and plants and symbol-
Knossos. It was made ized fertility. Every year, she married a
between around 1900 young god who died when winter came
and 1400 BCE. around but who came back to life in the


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spring. Another important goddess was is Gournia,which stands on a ridge over- THE MINOANS
the snake goddess. Usually portrayed looking the sea around 38 miles (60 km)
holding a snake in each hand, she was east of Knossos. This town, excavated at
seen as the guardian of the house. around the same time as Knossos, con-
Many replicas of bull’s horns carved sisted of a maze of winding streets con-
in stone have been found in Crete, sug- necting small square houses and court-
gesting that the bull played an important yards.The houses were up to three stories
part in some religious cult.There are also and had flat roofs.The first floor usually
several wall paintings that show young contained workshops or storerooms, Athletes are shown
men and women somersaulting over a while the living quarters were on the vaulting over a
charging bull. This sport possibly took second floor, which was reached by an charging bull in this
place in the palace courtyard and may outside staircase. From the tools found in fresco from the east
have been part of a religious ritual. the workshops, it is clear that the town’s wing of the palace
inhabitants included potters, weavers, at Knossos. Experts
Minoan towns and villas metalsmiths, and carpenters, as well as are divided over
Minoan palaces were encircled by large fishermen and farmers. whether bull leaping
cities, which were connected to each A number of villas have also been was a religious
other and to other Cretan towns by excavated on Crete, and they were all ritual or just a
paved roads. One famous Minoan town built to the same plan as the palaces, dangerous sport.
















































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The remains of the Minoan town of Gournia are extremely well albeit on a smaller scale. Some historians
preserved. Like a number of other Minoan towns, Gournia was the believe that these villas, which are all
site of a large palace. located within 7 to 10 miles (11 to 16
km) of each other, were the regional
offices of a central power.
THE PALACES AT PHAISTOS
Minoan art
Knossos was just one of the many locations where The interiors of the palaces were deco-
Minoan palaces were built.Another location was Phaistos, rated with colorful murals, some made
in the south of the island.The site was occupied by up of abstract patterns, others depicting
around 4000 BCE, but the first palace at Phaistos was plants, animals, and people.These paint-
not built until around 2000 BCE, roughly the same time ings are often called frescoes, but true
as the palace at Knossos.What is now known as the frescoes are painted on wet plaster,
“old palace” at Phaistos was destroyed by fire around whereas the Minoan murals were paint-
1700 BCE.Another palace was built in its place. ed on dry plaster walls. The so-called
House of the Frescoes at Knossos is
Like the palace at Knossos, the “new palace” at Phaistos famous for its murals showing a park
was built around a magnificent central courtyard, lined where various flowering plants are com-
with pillars.The royal quarters stood to the north. plemented by high-spouting fountains
Workshops were found to the east, while storerooms and a blue bird. Murals showing dolphins
were located to the west.The west wing also contained and flying fish have been found in sever-
rooms that were used for religious purposes; religious al other places.
figurines were found there and pictures of double The paintings of men and women
axheads (a religious motif) were carved into the walls. provide a clear idea of how the Minoans
Like the other great palaces, the palace at Phaistos was looked and dressed.When taking part in
destroyed around 1450 BCE when the Minoan civiliza- rituals, men often covered their bodies
tion came to an end. with a type of red powder for ceremoni-
al purposes, so the men are often shown


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painted red. Men usually wore their hair THE MINOANS
long, but were clean shaven. In some
MINOAN WRITING
paintings, men are shown wearing just a
leather belt and a loincloth, while in
others they wear a kilt. Women wore The Minoans were one of the earli-
dresses with a long flounced skirt and est peoples to develop writing.
an open bodice that left their breasts From around 2000 BCE onward,
and arms bare, their jewelry consisted they began using a system of hiero-
of rings, bracelets, necklaces, and This fresco probably glyphic or pictographic writing, with
earrings, and they had elaborate hair- shows a Minoan signs in the shape of animals or
styles with strings of beads braided into priestess.The objects.This form of picture writing
their long hair. woman depicted is may have originated through con-
Women often occupy a prominent sometimes known as tact with the Egyptians, who were
position in these paintings. They are La Parisienne also writing in hieroglyphics at this
shown dominating ceremonies from a because she time. Nevertheless, very few of the
place of honor and performing dances in resembles the Minoan signs resemble those of
beautiful costumes. In the famous bull- subjects of paintings the Egyptians.
leaping fresco at Knossos, two young by French artist
women are shown taking equal part with Henri Toulouse- Around 300 years later, the Minoans
a young man in the ceremony. Lautrec. started writing in a simplified linear
script, which used signs to repre-
sent the different syllables in a
word.This script was usually
scratched on clay tablets, although
there is evidence that some kind of
paper (perhaps similar to the
papyrus of the Egyptians) was also
used, together with a form of ink.
Tablets in this script found at
Knossos bear stockkeeping records
of textiles, grain, animals, oils, and
spices.Arthur Evans named this
script Linear A.




No large statues from the Minoan
civilization have survived, but the
pedestals of what were presumably
wooden statues have been preserved. A
number of small statues have been found.
These are made of ivory (sometimes
inlaid with gold), bronze, or faience, and
they depict goddesses or priestesses,pray-
ing figures, acrobats, animals, and a few
tableaus, such as a stable with cattle or a
group of dancers. Occasionally, children
are portrayed.


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ANCIENT GREECE


































This ivory figurine depicts a Minoan acrobat taking part in a The pots and ceramic ware from this
bull-leaping ritual.The figurine was found in the palace at Knossos period show that there was a great tech-
and was made around 1550 BCE. nical and artistic tradition. Motifs from
the plant kingdom, inherited from the
earlier Kamares ware, were mingled with
HUMAN SACRIFICE images of marine creatures.These deco-
rations were painted in dark colors on a
It seems clear that some religious rituals practiced light background.
by the Minoans involved the slaughter of animals as a It is obvious from a number of other
sacrifice to the gods. However, there may have been found items that sections of Minoan
an even more dramatic and sinister practice. In 1979, society were very affluent. Beautiful jew-
a major sanctuary was excavated in the mountains elry was wrought in gold, while elegant
around 4.5 miles (7.2 km) south of Knossos.Among stone vases were made of rock crystal,
the items found were a cult statue and a number of obsidian (a kind of volcanic glass),
votive offerings.What caused the greatest excitement alabaster, or marble. Gold signet rings
was evidence that when the sanctuary was destroyed engraved with scenes of rituals have also
by an earthquake, a human sacrifice had been in been found.
progress.The body of a young man found tied to a low Other important sources of informa-
altar had died as a result of having his throat cut. Other tion on Minoan life are the numerous
finds in Knossos have included children’s bones that seals that have been found. They were
show knife marks, suggesting that child sacrifice took engraved with many designs, including
place—or even cannibalism.There have been further geometric patterns and representations
archaeological indications to support the idea that of human beings and animals.After 2000
these were not isolated instances. BCE, the seals bear a type of writing that
Arthur Evans termed hieroglyphic.Three


