Part 1: The Aegean World

Chapter 4

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?

1. Historical overviewAegean cultures: Minoan:

• Crete and Thera• 3000-1100 BCE.• Main city: Knossos

Mycenaean: • Mainland Greece• 1900-1100 BCE• Main city: Mycenae

2. Minoan Civilization: GeographyThera today (Santorini)

Effects of the volcanic eruption of 1623 BCE

2. Minoan Civilization: GeographySantorini (Thera) today Crete today

2. Minoan Civilization: Geography

What civilizations did Minoans interact with?

Crete acted as a link between three continents: Asia, Africa and Europe.

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

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.

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)

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

5. Minoan civilization: palaces

Post and lintel constructions Wooden painted inverted columns Walls decorated with frescoes

5. Minoan civilization: palaces

Minoan frescoes

5. Minoan civilization: palaces

Themes: Human figures (performing rituals?) Scenes of nature (marine life, flora)

5. Minoan civilization: houses

Akrotiri, Thera, c. 1650.

6. Minoan religion

Minoan seal Fresco from Knossos, 1500 BCE

Representations of bull-leaping ritual?

6. Minoan religion Modern bull leaping (Spain): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X

6n81X9hpvs&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjTyf2IdcZU

7. Minoan painting

The Minoan canon

“Prince” from Knossos, ca 1600 BCE

7. Minoan painting

Compare the images. In which ways are they similar? In which ways are they different?

7. Minoan painting

Bull leaping, Knossos, ca.1600 BCE

Boxers, Thera, 1650

7. Minoan paintingThe Minoan canon

Egyptian influence in the posture

Narrow waist Attention to anatomical features Representation of movement

8. The Myth of the Minotaur

8. The Myth of the Minotaur

Labrys (double ax) Floor plan of KnossosLabyrinth: house of the Double Axes “Palace of king Minos”

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.

9. Mycenaean Civilization

Militaristic society Cities protected by “cyclopean” walls and

gates.

10. Social structure:

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

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

12. Architecture

Lions Gate, Mycenae, ca. 1300 BCEPost and lintel construction with relieving triangle.

12. Architecture

Treasury of Atreus, Mycenae, 1300-1200 BCEFunerary tholos (circular tomb)

12. Architecture

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.

Homer The Greeks of the Archaic period considered the Mycenaeans

their 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.

Timeline3000BCE 1900BCE 1200BCE 1100BCE 700BCEMinoan

Mycenaean Dark Ages

Archaic Greece

Trojan War

Homer