Early Greece and the Bronze Age

1. Early Greece and the Bronze Age Ancient Greece

2. Greece – Bronze age • Origins of civilization • Prehistory • History

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

11. Greece – Bronze age • Major periods of Greek history: • Ancient history • Neolithic 5000-2500 • Bronze age 2500-1100 • Dark age / Iron age 1100-700 • Archaic Period 700-500 • Classical Period 500-350 • Hellenistic Period 350-150 • Roman Period 150bc – 31bc

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

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

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

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

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

17. Greece – Bronze age • 3 ages we deal with in ancient history: • Neolithic ( = new stone age) • ~ 5000-2500 bc • Bronze • Iron

18. Greece – Bronze age • 3 ages we deal with in ancient history: • Neolithic ( = new stone age) • ~ 5000-2500 bc • Bronze • Iron

19. Greece – Bronze age • 3 ages we deal with in ancient history: • Neolithic ( = new stone age) • ~ 5000-2500 bc • Bronze • Technological advance in metallurgy • Iron

20. Greece – Bronze age • 3 ages we deal with in ancient history: • Neolithic ( = new stone age) • ~ 5000-2500 bc • Bronze • Technological advance in metallurgy • Lasts till the late second to early first millennium • Iron

21. Greece – Bronze age • 3 ages we deal with in ancient history: • Neolithic ( = new stone age) • ~ 5000-2500 bc • Bronze • Technological advance in metallurgy • Lasts till the late second to early first millennium • Iron • Another technological advance in metallurgy

22. Greece – Bronze age • 3 ages we deal with in ancient history: • Neolithic ( = new stone age) • ~ 5000-2500 bc • Bronze • Technological advance in metallurgy • Lasts till the late second to early first millennium • Iron • Another technological advance in metallurgy • Names based on materials in common use – assume overlap

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

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

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

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

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

28. Greece – Bronze age • Early Bronze Age • 3000-2000bc • Crete and mainland Greece: civilization rises because of contact with palace-kingdoms of the East • 4th millennium bc: Rise of civilization in Mesopotamia and Egypt

29. Greece – Bronze age • Early Bronze Age • 3000-2000bc • Crete and mainland Greece: civilization rises because of contact with palace-kingdoms of the East • 4th millennium bc: Rise of civilization in Mesopotamia and Egypt • Early bronze-age culture in Greece exists – the Aegean peoples

30. Greece – Bronze age • Bronze age civilizations: • Cycladic (>2200-1800<) • Minoan (>1900-1600) • Mycenaean (1600-1100)

31. Greece – Bronze age • Middle Bronze Age 2000-1600bc • Early bronze-age peoples replaced by Indo-Europeans (cf. language) • Early Greek speakers • A fused Hellenic culture dependent on civilization: • Herders, farmers • Metallurgy • Pottery and clothmaking • Patrilineal and Patriarchal

32. Greece – Bronze age • Sources: • Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890) (Troy and Mycenae) • Sir Arthur Evans (1851-1941) (Cnossus)

33. Greece – Bronze age • Minoans • Crete a land of city-states (3000-1900) • 1900: first palace; 1700: second palace • Palace is political, economic, and administrative center; focus of state and religious ceremony

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

35. Greece – Bronze age • Mycenaeans • Late Bronze Age – 1600-1100bc • Chiefs evolve into monarchs • Shaft graves shift to tholos tombs • Cretan takeover: 1450bc • 1375bc: Mycenae becomes the dominant center in Greece • Mycenaean palace system, again requires WRITING: Linear B

36. Greece – Bronze age • Mycenaeans • Walled citadels • Focus on megaron (long rectangular hall) • Separate small kingdoms • Reach their zenith 1400-1200 • In literature, the generations of the heroes (leading up to and including the heroes of the Trojan war) • Cf. king lists

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

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

39. Greece – Bronze age • Decline of bronze age Greece • 1200-1100 : devastation • Sea peoples? Dorians? • Greece settles into the “Dark Age” (1100-700bc)

40. Greek sources and the Bronze age • Homeric epics: Iliad and Odyssey (You MUST be familiar with these) • Hesiod: • Theogony(to understand religion and tradition of literature for the rest of the Greek material) • Works & days 109-201 (cf. West’s edition) • Herodotus (Finley, 29-31) • Thucydides (Finley, 218-225)