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THE MINOANS













































centuries later, this writing was replaced torch. Whatever the reason, the existing This fresco depicts a
by a simplified script called Linear A (see social order was overthrown. Minoan ship
box, page 23). Seals were used for placing Invaders, probably Greek-speaking entering a port.The
a personal or official stamp on objects as Mycenaeans from the mainland, came to Minoans were highly
a signature.They were also used as orna- dominate Crete. They made Knossos, successful traders.
ments and charms. which had suffered relatively little
damage, their administrative center,
The Third Palace period but by 1300 BCE, the town appears
Around the 15th century BCE, the to have been destroyed by unknown
Minoan people suffered a series of disas- attackers. Occupied by the Mycenaeans,
ters.At the beginning of the century, the Crete became a Greek city-state, and
volcano on the island of Thera in the the Minoan civilization that had flour-
Cyclades erupted violently, causing cata- ished for more than 1,000 years was at
strophic destruction over a wide area. an end.
Around 50 years later, many Minoan
centers were destroyed by fire, and the See also:
palaces and other settlements may have Bronze Age Greece (page 6) • Mycenae
been ransacked before being put to the and Troy (page 26)


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MYCENAE


AND TROY





he Mycenaean civilization was the first major culture to
TIME LINE
Tdevelop on the Greek mainland. It flourished from around

c. 3000 BCE 1600 BCE until around 1250 BCE. According to legend, a major
First settlement rival of the Mycenaean kingdoms was the Anatolian city of Troy.
appears at Troy.
c. 1600 BCE Around the same time that the Minoan Most of the knowledge about the
Mycenae becomes civilization was flourishing on Crete, Mycenaeans is of fairly recent origin.
major power another culture was developing on the The obsession of a German archaeolo-
on Greek Greek mainland. This new culture was gist, Heinrich Schliemann (1822–1890),
mainland.
the Mycenaean culture, which was with the story of Troy led to the city of
c. 1450 BCE named after the ancient city of Mycenae, Mycenae being discovered in the 19th
Mycenaeans one of the culture’s centers. The century CE. That Mycenaeans spoke
invade Crete, Mycenaean civilization was not a single Greek was only established in 1952,
making Knossos
administrative kingdom; it consisted of a group of city- when a cryptographer succeeded in de-
center; fortress states united by a common language and ciphering the script on clay tablets that
at Tiryns built way of life. Other great centers of had been found at Pylos and Mycenae
around this Mycenaean society were the cities of (see box, page 30).
time.
Athens,Thebes, Pylos,Tiryns, and Gla.
c. 1275 BCE Unlike the Minoans, the Mycenaeans Schliemann and Homer
Tomb known as were a warlike people. However, they The epic poems the Iliad and the
Treasury of were also successful traders and skillful Odyssey, attributed to the Greek poet
Atreus built craftsmen. Their origins are still a mys- Homer, describe a Greek world in which
at Mycenae.
tery. Some historians believe they were a Agamemnon ruled Mycenae, the para-
Greek-speaking people from the north- mount Greek city, while his brother
c. 1250 BCE
east who migrated to mainland Greece Menelaus was king of Sparta and Pylos
Mycenaean era
comes to end, around 2000 BCE. Other experts, while and Ithaca were ruled by Nestor and
possibly as result accepting that such people did arrive in Odysseus respectively.Both of these epics
of invasion from Greece, remain unconvinced that they were once regarded as complete fiction,
the north.
Troy VIIa, the were the Mycenaeans. Wherever they but historians now accept that they give
Troy of Homer, came from, the Mycenaeans had become some very valuable glimpses into the
destroyed. a major power in the Aegean region by Mycenaean civilization of the 12th cen-
1600 BCE. They were to dominate the tury BCE.
c. 1050 BCE
region for the next 400 years. Around In the late 19th century CE, nothing
Troy VIIb destroyed;
city abandoned 1450 BCE, they invaded Crete, where was known about Greek history prior to
for several they made the city of Knossos their 800 BCE, but Heinrich Schliemann
centuries. administrative center.They also occupied became convinced that the world
many other Aegean islands and their described by Homer was based on fact
commercial empire extended through- and that Troy and Mycenae had really
out the Mediterranean region. existed. In 1876, Schliemann set out to


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MYCENAE AND TROY





















































prove that Mycenae was the city of Dating from the has since been established that the mask
Agamemnon. While excavating a burial 16th century BCE, dates from the 1550s BCE, around 300
ground close to the ruins of Mycenae, this gold death mask years before the time of the Trojan War.
Schliemann came across a tomb contain- was discovered in a
ing many exquisite gold objects, includ- shaft burial at The city of Mycenae
ing a gold death mask—a replica of a Mycenae.At the Like many other cities in the ancient
dead person’s facial features. Schliemann time, it was world, Mycenae had been built on a hill
was convinced he had found the tomb of mistakenly believed to make it easy to defend if attacked. At
the Mycenaean king. “I have looked to have belonged to the top of the hill was the upper city, or
upon the face of Agamemnon,” he the legendary king citadel, which contained the royal palace.
declared triumphantly in a telegram Agamemnon. During the Late Mycenaean period (c.
written to the king of Greece. 1550–1100 BCE), the citadel was sur-
Schliemann was mistaken, however. It rounded by a defensive wall almost half a


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ANCIENT GREECE
mile (805 m) long, 30 feet (9.1 m) high, At the center of the citadel lies the
and at least 20 feet (6.1 m) thick. The palace, which covers an area of 200 by
wall was constructed of massive lime- 180 feet (61 by 55 m). Built on uneven
stone blocks so heavy that later genera- terrain, the palace probably gave the
tions believed the wall must have been impression of being a stepped or terraced
built by the Cyclopes, a mythical race of structure.The entrance to the palace was
one-eyed giants. As a consequence, this approached by a grand staircase, some of
type of masonry is called Cyclopean. which still survives.
On the west side of the fortress, the
Lion Gate, the main gateway into the A royal residence
city, was an impressive structure, crowned The palace was an enormously impor-
by two stone lions standing on their hind tant building. Besides housing the royal
legs on either side of a column.The lions family, it acted as a regional center and a
are thought to have been a symbol of military headquarters. In addition to a
kingship.The gate was closed by a set of throne room, the palace contained halls,
double doors, and the spindle holes for storerooms, and workshops. The core
these doors can still be seen in the room was the megaron—a large rectan-
threshold and the massive lintel. The gular room where the king presided over
doors were hung on the spindle ends that state business. This audience chamber
protruded from the holes. A feature of had a large central hearth where a fire
the gate that seems to bring the ancient was kept burning, and the walls were
city to life is the fact that the threshold painted with colorful scenes of daily life.
still shows traces of wear from the con- The citadel, which contained several
stant passage of chariots and carts. houses as well as the palace, had many
underground vaults and a system of
underground drains. A reliable water
supply was crucial to the city, particular-
HEINRICH SCHLIEMANN ly in time of siege, and Mycenae had a
secret underground reservoir outside the
Heinrich Schliemann, born in January 1822, in Germany, wall of the citadel. Historians believe that
was the son of an impoverished pastor. Schliemann left the water was brought into the citadel by
school at 14 and, after a succession of odd jobs, sailed an underground channel.
for California, where he made a fortune during the In addition to the king and his rela-
Gold Rush. Schliemann next established himself in tives, the citadel housed a number of
Russia, where he became a successful businessman and other noble families, probably in separate
eventually grew rich enough to retire in his late thirties, houses. Most of the houses were spacious
devoting himself to archaeology. and had two stories. In the late 1960s,
a sanctuary containing the remains of
Schliemann had been obsessed with the stories of the terra-cotta figures 2 feet (0.6 m) high
Trojan War since childhood, and he used the fortune was found within the walls.These figures
that he had amassed to pursue his dream. He not only were possibly cult statues.
excavated the cities of Troy and Mycenae, but also the From the remains of a number of
city of Tiryns. Schliemann publicized his discoveries dwellings found on the hillside outside
through books and letters to British newspapers. the citadel, it has been assumed that a
substantial town extended from the foot
Schliemann died in Naples on December 26, 1890, as of the city walls. In times of war, the
the result of an ear infection. population of the town would have
taken refuge within the citadel.


