GREEK CIVILIZATION

INTRODUCTION
• The Greek Civilization Flourished from 3000
B.C. to 30 A.D.
• This period is also known as the Golden Period
of Human Civilization.
• During this time the major developments
which took place were:
– Development of Civic Culture through City States
– Growth of commerce through marine trade
– Grid Iron Pattern based Town Planning system
 TIMELINE OF GREEK CIVILISATION

New Stone Age – small houses or huts with wooden walls around them.
Early Bronze Age – One big house in the middle and small ones around it.
Late Bronze Age – Palaces, big stone tombs, paved roads and bridges, and dams.
Greek Dark age – palaces were burned, roads, bridges, and dams fell apart.
Iron Age – Temples of houses were built.
Classic period – more temples bigger and new designs; Democracy uprised the
development of public places.
Hellenistic Period - Theaters are built, road planning comes into the picture.
 Chronology
• Greek Dark Ages 1100 – 700 BCE
First Olympic Games 776 BCE Collapse of the Palace
economies/return to villages. No monumental architecture, but
beginning of development of the temple form – in perishable materials,
brick, wood, some rubble masonry. Greek myths and Trojan War, great
epic poems written.
• Archaic Period 700 – 480 BCE
Persian Wars 497 -479 BCE
• Classical Period 480 – 323 BCE
Peloponnesian War 421 – 404 BCE Archaic and Classical are Hellenic
periods. Rise of the city-state (polis). Temples (Doric in mainland and
Ionic in Ionia) evolve from megaron of Mycenaeans, intellectual
approach to architecture with emphasis on form.
• Hellenistic Period 323 – 146 BCE (death of Alexander the Great 323
BCE)
Major centers no longer on mainland, but at Ephesos, Alexandria,
Antioch, Pergamon. Greater elaboration of decoration and
development of Corinthian order. More monumental civic buildings.
Greece taken over by the Romans, 146 BCE
 Cultural Identity and Religion
• Town and city were closely •
knit—except in those more
remote parts, like Arcadia
and western Greece, where
there were no towns at all.
• On occasions, the Greek
city-states joined together
to face a common enemy,
notably Persians, but they
were also intermittently in
conflict with each other.
• In addition to grid-plan
towns, the major
contribution to architectural
history in the Archaic Greek •
era was the temple, which
originated as a home for
the gods and was based on
the design of the Greek’s
own houses.
The Greek gods were seen as one
large, harmonious family, though they
did not always get along together. The
Greeks felt the gods inhabited every
rock, brook, and mountain or tree.
They were apt to appear anywhere, and
at any time.
• All potential building sites, even the site
of a new city, were checked by
ceremonial means before any building
was begun. There was a ritual for
every daily undertaking; the Greeks
were very religious.
Because each god has his or her area
of expertise, several would be
consulted and temples built to ensure
the success of the new colony.
 Greek geography
• Greece is mountainous
• Greek communities
mostly developed
independently because of
the mountains nature,
thus they were diverse
developments.
• As a result, there was a lot
of discord within greece.
 Site and Culture
(enabling factors, not determining)
• No floods
• Abundant and diverse resources
– Fish, grain, grapes, olives,
chestnuts, figs
• Many isolated valleys and islands
(natural barriers)
• Sea ≈ moat
• Isolation meant greater security,
so power took a less aggressive
form both externally and
internally
• Alphabet derived from
Phoenician consonant system,
promoted democracy and public
life
• Money (local)
• Decentralized political power
• Ritual blended with competition
to produce a fairly relaxing life
• Tremendously creative society:
drama, poetry, sculpture,
painting, logic, mathematics,
geometry
Origins of Greek Architecture and Greek City Planning

• After the collapse of the • They formed city-states not

Minoan-Mycenaean civilizations
beginning around 1200 to 1100
BCE, the Dorians invaded from •
the North about 1000 BCE and
settled with Sparta as their
capital. They were a militant
tribal people.
• The Ionians, from Asia Minor
and the Greek Islands, were a
trading society.
kingdoms.
Topography aided formation of small
self-sufficient towns with pockets of
farming and sea fishing as main
occupations. No city could dominate
another for very long, and most
cities grew to the point of sending
extra people out of town to found a
colony somewhere else along the
coast.

• By the 8th century (BCE) these • Strong sense of common culture,

two groups merged and called language, myths and gods.
themselves Hellenes.
Everybody else was a • Last of the megalithic architects.
barbarian.
 Crete
• About the time of the Middle Kingdom in Egypt, the seafaring peoples of the Aegean
Sea (Eastern Mediterranean) had learned how to exploit natural resources such as
timber, stone, metallic ores, and clay for pottery to produce distinctive artifacts. With
these and other agricultural products they waged brisk trade with Egypt and other
settlements in the Eastern Mediterranean, where they constructed small fortified
settlements and villages on islands and the coastline. There was probably some
contact with Mesopotamia also.
• Early Cretans worshipped nature deities associated with mountains, trees and
animals, especially snakes. They also practiced bull-jumping, probably an off-shoot
to the Sumerian practice of bull biting, similar to bull fighting in Spain.
• Lions associated with royalty in Egypt and Mesopotamia were appropriated by the
Cretans, though they had no lions on the island. Egyptian artifacts from 18th
Dynasty have been retrieved from the harbor at Kairatos, Crete and 1300 pieces of
Aegean pottery dating from 1370 – 1350 BCE were found in the rubbish heaps of
Akhnaten and wall paintings during Hatshepsut’s reign depict envoys from Crete
bearing characteristic pottery from the island.
• These early peoples are called Minoans, from Minos, an early king or the title,
similar to Pharaoh. It was the later Greeks who created legends associated with
King Minos of Crete.
 Early People of the Aegean Sea: Minoans

• The Minoans established a brilliant

early civilization on the island of
Crete, sustained and protected by
the sea.

