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Chapter 4

Chapter 4. Part 1: The Aegean World. 1. Historical overview. This chapter studies the origins of Classical Greek culture. You are familiar with the products of Greek culture shown in this slide. But how were things in Greece and the Greek islands 2,000 years before this?.

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Chapter 4

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  1. Chapter 4 Part 1: The Aegean World

  2. 1. Historical overview • This chapter studies the origins of Classical Greek culture. • You are familiar with the products of Greek culture shown in this slide. But how were things in Greece and the Greek islands 2,000 years before this?

  3. 1. Historical overview Aegean cultures: • Minoan: • Crete and Thera • 3000-1100 BCE. • Main city: Knossos • Mycenaean: • Mainland Greece • 1900-1100 BCE • Main city: Mycenae

  4. 2. Minoan Civilization: Geography Thera today (Santorini) Effects of the volcanic eruption of 1623 BCE

  5. 2. Minoan Civilization: Geography Santorini (Thera) today Crete today

  6. 2. Minoan Civilization: Geography • What civilizations did Minoans interact with? • Crete acted as a link between three continents: Asia, Africa and Europe.

  7. 9. Language and writing • We cannot read the language of the Minoans and, therefore, have to rely on the archaeological record to understand this culture. This is why you will find many question marks in this presentation. • Minoans were probably not Greek, but we can’t be sure. • They used three writing systems: • Pictographic writing (Phaistus Disk)- undecipherable. • Linear A: undecipherable script. • Linear B: Greek (used during the Mycenaean domination of Knossos) Phaistus Disc

  8. 3. Minoan Civilization: economy • Economy: • (Maybe) it was a civilization based on sea trade: (thalassocracy). • Look at this fresco from Thera (1500 BCE) depicting a port city.

  9. 4. Minoan Civilization: society • Socio-political structure: • A federation of cities. The most important was Knossos (centralized government?) • There was a king and a nobility, merchants, bureaucracy, laborers, and slaves? • Peaceful society ? (no city walls or weapons)

  10. 5. Minoan civilization: palaces • What are the main features of a Minoan Palace? • Large asymmetric complex built around a central courtyard. (labrys/ labyrinth (maze)) • Residence of the royal family • Religious buildings • Storage areas

  11. 5. Minoan civilization: palaces • Post and lintel constructions • Wooden painted inverted columns • Walls decorated with frescoes

  12. 5. Minoan civilization: palaces • Minoan frescoes

  13. 5. Minoan civilization: palaces Themes: • Human figures (performing rituals?) • Scenes of nature (marine life, flora)

  14. 5. Minoan civilization: houses • Akrotiri, Thera, c. 1650.

  15. 6. Minoan religion Minoan seal Fresco from Knossos, 1500 BCE Representations of bull-leaping ritual?

  16. 6. Minoan religion • Modern bull leaping (Spain): • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6n81X9hpvs&feature=related • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjTyf2IdcZU

  17. 7. Minoan painting The Minoan canon “Prince” from Knossos, ca 1600 BCE

  18. 7. Minoan painting Compare the images. In which ways are they similar? In which ways are they different?

  19. 7. Minoan painting Bull leaping, Knossos, ca.1600 BCE Boxers, Thera, 1650

  20. 7. Minoan painting • The Minoan canon • Egyptian influence in the posture • Narrow waist • Attention to anatomical features • Representation of movement

  21. 8. The Myth of the Minotaur

  22. 8. The Myth of the Minotaur Labrys (double ax) Floor plan of Knossos Labyrinth: house of the Double Axes “Palace of king Minos”

  23. 9. Mycenaean Civilization • It developed in mainland Greece around 1900-1100 BCE. • Important cities were Mycenae, Tiryns and Pilos. • It flourished after the decline of Minoan civilization.

  24. 9. Mycenaean Civilization • Militaristic society • Cities protected by “cyclopean” walls and gates.

  25. 10. Social structure: • Feudal system: King and noblemen offering protection while they exacted material resources from the “non-warriors”.

  26. 11. Religion • They worshiped divinities which became gods in the Greek pantheon: Zeus, Hera, Poseidon… • They also established a cult to their heroes. Funerary mask, 1500 BCE

  27. 12. Architecture Lions Gate, Mycenae, ca. 1300 BCE Post and lintel construction with relieving triangle.

  28. 12. Architecture Treasury of Atreus, Mycenae, 1300-1200 BCE Funerary tholos (circular tomb)

  29. 12. Architecture

  30. 13. Conclusion • Minoan civilization synthesized elements from Egypt and Asia Minor. • Their cultural and artistic knowledge was inherited by the Greeks from the mainland: the Mycenaeans. • After a period of turmoil (Dark Ages), elements of the Mycenaean civilization reemerged in the culture of Archaic Greece.

  31. Homer • The Greeks of the Archaic period considered the Mycenaeanstheir ancestors. • Homer’s epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, narrate the deeds of the Mycenaean heroes. • Although the poems were composed around 700 BCE, the Trojan War Homer narrates happened much earlier (around 1200 BCE). Homer, depicted as a bard, sings his poems to a Greek audience.

  32. Timeline 3000BCE1900BCE 1200BCE 1100BCE 700BCE Minoan Archaic Greece Dark Ages Mycenaean Homer Trojan War

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