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THE MYCENAEAN CIVILIZATION MYCENAE AND TROY

















Troy
ANATOLIA
THE BALKANS Aegean
Iolkos Sea



Gla
GREECE
Lefkandi
Thebes
Athens
Mycenae
Asine Tiryns

Pylos

Mediterranean
Sea





CRETE







Tombs around 1600 BCE. These tombs were
Two styles of Mycenaean tombs have composed of simple shafts, which were KEY
been discovered. When Schliemann was dug deep into the ground. Each tomb The Mycenaean
excavating Mycenae, he found an exten- contained the bodies of several genera- civilization in
1300 BCE
sive burial site in the northwest corner of tions of royalty, together with their pos-
the citadel. Archaeologists call this loca- sessions.When a tomb was full, it would
tion Grave Circle A.The site contains a be covered with stones and the shaft
number of royal tombs dating from filled with earth. Later, a second circle of


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ANCIENT GREECE
shaft tombs, called Grave Circle B, was Another type of Mycenaean tomb
discovered outside the citadel walls. was the tholos tomb,which was used from
The treasures that were buried with around 1500 BCE.These more elaborate
the deceased in these shaft tombs are a tombs were built by master craftsmen.
testimony to the power and wealth of Schliemann excavated many of these
Mycenae in those days. As well as gold tombs, which appear to have been
death masks, the graves yielded many reserved for the elite. The tholos tomb
richly decorated weapons, including a had a dome-shaped roof, and because of
number of daggers inlaid with gold or the domed appearance, the tombs are
silver. Some of the daggers featured also known as beehive tombs.
entire scenes, including hunts and battles, In a tholos tomb, the burial space
depicted in inlay work. The hilts of the consisted of a round hole in the ground
daggers were often made of wood or covered by a dome of stone blocks.The
bone to which reliefs of hammered gold blocks were laid in such a way that each
were applied. layer protruded inward over the layer
The deceased were not only provid- below, leaving only a small opening
ed with weapons, however.A number of at the top. The opening was then
other splendid objects have also been closed with an apex stone. The stone
found in the burial shafts.These objects blocks were covered with soil and peb-
include vases, dishes, golden rhytons (an bles, and the mound thus created was
ornate type of drinking vessel),beautiful- given an identifying mark or gravestone.
ly crafted diadems, earrings, hairpins, Inside the tomb, the protruding portions
necklaces, and bracelets, as well as hun- of the stone blocks were removed, and
dreds of tiny gold disks, which were the surface was smoothed, creating a
probably used to decorate clothes. conical dome.
Archaeologists have also found a number A tholos tomb was often built into the
of cylinder seals and signet rings. side of a hill and was approached by a



MYCENAEAN WRITING


When archaeologist Arthur Evans was excavat- script represented an unknown language of the
ing the Minoan city of Knossos in the early 20th Minoans, because the signs of Linear B were
century, he unearthed a number of clay tablets clearly based on those of Linear A.
inscribed with three distinct types of script.
Evans called these scripts hieroglyphic (the earli- Ventris tried to establish a phonetic value for
est form), Linear A, and Linear B. Evans never the syllable signs, based on assumptions about
succeeded in deciphering any of these scripts. the place names on the tablets. Starting from
such names as Konoso and Aminiso (Knossos
In 1939, excavations at the Mycenaean palace at and Amnissos),Ventris was able to uncover an
Pylos turned up many more Linear B tablets, archaic form of Greek. In 1953, together with
and thousands more were subsequently found John Chadwick, a specialist in Greek historical
at Mycenae,Tiryns, and Thebes. Using the tablets linguistics,Ventris published his findings.The ini-
from Pylos and Knossos, a cryptographer, tial article was controversial, but the decipher-
Michael Ventris, set about deciphering Linear B ment is now generally accepted—the language
in the 1950s. Most people believed that the of the Mycenaeans was Greek.




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Royal palace with a central MYCENAE AND TROY
The citadel
megaron, a large room built contained
around a central hearth.
spacious homes for
the aristocracy.











A secret tunnel
provided an
escape route
from the citadel
in case of siege.








THE BRONZE AGE CITADEL
AT MYCENAE
Grave Circle A, a
cemetery within
the citadel for
Fortified city gate.
noble burials.


long open corridor called a dromos. One have been found in Tiryns. Probably the This artist’s
particularly splendid tholos tomb discov- most striking features of these buildings illustration depicts
ered in the citadel of Mycenae was are the covered corridors and casements how the citadel of
named the Treasury of Atreus (see box, enclosing impressive galleries. Mycenae may
page 32). The floorplan of one building, have appeared.
Nestor’s Palace at Pylos, has been partic-
Other Mycenaean centers ularly well preserved.Named after one of
Although Mycenae was the mightiest the city’s semimythical kings, Nestor’s
center of the Mycenaean world, other Palace comprised several buildings,
royal fortresses and palaces of similar or which were not protected by massive
even greater size were built at Tiryns, surrounding walls but were probably
Asine, Pylos,Athens,Thebes, and Iolkos. guarded by fortresses along the coast. At
At Tiryns, a fortress was built in three the gateway to the citadel, there was a
stages some time after 1450 BCE. This guardroom, as well as another room
fortress has mighty walls that surpass where records were kept of the daily
those of Mycenae both in height and in business of the palace, produce received
the size of their stone blocks. Several in taxes, and work to be carried out by
palace buildings, including a megaron, officials. At the center of the citadel was


