ARH300 Quiz 1 Flashcards
(37 cards)
Aegean
The advanced civilization that flourished from 2000-1200 B.C. It was an advanced civilization located on the lands surrounding the Aegean Sea
The longer Minoan phase came first and lasted until around 1450 B.C.
Two and a half centuries after 1450 B.C. came the Mycenean phase.
Developed through two major periods: the Minoans and the Mycenaeans.
Minoans
The brilliant Greek civilization that emerged around 2000 B.C. on the 160 mile long island of Crete where artistic and naval breakthroughs are credited.
The Minoans employed the first ships capable of long voyages over the open sea.
Their chief exports were olive oil, wine, metal ware, and magnificent pottery.
Records were written on clay tablets, first in a form of picture writing and later in Linear A.
Operated under a Thalassocracy
Myceneans
Warrior aristocracy of the Greek mainland
Extremely powerful from 1500-1200 BC
Had an alliance of independent city states in the eastern Mediterranean
The palace at Knossos was rebuilt by the Mycenaeans and the center of Aegean civilization shifted to the Greek mainland.
Unclear whether or not there were economic struggles or invaders from the North that caused Mycenae’s rain to come to an end
Sir Arthur Evans
English archaeologist that first brought to light the Minoan civilization.
He excavated and restored sites
Made them around 1901
Between 1900 and 1905 Evans unearthed the ruins of a great palace at Knossos
He uncovered evidence of a sophisticated Bronze Age civilization.
Heinrich Schliemann
Heinrich Schliemann befriended Frank Calvert who had a theory about Troy
At the age of forty-eight Schliemann retired from business to put his persistent dream of ancient Troy to the test.
In 1870 Schliemann began excavations at the legendary site of Troy.
He amassed a fortune in the California gold rush and world-wide trade.
He unearthed nine buried cities, built one on top of another.
Troy
The city of Troy occupied a strategic position on the Hellespont that allowed them to command both sea traffic through the straits and land caravans going between Asia and Europe.
Excavations in the 1930s showed that Troy II had been destroyed about 2200 B.C.
The civilization that was at odds with Mycenae
Led by Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, the wrathful Achaeans besieged Troy for ten long years.
Troy VIIa, clearly destroyed by human violence about 1250 B.C., was probably the one made famous by Homer
polis
The famed Greek political unit
The nucleus of the polis, was the elevated, fortified site - the acropolis - where people could take refuge from attack.
The defensive center became the focus of political and religious life throughout time.
The two areas and the surrounding territory formed the polis.
Polis is from which our word “politics” is derived.
acropolis
The center of the polis where people took refuge from attack.
In time this defensive center took on added significance as the focus of political and religious life.
When commerce revived in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C., a trading center developed below the acropolis.
Where Gods are worshipped
Built upon an area of elevated ground.
oligarchy
Is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with a small number of people.
Means ruled by a few
Arose when the aristocratic council ousted the king and abolished or restricted the popular assembly
This power is often controlled by a few prominent families who typically pass their influence from one generation to the next
Relies on public obedience or oppression to exist.
Athens
Golden Age of Athens 500-400 B.C.
During the seventh century B.C., the council of nobles became supreme in Athens.
Women, slaves, and resident aliens were denied citizenship and had no voice in the government.
In fifth-century Athens it is estimated that one out of every four persons was a slave.
Athens is the place where theater began.
Solon
In 594 B.C. Solon was made sole archon.
Solon instituted middle-of-the-road reforms that have made his name a byword for wise statesmanship.
Very important figure in democracy from the Archaic Period.
His long-range solution to the economic problem was to seek full employment by stimulating trade and industry.
Solon required fathers to teach their sons a trade, granted citizenship to foreign artisans who settled in Athens, and encouraged the intensive production of olive oil for export.
Pericles
For more than thirty years (461-429 B.C.) the great statesman Pericles guided Athenian policy.
In Pericles’ time the actual executive power resided in a board of ten elected generals.
Pericles created the Persian defense fund and the Parthenon.
To enable even the poorest citizen to participate in government, Pericles extended payment to jurors (a panel of 6000 citizens chosen annually by lot) and to members of the council.
Pericles, justified Athenian imperialism on the ground that it brought “freedom” from fear and want to the Greek world.
Sparta
The Spartan system was designed to make every Spartan a professional soldier and to keep him in a constant state of readiness for war.