• The Minoans traded with Egypt and

Mesopotamia. They acquired
ideas and technology that they
adapted to their own culture.

• The Minoans helped to shape the

first Greek civilization.

• Palace built with wooden roof,

gypsum plaster walls gracefully and
colorfully painted. Large throne
room with light wells, family
apartments in palace.

• Culture disappears with some • Artist’s Rendition of King Minos’ Palace of Knossos on
natural disaster, earthquake? Crete (1700-1400BCE) excavated by Sir Arthur Evans in
early 20th c.
In Greek mythology, the labyrinth of
Palace of
Crete was derived from the elaborate
floor plan of the Palace at Knossos. King Minos
Daedalus the Athenian craftsman, was
the architect and inventor who designed
for King Minos of Crete the labyrinth in
which was imprisoned the Minotaur, a
man-eating monster that was half man
and half bull.
The labyrinth was so skillfully designed
Knossos, Crete,
that no one could escape from the maze ca. 1500 B.C.
or the Minotaur. Daedalus revealed the
secret of the labyrinth only to Ariadne, Excavated by Sir
daughter of Minos, and she aided her Arthur Evans in
lover, the Athenian hero Theseus, to slay
the monster and escape. the early part of
In anger at the escape, Minos imprisoned
the century, the
Daedalus and his son Icarus in the elaborate palace
labyrinth. Although the prisoners could
not find the exit, Daedalus made reminded the
waxwings so that they could both fly out excavator of the
of the maze. Icarus, however, flew too
near the sun; his wings melted, and he legend of Theseus
fell into the sea. Daedalus flew to Sicily,
where he was welcomed by King
and The Minotaur.
Cocalus. Minos later pursued Daedalus
but was killed by the daughters of
Cocalus.
Built several stories high around a
central courtyard, the palace had light
wells to admit light into the lower
reaches of the palace. The palace is
also noted for columns that taper
downward instead of upward, and the
beautiful frescoes on the walls.
 Early People of the Aegean Sea: The Mycenaeans
• The Mycenaeans evolved on
the Greek mainland and
eventually conquered the
Greek mainland and Crete.

• Mycenaean civilization (more

warriors than traders)
dominated the Aegean from
about 1400 B.C. to 1200 B.C.
though they traded with Sicily,
Italy, Egypt, and
Mesopotamia.

• Mycenaeans absorbed
Egyptian and Mesopotamian
influences and passed them
on to later Greeks.

• Fall of Mycenae ushered in

the Greek Dark Ages 1100 –
800 B.C. Mycenae
Crete
Mycenae
 Lion Gate at
Mycenae c.
1250 BCE
Progenitor of the Greek
temple front, the Lion Gate is
also important for its powerful
sense of structure and
sensitivity to the beauty of the
subject.
 The Greek Polis
• A self-governing city-state
• Not large cities
• Plato thought ideal city should have 5,000 citizens
• Athens at its peak had a bit over 100,000 citizens -- about the
size of Waco
 Architectural Layout Of Ancient Greece

•In the earlier years, the Greek city was a maze of wandering unpaved lanes.

•Lacking in drainage and sanitation.

•Assembly place : pnyx/an open air-podium, where citizens consider and discuss
affairs of state .

•Agora: market place, the center of urban activity and irregular in form.

•Distinction between the dwellings: of well-to-do- citizens and less privileged men
The few rooms were grouped about an interior court behind a windowless façade
that faced one of the randomly placed streets.

•Most towns protected by protective walls.

•Temple: For Greeks, this was the symbol of democratic life and the equality of men.
And hence, on temples the refinement of line and beauty of form is seen
and creative energy lavished
AGORA AND ACROPOLIS
 Agora and Acropolis
• Agora
• Gathering place and market
• On the road from the
harbor
• Bordered by temples,
workshops, vendors’ stalls,
statues
• Place for public event
• Acropolis
• Elevated temple district
• Contained various temples
• Architectural “vocabulary”
used well into the 20th c. for
banks, courthouses, town
halls, etc.
• Periodic processions to
Acropolis also celebrated
the polis
Acropolis of Athens
•Supreme example of Greek sanctuary.

•Originally a Late Bronze Age citadel

•Massive fortification

•Western gate flanked by projecting bastion

• Important archaeological sites on Acropolis:

The Parthenon
The Propylaia
The Erechtheion
The Temple of Athena Nike
The Old Temple
The Pandrosion
The Arrephorion
The Chalkotheke
The Brauroneion
The Sanctuary of Zeus Polieus
The Pandion Sanctuary

•Refinement of Parthenon, including the theatre and

acoustics showing a highly sophisticated
understanding of physics and optics.

•Plans of the cities, houses, including the temple

were adapting to needs to get the best of it.
 Parthenon

•Temple was made wider extending towards centre of Acropolis

•Stands on conventional 3 steps above the foundation
•Dimensions at the top step :30.9m*69.5m
•Step height:508mm(too high to use)
•Exterior: Doric columns-1.9m in dia and 10.4high
:Frieze terminates with a triglyph
 Major Cities of Greek Civilization
• Crete
• Mycenae
• Athens
• Olympia
• Delphi
• Miletus