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ANCIENT GREECE
THE TREASURY OF ATREUS



he so-called Treasury of Atreus was a huge, of the dome may well have been decorated with
Thandsome domed grave at Mycenae that bronze rosettes and friezes.
dates from the early 13th century BCE.Atreus
was a mythical king of Mycenae who was involved Using evidence from this and other tombs,
in a bitter and tragic battle with his brother archaeologists have tried to imagine what a royal
Thyestes for the city’s throne.The identity of the funeral would have been like. It probably started
real-life king who was buried in the tomb remains with the funeral procession—consisting of the
a mystery, however. body of the king drawn on a chariot, followed by
priests and mourners—moving slowly along the
One of the most spectacular features of the dromos toward the entrance to the tomb, where
dome is its impressive dromos (entrance passage), great doors of bronze would open to admit the
which measures 120 feet (36.6 m) long and procession. Inside the tomb, the king would be
20 feet (6.1 m) wide.This dromos leads up to a laid to rest on a golden carpet. He would be
majestic doorway that is 30 feet (9.1 m) tall and dressed in his robes of state, and around him
would have been elaborately decorated.A gigantic would be laid his provisions for after death—
stone block weighing 120 tons (108,862 kg) food and wine, together with his weapons.
closes off the top of the entrance. Inside the Animals would be sacrificed, roasted on fires
tomb, the vast dome has a diameter and height of lit within the tomb, and eaten by the mourners.
approximately 45 feet (13.7 m) each and consists Everyone would then have withdrawn, the doors
of 33 layers of stone blocks fitted snugly together. would have been closed, and the entrance would
Remnants of bronze nails suggest that the inside have been filled up.

The dromos
(entrance
passage) of the
Treasury of
Atreus.The
Treasury of
Atreus is one
of the most
splendid
examples of a
tholos tomb.



















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the palace itself, with an open courtyard, MYCENAE AND TROY
anteroom, and state room (megaron), all
surrounded by pantries and storerooms,
together with the queen’s apartments,
which consisted of a smaller megaron, a
boudoir, and a large bathroom with a
terra-cotta bath.
Many clay tablets have been recov-
ered from the palace at Pylos.When the
palace was destroyed by fire around 1200
BCE, the fire may have actually pre-
served the tablets by baking them. The
tablets generally record administrative
matters, listing goods, palace personnel,
and other details of housekeeping. By
doing so,the tablets provide a snapshot of
the palace administration just before the
destruction. In addition, the tablets reveal
much information about Mycenaean
social life.

Mycenaean society
Despite its loose political organization,
the Mycenaean world was surprisingly
united in its social, religious, and linguis-
tic aspects. Each region had its own king
(wanax), who acted as its head. Under
him was the lawagetas (people’s leader),
who was possibly an army commander.
Then there were the telestai, who are help support the royal family, priests, Tiryns, the ruins of
thought to have been wealthy landown- bureaucrats, and the army. which are seen here,
ers. Freemen were referred to as damos. Another section of Mycenaean socie- was one of the
Each class had its own kind of landown- ty included the skilled craftsmen. The most important
ership or tenancy. most important of these were the Mycenaean cities.
Everything was controlled by the bronzesmiths, who made the weapons
palace—the ownership and use of land, for the army. There were also jewellers,
the labor employed, and the products of potters, carpenters, and cabinetmakers,
craftsmen. The tablets that have been who carried out intricate inlay work.
recovered make it clear that most Large-scale textile manufacturing was
Mycenaeans were poor farmers who carried out by spinners and weavers,most
worked on land that was owned by the of whom were women.Many slaves were
king.They grew crops such as barley and employed in Mycenaean society; most of
wheat and kept groves of olive trees to them had been bought in slave markets
produce olive oil. They raised animals in Anatolia.
such as goats and sheep, which provided The Mycenaeans were aggressive and
both meat and wool, and grew flax to warlike, and each king kept his own
make linen. Most of this produce had to standing army, which he had to feed,
be taken to the palace. It was then sold to clothe, and arm.The commanders of the


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ANCIENT GREECE
MYCENAEAN RELIGION



here appear to have
Tbeen many similarities
between the Mycenaean
and Minoan religions, but
the two were not identical.
Still, it seems that both
civilizations did worship a
mother goddess, whose
divine son died at the death
of the old year and was born
again in the spring. Many
Bronze Age paintings show
people making offerings to
this goddess.

Mycenaean tablets also
mention the names of many
gods, including Zeus,Athena,
Artemis, Poseidon, and
Dionysus, who were wor-
shipped by later Greeks.At
Pylos, Poseidon, the sea god
who was the brother of
Zeus, was an important deity
who was depicted in the
form of a horse.The name of
Dionysus, the god of wine, is
also found on Mycenaean
tablets, which suggests that
he too may have been worshipped at this time. These Mycenaean terra-cotta figures date to
between 1400 and 1200 BCE.Archaeologists believe
The Mycenaeans tended not to build temples to that the figures’ flattened headdresses indicate that
their gods. Instead, the people worshipped the they depict goddesses.
gods at small shrines, some of which may have
been located outdoors but most of which were Priests were an important part of Mycenaean
found inside houses. Small terra-cotta idols in the society, and they would have carried out the reli-
shape of female figures have been recovered from gious rituals, which included sacrificing animals to
Mycenae and other places, suggesting that the cult the gods.The priests would also have conducted
of the goddess was widespread. However, larger burials, and it is evident from the grave goods
idols of both female and male figures have also found in royal tombs from the period that the
been found, and it is possible that these idols rep- Mycenaeans believed that their kings would have
resent the Greek gods. a life after death.






