Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece

• Intro– 1. Roster– 2. Introduction– 3. Syllabus (online/onscreen)– 4. Schedule (online/onscreen)– 5. questions; break?– 6. Greece introduction– 7. Geography– 8. Slides: Franchthi etc.

Beginnings

• History of civilization: how to date?• Definition of “text”• Hunter/gatherer vs. producer/settler• Definition of “culture” • Definition of “civilization”

Beginnings

• Various ages: paleolithic, neolithic, bronze, iron

• The marks of civilization: cities, metals, and WRITING

Ancient Greece

• Evidence for the study of history– Material evidence– Written evidence

Ancient Greece

• Evidence for the study of history– Material evidence• Metal artifacts• Terra cotta artifacts

– Written evidence

Ancient Greece

• Evidence for the study of history– Material evidence• Metal artifacts• Terra cotta artifacts

– Written evidence• Media: clay, stone, metal, papyrus, parchment• Language

Ancient Greece

• Evidence for the study of history– Material evidence• Metal artifacts• Terra cotta artifacts

– Written evidence• Media: clay, stone, metal, papyrus, parchment• Language

– A FRACTION of what once was

Ancient Greece

• Evidence for the study of history– Material evidence• Metal artifacts• Terra cotta artifacts

– Written evidence• Media: clay, stone, metal, papyrus, parchment• Language

– A FRACTION of what once was– Implications?

Ancient Greece

• Sources for the study of Ancient Greece– 3000bc-700bc

• Some Linear B tablets (Late Bronze Age)• Dark Age silence• Oral tradition (cyclic epic) = Homeric literature

– 700bc-480bc• Homer & Hesiod• Archaic poets• Later writers looking backwards (e.g. classical

historiographers, and Xenophon and Plutarch on Sparta)

Ancient Greece

• Sources for the study of Ancient Greece– 480bc-323bc• Historiographers• Drama• Philosophy• Oratory

– 323bc-31bc• Limited historiography• Public record• Literary scholars and academic interest

Ancient Greece

• Greece: the Land.

Ancient Greece

• Greece: the Land.– Hellas– Crete– Anatolia– The Aegean– The size ofAlabama

Ancient Greece

• Greece: the Land.– Mountains vs.arable land– Travel &trade– Climate, soil, & rainfall

Ancient Greece

• Greece: the Land.– Mostly farmers, someherders– Decent living– The pantheonreflects reality

Ancient Greece

• Greece: the Land.– Diet staples– Animal domestication– Always a land of small-scalefarmers

Ancient Greece

• Greece: the Land.– Devotion to one’s own agr.plain– “Ancestral Earth”

Ancient Greece

• Greece: the Land.

“The primary disunifying force throughout Greek history was the perpetual tension between those citizens who had much land and those who had little or none.”

(Pomeroy, et al., A brief history of Ancient Greece (2009), 13)

Ancient GreeceFranchthi

• General Dating:• • Now we can start talking about HISTORY• • Neolithic Period:• • Early Neolithic: ca. 6,000 – ca. 5,000 b.c.• Middle Neolithic: ca. 5,000 – ca. 4,500 b.c.• Late Neolithic: ca. 4,500 – ca. 4,000 b.c.• Final Neolithic: ca. 4,000 – ca. 3,000 b.c.• • Bronze Age: ca. 3,000 – ca. 1,150 b.c.

Ancient GreeceFranchthi

• Earliest Evidence of human habitation in Greece:• -Petralona Cave• -Middle Paleolithic finds in Thessaly• hunter-gatherers typical of the Paleolithic period• Franchthi Cave• -located in the NE Peloponnese near the Argolid Gulf• -finds date ca. 20,000 – 3,000 b.c.• -provides critical evidence for transition from hunting

and gathering to settled farming (the “Neolithic Revolution”).

Ancient GreeceFranchthi

Ancient GreeceFranchthi

Ancient GreeceFranchthi

Ancient GreeceFranchthi

Ancient GreeceFranchthi

Ancient GreeceFranchthi

Ancient GreeceSesklo

• I. Features of Neolithic Period in Greece:• • -Appearance of settled communities• -Domestication of animals and crops• -Permanent buildings• • -Presence of obsidian at Neolithic site at Knossos and at sites in Thessaly and elsewhere

indicate a “network of sea-borne contacts.” (O. Dickinson, The Aegean Bronze Age.)• • II. Features of Neolithic sites• • -most sites were in open positions• -only identifiable permanent site is the farming village• -permanence indicated by building materials and plan of buildings•

Ancient GreeceSesklo

• III. The Farming Economy• • -Wheat, barley, lentils, peas and vetch were grown.• -Livestock included sheep and goats, sometimes cattle and pigs.• • IV. Neolithic Sites in Thessaly in Northern Greece• • -Most intensive development of transition to a more settled way of

life occurred in Thessaly and western Macedonia.• -‘Type’ Sites of Sesklo and Dimini are most important examples • -‘type site’ – a typical representative of a group of culturally

similar sites

Ancient GreeceSesklo

Ancient GreeceSesklo