Sparta had not joined the other Greek cities in trade and colonization but had expanded instead by conquering and enslaving its neighbors.
To guard against revolts by the state slaves (helots), who worked the land for their conquerors, Sparta transformed itself into a militaristic totalitarian state.
The government included two kings, an aristocratic council, and an assembly of all 9000 Spartan citizens.
Trade and travel were prohibited because the city fathers feared that alien ideas might disturb the status quo.
Persian Wars
In 490 B.C. a Persian force about 20,000 strong sailed across the Aegean and debarked on the plain of Marathon near Athens.
Darius’ aim was to force the Athenians to accept the exiled son of Pisistratus as a pro-Persian tyrant.
The Athenian army, half the size of the Persian, won an overwhelming victory, killing 6400 of the foe while losing only 192.
300 Spartans and a few thousand other Greeks held back the Persians for three days at Thermopylae, until a Greek traitor led them over a mountain path to the rear of the Greek position
Persia and Greece were constantly at odds through the fifth century.
Erectheion
The Erechtheion was built to accommodate the religious rituals that the old temple housed.
Construction of the Erechtheion began in 420 B.C.
Pericles initiated its construction.
The temple faces east.
Its entrance is lined with six long Ionic columns.
temple
The most recognizably “Greek” structure is the temple
The earliest shrines were built to honor divinities and were made frommaterials such as a wood and mud brick
Greek temples are often categorized in terms of their ground plan and the way in which the columns are arranged.
In the eighth century B.C.E.Greek architecture beginsto make the move to permanent materials (namely, stone).
During the sixth and fifth centuries B.C.E. Greek city-states invested substantial resources in temple building
doric
During the Archaic period the tenets of the Doric order of architecture in the Greek mainland became firmly established
The doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek architecture
Doric columns stood directly on the flat pavement of a temple without a base
The Parthenon has the Doric design columns
It was most popular in the Archaic Period (750-480 BC) in mainland Greece
ionic
The ionic order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek architecture
The ionic columns are the most thin and small columns out of the three canonic orders.
The ionic capital is characterized by the use of volutes
Ionic columns are most often fluted
It was most popular in the Archaic Period ((750-480 BC) in Ionia.
corinthian
The Corinthian order is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of ancient Greek architecture
Is stated to be the most ornate of the orders
Characterized by slender fluted columns and elaborate capitals decorated with acanthus leaves and scrolls
Its earliest use can be traced back to the Late Classical Period (430-323 BC).
The name “Corinthian” is derived from the ancient Greek city of Corinth
Parthenon
Perhaps the fullest, and most famous, expression of Classical Greek temple architecture is the Periclean Parthenon of Athens
The Parthenon is a temple of the Doric order
Dedicated to Athena
Constructed between 447-432 BCE
Was the focus of the Acropolis building complex.
Stoa
Stoa is a Greek architectural term that describes a covered walkway or colonnade that was usually designed for public use.
Greek city planners came to prefer the stoa as a device for framing the agora (public market place) of a city or town.
Many cities, particularly Athens and Corinth, came to have elaborate and famous stoas.
At Corinth the stoa persisted as an architectural type well into the Roman period
From the Hellenistic period onwards the stoa also lent its name to a philosophical school
theater
The Greek theater was a large, open-air structure used for dramatic performance.
Theaters often took advantage of hillsides and naturally sloping terrain and, in general, utilized the panoramic landscape as the backdrop to the stage itself.
The Greek theater is composed of the seating area (theatron), a circular space for the chorus to perform (orchestra), and the stage (skene).
Since theatrical performances were often linked to sacred festivals, it is not uncommon to find theaters associated directly with sanctuaries.
The Greek theater inspired the Roman version of the theater directly, although the Romans introduced some modifications to the concept of theater architecture
Bouleterion
The Bouleuterion was an important civic building in a Greek city
It was the meeting place of the boule (citizen council) of the city.
These select representatives assembled to handle public affairs and represent the citizenry of the polis.
The bouleuterion generally was a covered, rectilinear building with stepped seating surrounding a central speaker’s well in which an altar was placed.
The city of Priène has a particularly well-preserved example of this civic structure as does the city of Miletus.
Boule
Citizen council Boule replaced Areopagus in the Archaic Period 500 chosen by lot Prepares laws Serve 36 days in 3 shifts