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MYCENAE AND TROY
army wore heavy armor made of bronze ed on the edge of Lake Kopaïs in
and leather helmets made fearsome with Boeotia. This fortress had walls 2 miles
the addition of boar’s tusks.The infantry (3.2 km) long and covered a total area of
2
wore tunics of leather and carried 50 acres (202,343 m ). In comparison,
shields, swords, and daggers. Chariots, Mycenae had walls slightly over 0.5 miles
which usually carried two men and were (0.8 km) long encircling an area of 7.5
2
drawn by two horses, played an impor- acres (30,351 m ).The fortress at Gla was
tant role in the army. Chariots were used probably intended to be a central refuge
both to lead charges in battle and to for the entire surrounding area, at a time
carry information back to headquarters. when Mycenaeans all over Greece were
The Mycenaeans came to dominate apparently feeling a threat of invasion.
most of the Aegean area, subjugating This theory is borne out by clay
Knossos on Crete and occupying other tablets found at Pylos, which mention
parts of the island. The influence of the sending sentinels to the coast, drafting
Mycenaeans reached to all corners of soldiers, and hiring rowers. One of the
their world—Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, tablets refers to an unprecedented sacri-
southern Italy, and the Mediterranean fice of 13 golden vases and 10 people,
islands of Sicily, Cyprus, and Sardinia. obviously an attempt to secure the favor
From the 1600s BCE onward, the of the gods at a time of great emergency.
Mycenaeans dominated sea trade in the That the threat was not imaginary
Mediterranean.Trading posts were set up was proved by the widespread destruc-
in southern Italy and Anatolia, and tion that took place after 1250 BCE.
Mycenaean merchants traded goods such This destruction has frequently been
as cloth, pottery, grain, and oil with explained as the result of an invasion by
countries as far away as North Africa, the Dorians, a tribe from the Balkans and
Scandinavia, and the Middle East. This Mycenaean northern Greece.The Dorians are said to
jar is decorated have annihilated the Mycenaean civiliza-
Decline and fall with a picture of tion, but this idea is flawed.There is no
Over the course of the 13th century an octopus. gap in the archaeological record that
BCE, the Mycenaeans carried out a would correspond to the arrival of a
significant amount of construction in huge group of newcomers. On the
their territory. Many new buildings contrary, the overall impression is
were erected, and the fortresses one of continuity after the
of Tiryns, Mycenae, and destruction. Many of the
Athens were expanded former settlements were
and reinforced. Even in rebuilt, and the existing
Pylos, where there Mycenaean culture
were no surrounding simply continued.
walls, the palace was However, the size
modified to make it of the population
less open. Storerooms dropped dramatical-
were enlarged and ly, and society as a
measures were taken to whole descended to a
secure supplies of drink- lower cultural plane.
ing water. So what caused the
At the same time, in central decline if it was not the
Greece, a gigantic fortress was Dorians? The whole eastern
being erected near Gla, which is locat- Mediterranean area was in ferment


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ANCIENT GREECE
have looked. The city was supposed to
have been encircled by a massive wall,
punctuated by towers, and to have been
the site of the Trojan War, the subject of
the Iliad.
Troy did in fact exist more than 5,000
years ago. Bronze Age Troy was situated
at the entrance to the Dardanelles, the
route for ships passing between the
Aegean Sea and the Black Sea.The city
also occupied a crucial position on the
land route between Europe and Asia. For
these reasons,Troy became a prosperous
mercantile city and a center of culture. In
the third and second millennia BCE,
it was the leading city of the region,
with a royal house ruling over the
This cup, which at this time. The Hittites disappeared surrounding farming villages. Troy con-
was found in a from Asia Minor while the Egyptians tinued to prosper until the middle of the
Mycenaean tomb were battling with the Sea Peoples. It 11th century BCE.
on the island of may be that these enemies of Egypt
Rhodes, was made swept through the Mycenaean palaces, or Schliemann’s excavation
between 1350 and there may have been civil war between The true history of Troy was unknown
1300 BCE. the Mycenaean kingdoms. There may in the mid-19th century CE, but several
have been natural disasters, such as earth- archaeologists, including Frank Calvert
quakes,or the administrative and political (1828–1908), were interested in discov-
systems may simply have collapsed as a ering the site of ancient Troy (if it in fact
result of famine or the cutting off of existed). Calvert was an English amateur
trade routes. Whatever the reason, the archaeologist working as a consular offi-
Mycenaean civilization disintegrated, cial in the Dardanelles area. He had read
and the so-called Dark Age dawned a book by Charles Maclaren (published
in Greece. in 1822) that suggested that a hill called
Hissarlik on the Aegean coast of western
Troy Turkey might be the site of the city.
While the Mycenaean culture was Calvert’s brother Frederick, who was also
dominant on the mainland of Greece, a based in the area, bought a farm in 1847
2
city was flourishing in northwestern that extended over 2,000 acres (8 km )
Anatolia. This city was Troy, the and took in part of Mount Hissarlik.
legendary adversary of Greece. As with Over the next few years, Frank made
Mycenae, much of what is known about some exploratory excavations on his
Troy is the result of work carried out by brother’s land.
the archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann. Since his retirement from the world
The legendary city of Troy had fasci- of business around 1860, Heinrich
nated Schliemann since boyhood, when Schliemann had been busy. He had stud-
his father had told him the stories of the ied archaeology, written a book on Troy,
Iliad and the Odyssey (see box, page 38) and traveled widely to visit sites of
and Schliemann had come across an archaeological interest. In 1868, he met
illustration of how the ancient city might Frank Calvert in Turkey and learned of


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MYCENAE AND TROY
the preliminary excavations at Hissarlik. unearthed a cache of golden objects,
However, a full-scale excavation of the including bracelets, earrings, diadems,
site would require considerable financ- and many gold rings. The Schliemanns
ing, which Calvert could not provide. hid the treasure and smuggled it off the
Schliemann could, and he persuaded site and, eventually, out of Turkey.When
Calvert to let him take over the excava- news of the find leaked out, the Turkish
tions on the Calvert half of the Hissarlik. authorities were outraged at the decep-
Schliemann also obtained permission tion. Schliemann had to pay a very heavy
from the Turkish government to dig on fine before he was allowed to continue
the other half of the mound, as long as excavating. Although Schliemann
any discovered treasure was shared with remained convinced he had discovered
the government. the treasure of King Priam, later
Schliemann hired 70 local research established that the
workmen and started digging in golden horde dated from
1871. Very soon, he uncov- more than a thousand years
ered an ancient wall, built before the time of the
of immense boulders, just Trojan War.
15 feet (4.5 m) below Believing that the
the surface.Encouraged Troy of Homer
by this discovery, he would probably lie at
then sank shafts and almost the lowest
dug trenches into the level, Schliemann
hillside. To his amaze- hired more men
ment, he discovered to dig down to that
the remains of not just level. Unfortunately,
one city, but nine cities, since Schliemann un-
each built on the ruins of derstood nothing of
the last. the scientific method of
archaeology, much valu-
The treasure of Priam able evidence was destroyed
Schliemann had certainly discov- during the dig. Later archaeolo-
ered an important archaeological site, gists established that Homer’s Troy
but was it Troy? Although he called him- lay at a much higher level.
self an archaeologist, Schliemann was Neoptolemus is
primarily a treasure hunter. Later, at given the armor of The nine cities
Mycenae, he would hope to unearth his father Achilles The nine levels of Troy start with the first
treasure belonging to Agamemnon. At by the Greek hero Troy, which was a small fortified citadel
the supposed site of Troy, he longed to Odysseus.This vase dating from around 3000 BCE. This
find what he called “the treasure of illustration dates to citadel would have provided a safe
Priam.” Convinced that the Trojan War around the eighth shelter for the surrounding villagers
was grounded in historical fact, century BCE. when danger threatened. The second
Schliemann felt sure that King Priam had level was Troy II, dating from around
hidden his treasures to save them from 2600 BCE. The town was much larger
the Greeks. and became wealthy by trading with the
Around noon on a day in June 1873, Mycenaeans of mainland Greece. The
Schliemann spotted the gleam of gold at evidence points to Troy II being
the base of a wall in the excavations. destroyed by fire, which was why
Schliemann and his wife, Sophia, Schliemann believed it was the Troy of


