Mainland [ edit]
- Early Helladic (EH): 3200/3100–2050/2001 BC
- Middle Helladic (MH): 2000/1900–1550 BC
- Late Helladic (LH): 1550–1050 BC
What is the Aegean civilization?
Aegean civilization is a general term for the Bronze Age civilizations of Greece around the Aegean Sea. There are three distinct but communicating and interacting geographic regions covered by this term: Crete, the Cyclades and the Greek mainland. Crete is associated with the Minoan civilization from the Early Bronze Age.
What is the ancient civilization of Crete called?
Aegean civilizations. The Bronze Age civilization of Crete has been called Minoan, after the legendary King Minos of Knossos, which was the chief city of the island throughout early times. The Bronze Age of the Cyclades is known as Cycladic, that of the mainland as Helladic, from Hellas, the Greek name for Greece.
What is Aegean art period?
Aegean Art - Octopus Flask. 2800-100 BC. The Aegean Art period encompasses works from the Grecian area, most notably the Mycenaeans, the art of the Cyclades, and Minoan art. Aegean art encompasses these local arts that were located in or around the Aegean Sea.
What is the purpose of the Aegean Sea?
In the Golden Age of Greece and beyond, the Aegean Sea continued to serve an important function in trade and in war, helping the Greek culture and civilization to flourish until the Romans, like the Sea Peoples before them, employed the waterways for conquest and subdued Greece. Did you like this definition?
What are the name of the 3 ancient Aegean cultures?
Ancient Aegean culturesCycladic.Minoan.Mycenaean.
What is the ancient Aegean?
The Aegean refers to the Aegean Sea, the northern portion of the Mediterranean between Greece and Turkey and extending south to the island of Crete. In art history this designation refers to the era of the Bronze Age, the 3rd and 2nd millennium B.C.E.
Where is ancient Aegean?
Definition. The Aegean Sea lies between the coast of Greece and Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). It contains over 2,000 islands which were settled by the ancient Greeks; the largest among them being Crete (Kriti) and the best known and most often photographed Santorini (Thera or Thira).
What are the two civilizations that make up the Aegean civilization?
Aegean art covers two major pre-Greek civilizations: the Minoans and the Mycenaeans. This unit provides a nice segue between ancient Near Eastern (Mesopotamian and Egyptian) art and Greek art.
What is the Aegean civilization known for?
The area consists of Crete, the Cyclades and some other islands, and the Greek mainland, including the Peloponnese, central Greece, and Thessaly. The first high civilization on European soil, with stately palaces, fine craftsmanship, and writing, developed on the island of Crete.
What is Aegean origin?
According to Professor Christos Doumas, head of the archaeological excavations at Akrotiri, the name Aegean has its origin in the Homeric verb 'aisso' which means 'to jump'. The derivative noun from this verb is 'aix' = the goat, in other words an animal that jumps.
What does Aegean mean in Greek?
There are several explanations about the source of the name “Aegean Sea.” However, the Greek word “Aegean” simply means the “wavy coast.”Traditionally, the sea was known as Archipelago which in English meant the chief sea.
What do Aegean people look like?
Probably many of the ancient inhabitants of Greece and the islands looked as people in Greece do today—active, muscular, and of moderate height. From the evidence of the wall paintings, though these are often idealized, they seem largely to have had dark hair, dark or gray eyes, fine profiles, and slender figures.
Is Aegean a Greek word?
In the north, the Aegean is connected to the Marmara Sea and the Black Sea by the straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus....Aegean SeaEtymologyFrom Greek mythological character AegeusPrimary inflowsInachos, Ilisos, Spercheios, Pineios, Haliacmon, Vardar, Struma, Nestos, Maritsa14 more rows
What civilizations had strong influence on the Aegean cultures?
While Minoan art was the most influential on that of its Aegean neighbors during the Second Palace Period, Mycenaean society gradually gained wealth and power through interactions with other Aegean civilizations.
Who was before the Minoans?
MycenaeansThe primary ancestors of both the Minoans and Mycenaeans were populations from Neolithic Western Anatolia and Greece and the two groups were very closely related to each other, and to modern Greeks. The Minoans and Mycenaeans occupy an important place in Greek, and European, history.
What ethnicity is Aegean island?
GreekAegean Islands, Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, particularly the Cyclades, Sporades, and Dodecanese groups.
What does the word Aegean mean?
Definition of Aegean 1 : of or relating to the arm of the Mediterranean Sea east of Greece. 2 : of or relating to the chiefly Bronze Age civilization of the islands of the Aegean Sea and the countries adjacent to it.
What do Aegean people look like?
Probably many of the ancient inhabitants of Greece and the islands looked as people in Greece do today—active, muscular, and of moderate height. From the evidence of the wall paintings, though these are often idealized, they seem largely to have had dark hair, dark or gray eyes, fine profiles, and slender figures.
What are the Aegean Islands?
SantoriniRhodesSamosMykonosIcariaChiosAegean Islands/Islands
What ethnicity is Aegean island?
GreekAegean Islands, Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, particularly the Cyclades, Sporades, and Dodecanese groups.