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ANCIENT GREECE
THE ILIAD AND THE ODYSSEY



he background to the story of the Iliad is the The Iliad ends with the burial of Patroclus and the
Tsiege of Troy by a coalition of Greeks, called return of Hector’s body to his father, King Priam.
Achaeans in the poem.The reason for the war is
that Helen, the beautiful wife of Menelaus, king of The Odyssey, a sequel to the Iliad, deals with the
Sparta, has been abducted by Paris, a Trojan difficult voyage home of one of the Greek
prince.When Menelaus discovers that his wife is princes, Odysseus of Ithaca.The tale opens with
gone, he and his brother Agamemnon, king of the stress that his prolonged absence has caused
Mycenae, call upon the princes of Achaea to assist his household. Since no word has been heard
in punishing Troy and bringing Helen home.A fleet from him for 10 years, Odysseus is assumed to be
is prepared, and the warriors sail for Troy, where dead. Greedy suitors are ruining his property as
a drawn-out siege follows. they court his wife, Penelope.

In the Greek camp outside Troy, a dispute arises Odysseus himself then relates his adventures to
between the Greek prince Achilles and the supreme the king and queen of Scheria.Among other
commander,Agamemnon, who has abused his escapades, Odysseus tells them of his encounter
authority by taking a beautiful slave away from with the man-eating giant Polyphemus and the
Achilles.Achilles, deeply insulted, refuses to con- temptations of the goddess Calypso, who offered
tinue fighting.Without Achilles, the Greeks prove Odysseus immortality.
to be weaker than the Trojans, and disaster
threatens.Achilles finally agrees to allow his The Odyssey ends with the return of Odysseus
friend, Patroclus, to take part in the conflict, and to the island of Ithaca, where the hero discovers
Hector, the Trojan commander, kills Patroclus.The what has been going on in his absence. He kills
grieving Achilles feels compelled to avenge the the suitors who have been besieging his supposed
death of his friend and in turn kills Hector, which widow and is reunited with his wife, son, and aged
heralds the beginning of the end for the Trojans. father.

This Roman
mosaic depicts
Odysseus being
tempted by
the sirens.






















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MYCENAE AND TROY
The walls of the
ancient city of
Troy stand in
northwestern
Anatolia.























Homer.The three succeeding Troys were attacked and taken by the Romans, who
each larger than the one before. then built Troy IX, which became an
Troy VI was heavily influenced by the important trading city until it was
Mycenaeans and attracted many new set- eclipsed by Constantinople in the fourth
tlers. It was destroyed around 1300 BCE, century CE.Around 400 CE,the site was
to be succeeded by what is called Troy finally abandoned and gradually disap-
VIIa. Most archaeologists now believe peared under the mound of Hissarlik,
that this is the Homeric Troy. Fragments until the cities were finally rediscovered
of pottery found at this level indicate that by Schliemann.
the city dates from the mid-13th centu- Schliemann died in 1890, and the
ry BCE. Some human remains, one of work at Hissarlik was carried on by his
which is a human skeleton showing assistant, Wilhelm Dorpfeld, who made
injuries to the head and a broken jaw- further excavations in 1893 and 1894.
bone, have been found in the streets, After that point, nothing more was done
which suggests the city was destroyed by until the 1930s, when the American
war.There is also evidence that Troy VIIa archaeologist Carl Blegen (1887–1971)
was put to the torch.The next city,Troy carried out careful excavations over a
VIIb, also seems to have been destroyed seven-year period, from 1932 to 1938.
by fire.Historians believe this destruction He took many photographs and was
happened around 1050 BCE. instrumental in establishing much of the
chronology of the city. In particular, it
The fall of Troy was Blegen who established that the Troy
After the destruction of Troy VIIb, the of Homeric legend was almost certainly
city seems to have been abandoned for Troy VIIa.
several centuries, but at the start of the
seventh century BCE, the site was reoc- See also:
cupied by Greeks and became known as Bronze Age Greece (page 6) • The Minoans
Ilium. Around 85 BCE, this city was (page 14)


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THE DARK AGE AND


GREEK EXPANSION





fter the fall of the Mycenaean civilization, Greece entered
TIME LINE
Aa period that is now known as the Dark Age. Gradually,

c. 1250 BCE however, Greece emerged from this era, and exiles from the
Influx of Dorian country founded colonies all around the Mediterranean region.
invaders from
north heralds
beginning of By the mid-13th century BCE, the cities grounds declined sharply, while the
end of Mycenaean and palaces of mainland Greece were primitive style of buildings and earthen-
culture.
feeling under threat. New construction ware show that the people lived in great
c. 1100 BCE surrounded many of the cities with poverty. The complete disappearance of
Greece enters strong fortified walls, and measures were the complex society once centered on
Dark Age, period taken to protect underground water sup- the palaces meant that writing skills were
marked by plies, suggesting that imminent invasion also lost.The social organization seems to
poverty and
depopulation. was feared. This fear seems not to have have broken down into small communi-
been misplaced. By the end of the centu- ties, each led by a basileus. In the palace
c. 850 BCE
ry, all the palaces had been burned, and hierarchy, this title had been used for a
Greeks begin the once great Mycenaean civilization subordinate figure, but in the Dark Age,
migrations to
Cyprus, Crete, was in terminal decline. the title referred to a powerful chieftain
Aegean islands, The cause of this collapse was a vast who held independent authority.
and Anatolia. influx of Dorian peoples from central It seems that the population increased
Asia. These aggressive tribesmen swept again in the ninth century BCE, possibly
c. 750 BCE
down mainland Greece from the north, due to a reduction in mortality or an
Beginning of
Archaic period; traveling in ox-drawn covered wagons increase in migration. What is certain is
developments and inspiring terror with their horned that the Greeks began to migrate from
include helmets. By 1100 BCE, all the main the mainland around this time, some to
reintroduction
of writing, Mycenaean centers had fallen to these Cyprus, Crete, and the Aegean islands,
increased trade, invaders, and for the next few centuries, others to Anatolia. Over the course of
and emergence Greece entered what is called the Dark the ninth century,representatives of three
of poleis.
Age, about which very little is known. main dialect groups (see box, page 44)
c. 700 BCE settled in much of the coastal region of
An age of poverty
New style of Anatolia and on the islands off this coast.
poetry emerges Archaeological excavations suggest that Those speaking the Aeolic dialect settled
in works of Greece became impoverished and par- on the island of Lesbos and in the region
Hesiod and tially depopulated in the turbulent peri- from north of the Dardanelles on the
Archilochus;
poems contrast od following the collapse of the northwest coast of Anatolia down to
with epics of Mycenaean culture. The arrival of the
Homer. Dorians resulted in a change in the spo- The Temple of Hera on the island of Samos
ken dialect and in iron being used in in the Aegean Sea. Samos was settled by
preference to bronze, but the number Ionians during the Dark Age and later
and size of both settlements and burial became an important trading center.


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ANCIENT GREECE
Smyrna. Ionians settled
on the central part of
the coast from Smyrna
to Miletus and on the
islands of Chios and
Samos. Dorians set-
tled in the southern
part from Hali-
carnassus down to
the southernmost
coast and on the islands
of Rhodes and Cos. Massilia Alailia
Some of the many set- CORSICA
tlements created on Emporion
these islands and in the
coastal regions devel-
SARDINIA
oped into important Palma
cities—in particular,
Hemeroskopeion
the 12 Ionian settle-
ments called the dodeca
poleis (the 12 cities).
The migration to
the various islands and
to Anatolia stimulated
further exploration,
This terra-cotta and the former trading
figurine, known as routes with the east
the Lefkandi were soon restored. Linking
Centaur, was found large parts of the Mediterranean world
on the island of with the Greek world, these routes had
Euboea.The figurine declined during the Dark Age but
dates to the 10th had never been completely severed.
century BCE and is Toward the end of the ninth century During the Archaic period, increased
a rare relic from the BCE, Greek seafarers could once again contact with the east brought the Greeks
Dark Age. be found in the harbors of northern new ideas regarding pottery, sculpture,
Syria and Phoenicia. architecture, mythology, religion, and the
use of iron and bronze. Most important
The Archaic period of all was the reintroduction of writing,
The restoration of trade with the east this time using an alphabet derived from
had momentous results for the Greeks. Phoenician examples (see box, page 46).
The Greek world emerged from its tem- It is not clear exactly when the Greeks
porary isolation and began to experience started to adapt the Semitic alphabet to
such great changes that a new era is their own needs, but the oldest inscrip-
defined as beginning around 750 BCE. tions using the new alphabet date from
The new world that was developing bore the second half of the eighth century
little resemblance to the old Bronze Age BCE. After that, the use of the alphabet
civilization. Historians call this new era spread rapidly, making it possible to
the Archaic period. record the Iliad and the Odyssey; these


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THE DARK AGE AND GREEK EXPANSION
THE GREEK WORLD IN THE DARK AGE
THE GREEK W ORLD IN THE D ARK A GE

Olbia
Tyras



Black Sea
Phasis
Sinope
THRACE
ANATOLIA

MACEDON Thasos Dardanelles
Pithekoussai LYDIA
Aegean
GREECE Sea LESBOS
CHIOS Smyrna
ATTICA Thebes
Corinth EVVOIA SAMOS Soloi
Mylai Athens Miletus
ARCADIA Argos Halicarnassus Side
SICILY COS
Sparta
RHODES
CYPRUS ASSYRIA
CRETE
Mediterranean Sea

Cyrene




EGYPT Memphis


two epics were almost certainly first least one settlement that was called a KEY
composed in the oral tradition. city (also, confusingly, called a polis), no
The beginning of the Archaic period matter how small or unlike a city it The Greek world in
900 BCE
also saw the emergence of the polis (plu- actually was.
ral: poleis), which was an autonomous Each polis was completely independ- Coast under
political unit covering a small territory, ent. In theory, all the freemen who were Greek influence by
usually averaging between 50 and 100 its citizens organized the political affairs of around 500 BCE
2
square miles (260 km ), with a popula- the polis (from which the term politics is
tion of between 2,500 and 4,500. Some derived) in community assemblies, but in
poleis were larger than this, particularly fact, much of the real power rested with
those of Sparta, Argos, Corinth, Athens, the aristocracy. The basileus, who in the
and Thebes. There were also some very Dark Age had ruled as a king, was
small units covering a territory of no replaced in most cases by magistrates who
2
more than 15 square miles (39 km ) and were elected annually from the ranks of
having a population of only around 250. the nobles. These aristocrats owed their
However large or small, each polis had at dominant position to a combination of


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ANCIENT GREECE
THE GREEK DIALECT GROUPS



ialect was a significant factor in the Greek the Peloponnese and on Cyprus, is closely related
Dmigrations of the ninth century BCE because to Mycenaean Greek, in which the Linear B
people tended to settle into linguistic groups. inscriptions were written.This affinity to Linear
Doric was the dialect of northwest Greece. It B may be due to the fact that there was little
was also spoken along the west of Greece and on migrant influence in the wild and rugged Arcadian
the islands of Crete, Cos, and Rhodes as a result region and that Cyprus had served as a haven
of Dorian conquests between 1200 and 1000 for refugees from the mainland during the time
BCE. Doric spread to Anatolia as Dorian speakers of the invasions.
settled there in the ninth century BCE.
The greatest differences were those between the
The non-Doric dialects were Ionic,Aeolic, and Dorians and the Ionians, two groups who spoke
Arcado-Cyprian. Ionic was the language of Attica different tongues, had different customs and
and the island of Evvoia, while Aeolic was spoken religious practices, and who each built up a
in the northeast and center of mainland Greece. position of power.These differences led to the
Arcado-Cyprian, the dialect spoken in Arcadia on Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE).


This portrait from
a Roman mosaic
is believed to
depict the
poetess Sappho,
who wrote in the
Aeolic dialect.



































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THE DARK AGE AND GREEK EXPANSION
These gold earrings
were found at
Lefkandi on Euboea
and date to the mid-
ninth century BCE.
















power and wealth, which, in the early Greek world. Within the poleis, social
Archaic period,was often expressed in the relations were changing as some citizens
number of horses one owned. After 700 became a great deal richer than others.
BCE, the possession of bronze armor was An elite of aristocrats and wealthy citi-
another indicator of status. zens emerged as a result of trading with This sixth-century-
the east. In several poleis, these small BCE Greek vase
Colonization groups of aristocrats managed to seize painting shows Ajax
The emergence of the poleis took place control and end the community assem- carrying the body of
during a time of rapid population blies, thereby undermining the funda- Achilles.The tales of
growth.This rise in population led to the mental principle of the poleis. As the Homer were not
conquest of sparsely populated regions majority of the citizens still had to work written down until
and to armed conflicts between neigh- to survive, they were often forced into a the Archaic period.
boring poleis in attempts to expand their
territories.The rise also encouraged fur-
ther emigration of Greeks from the
mainland. In the eighth century BCE,
Sparta subjected the region of Laconia
and began the conquest of neighboring
Messenia.Argos extended its power over
the Argolis region, while Athens united
the peninsula of Attica into one polis.
The emigration of many Greeks to set-
tlements on the Mediterranean and
Black Sea coasts led to what is called the
Archaic colonization.
Developments such as colonization
and the subsequent flourishing of trade,
the growing contact between the various
poleis, and the use of writing to record
the laws and decrees of a polis commu-
nity all had an influence on the relations
between the many small states of the










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ANCIENT GREECE
THE GREEK ALPHABETS



he word alphabet comes from the first two consisted of a cuneiform (wedge-shaped) alphabet
Tletters of the Greek alphabet—alpha and of 30 characters. One of the principal variants
beta—and denotes a writing system in which a was the Northwest Semitic alphabet, from which
single character (grapheme) represents a single nearly all alphabetic scripts in use today are
sound (phoneme). Non-alphabetic systems of ultimately descended.A short version, using 22
writing use signs that represent whole words or letters, was being used to write the Phoenician
syllables.The Mesopotamian cuneiform system language from the 11th century BCE, and from
used a combination of word and syllable signs, Phoenicia it spread to neighboring regions in
while Egyptian hieroglyphs used signs that the Middle East.
represented words together with signs that
represented a group of consonants or a single The Greeks adopted this short Phoenician
consonant.Around 1500 BCE, elements of the alphabet in the eighth century BCE and modified
Egyptian hieroglyphic script were adapted to it by adding two or more consonant symbols.
create a script in which each individual sound They also began to use some of the symbols
of a language (apart from vowel sounds) was to represent vowel sounds. For a time, they
represented by a single symbol—that is, an experimented with writing from left to right and
alphabet.This adaptation took place somewhere from right to left, but by around 500 BCE, they
in the Syro-Palestinian region, and the inventors settled on left to right.As the Greek alphabet
of the new script spoke a Semitic language. spread, it was adopted and modified by various
Mediterranean peoples, including the Etruscans,
The new alphabetic script soon took on different the Umbrians, the Oscans, and the Romans.The
forms as its use spread among different peoples last were to be the most influential, since the
over the course of the following centuries. One Roman alphabet, used to write Latin, was
script developed in the 14th and 13th centuries subsequently to be used by all the languages
BCE in the city of Ugarit on the coast of Syria of western Europe.


This tablet found
on the island of
Pylos is inscribed
with Linear B
script.The Greeks
later adopted
the Phoenician
alphabet.


















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THE DARK AGE AND GREEK EXPANSION
The Temple of
Ceres at Paestum.
Paestum, a Greek
colony in southern
Italy, was founded
around the
beginning of
the seventh
century BCE.













dependent relationship with rich land- Greek expansion
holders. Many of the poorer citizens The period of Greek overseas settlement
were exploited, and if they got into debt, that began in the middle of the eighth
they could be sold into slavery. century BCE lasted for more than 200
In Sparta, attempts were made to years. During that time, Greeks founded
resolve the internal tensions by making dozens of settlements on the fringes of
all citizens equal, at the expense of an the Aegean, Mediterranean, and Black
underprivileged group that was excluded seas.The impetus behind this colonizing
from citizenship and left with no rights movement may have originally been
at all. In Athens and Corinth, rivalry trade, but the settlements soon became
between aristocrats led to internal polit- new, independent states. These colonies
ical conflict. In some cases, an aristocrat (not a strictly accurate term for the
would succeed in seizing absolute power settlements) inherited various social and
and set himself up as an all-powerful sov- political aspects—such as religious cults,
ereign—this was a new kind of monarch political organizations, and spoken
that the Greeks called a tyrannis (tyrant). dialect—from their metropolis (parent
After the horrors of the Dark Age,the city), but the colonies themselves were
Archaic period saw the Greeks emerging completely independent entities.
into an era of prosperity that in turn led An overseas polis often started as a
to a flowering of new ideas and artistic trading post (emporion), which then
achievement.The spread of writing had a developed into a settlement as colonists
profound effect on law and government. followed. Trade was certainly the moti-
Because the results of law suits could vating factor in some of the very early
now be recorded, leading to the estab- Greek colonies, such as Al Mina in Syria
lishment of legal codes, any citizen could and Pithekoussai in Italy. Greek traders
appeal against an arbitrary ruling by a were looking to buy iron ore, silver, and
corrupt magistrate and cite legal prece- slaves, while offering wine and olive oil
dent to uphold the appeal. This change in return.A trading post that turned into
led to more rational government and the a colony was called an apoikia, meaning a
rule of law. “settlement elsewhere.” Most apoikiai


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ANCIENT GREECE
started with no more than one or two land to support farming.The Greek pres-
hundred people, to be joined by other ence there became so dominant that the
colonists at a later stage.The new colony area was called Magna Grecia (Great
would always hold its parent metropolis Greece). In the fifth century BCE,
in esteem and would preserve the reli- Syracuse on Sicily became the most
gious customs of the parent city despite highly populated of all Greek cities.
any political differences. The metropolis Other new settlements were situated on
and satellite polis would send official the Aegean islands along the northern
envoys to each other’s religious festivals, coast of the Aegean Sea; on the northern
and the special relationship was some- coast of Anatolia along the Hellespont
times demonstrated by the provision of and the Bosporus; around the Black Sea;
military aid by the parent to the colony. on the north African coast in Cyrenaica
For example, Corinth helped the city of (present-day Libya); and on the south
Syracuse to fight the Athenians during coast of France and the northeastern
the Peloponnesian War, because Syracuse coast of Spain.
was Corinth’s colony. The Greek colonists avoided areas
The Sicilian town of where other peoples had a significant
Syracuse, the site of The spread of settlements presence. These areas included the east-
this ancient Greek Colonies fanned out in all directions ern coast of the Mediterranean, which
theater, was settled from the Greek mainland. Some of the was already well occupied, and the
by exiles from earliest settlements were on Sicily and in northeast African coast, which was large-
Corinth in the southern Italy, where the colonists were ly avoided because of the dominance of
eighth century BCE. attracted by the good harbors and fertile Egypt in the area. The African coast to

















































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THE DARK AGE AND GREEK EXPANSION
Elea, the ruins of
which are shown
here, was a Greek
colony on the
mainland of Italy.
The colony was
founded in the sixth
century BCE.




























the west of Cyrenaica was entirely in the wanted to go and had consulted an ora-
hands of the Phoenicians, as was the cle before setting out to ensure a favor-
western part of Sicily, the whole of able outcome to the voyage. At least,
Sardinia, most of the smaller islands in that is what they were supposed to do.
the western Mediterranean, and a large Colonies that did not possess the text of
part of the Spanish coast. an oracle, or that could not point out
the tomb of an original founder, often
Adventurous colonists produced forgeries in order to ensure
Why the Greek colonists wanted to leave their standing.
the mother country is not completely When the immigrants disembarked at
clear.The theory that they were escaping their destination, the first thing they did
overpopulation on the mainland has was to drive away the native population,
been largely discredited, but they may if there was one.It is not known whether
have been fleeing from an unsatisfactory it was common practice to subdue the
political situation at home, or seeking original inhabitants and bind them in
land of their own,or simply searching for servitude to the Greeks, but this
adventure. When a group of emigrants undoubtedly happened from time to
boarded a ship or—as some sources time. The second task was to find a site
imply—were taken aboard forcibly, the where the new city could be built and
people were already well prepared for divide the surrounding land equally
their enterprise. They knew where they among the colonists.This practice served


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