Which land has eclipsed all other land in the Aegean?
One land, however, has eclipsed all others in the Aegean by the wealth of its remains of all the prehistoric ages— Crete; and so much so that, for the present, we must regard it as the fountainhead of Aegean civilization, and probably for long its political and social centre.
What are the most representative of the Aegean?
Certain central Aegean islands, Antiparos, Ios, Amorgos, Syros and Siphnos, were all found to be singularly rich in evidence of the Middle-Aegean period. The series of Syran-built graves, containing crouching corpses, is the best and most representative that is known in the Aegean.
What is the Greek portal?
Greece portal. v. t. e. Aegean civilization is a general term for the Bronze Age civilizations of Greece around the Aegean Sea. There are three distinct but communicating and interacting geographic regions covered by this term: Crete, the Cyclades and the Greek mainland.
Where were the tholos tombs found?
In 1890 and 1893, Staes cleared out certain less rich tholos-tombs at Thoricus in Attica; and other graves, either rock-cut "bee-hives" or chambers, were found at Spata and Aphidna in Attica, in Aegina and Salamis, at the Argive Heraeum and Nauplia in the Argolid, near Thebes and Delphi, and not far from the Thessalian Larissa. During the Acropolis excavations in Athens, which terminated in 1888, many potsherds of the Mycenaean style were found; but Olympia had yielded either none, or such as had not been recognized before being thrown away, and the temple site at Delphi produced nothing distinctively Aegean (in dating). The American explorations of the Argive Heraeum, concluded in 1895, also failed to prove that site to have been important in the prehistoric time, though, as was to be expected from its neighbourhood to Mycenae itself, there were traces of occupation in the later Aegean periods.
What happened to the Aegean people when they left?
When they left the Aegean, these populations quickly split into two groups with somewhat different cultures. One group went north along the Danube, while the other took a southerly route along the Mediterranean and reached Iberia. This latter group then arrived in Britain.
When did the Cycladic civilization spread to Crete?
The Cycladic civilization converges with the mainland during the Early Helladic (" Minyan ") period and with Crete in the Middle Minoan period. From c. 1450 BC (Late Helladic, Late Minoan), the Greek Mycenaean civilization spreads to Crete, probably by military conquest. The earlier Aegean farming populations of Neolithic Greece brought agriculture ...
Where were Cretan vases found?
Two Aegean vases were found at Sidon in 1885, and many fragments of Aegean and especially Cypriot pottery have been found during recent excavations of sites in Philistia by the Palestine Fund.
Where is the Aegean Sea?
The Aegean Sea lies between the coast of Greece and Asia Minor ( modern-day Turkey ). It contains over 2,000 islands which were settled by the ancient Greeks; the largest among them being Crete (Kriti) and the best known and most often photographed Santorini ( Thera or Thira). Both of these islands have strong associations with ancient history and Greek mythology in that Crete features significantly in the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur while the destruction of Santorini by a volcano eruption has long been considered a probable source for Plato 's description of Atlantis in his dialogues of Critias and Timaeus.
What civilization grew out of the aftermath of the Dorian invasion?
Greek civilization as recognized today grew out of the aftermath of the Dorian invasion. It is interesting to note, if one believes that the Mycenaean culture survived through Athens, that the Greek colonies of Asia Minor were largely settled by Athenians.
What caused the Mycenaean civilization to collapse?
In about 1200 BCE the Mycenaean civilization collapsed and, while no one cause is universally agreed upon, it is considered very likely that they succumbed to the same mysterious invaders who ravaged Egypt and Anatolia: the Sea Peoples. Whoever the Sea Peoples were, they are documented as harrassing the Egyptians, the Hittites, the Greeks, and the Phoenicians (Canaanites) until finally settling along the coast of Canaan and acquiring the name Philistines. There is no doubt among scholars, based upon primary sources, that the Sea Peoples came to Greece from the south on the Aegean Sea and ravaged the coastline, making incursions on to the mainland and seizing islands.
What is the name of the sea in Greek mythology?
The Aegean Sea features prominently in many of the most famous Greek myths. In ancient times there were various explanations for the name 'Aegean'. It was said to have been named after the Greek town of Aegae, or after Aegea, a queen of the Amazons who died in the sea, or Aigaion, the "sea goat", another name of Briareus, ...
What was the main export of ancient Greece?
Marble, especially, became an important export in trade. This produce, along with that of the mainland, went to make the merchants of ancient Greece wealthy, but the same waters on which they relied for their wealth and livelihood became the avenue for their downfall. Fisherman Fresco, Akrotiri.
Where did the sea people come from?
There is no doubt among scholars, based upon primary sources, that the Sea Peoples came to Greece from the south on the Aegean Sea and ravaged the coastline, making incursions on to the mainland and seizing islands. Remove Ads.
Which island was the most prosperous in trade?
According to Herodotus, the island of Naxos was the most prosperous in trade c. 500 BCE and was easily able to pay tribute to Athens in the form of gold rather than military aid after the island's failed attempt to leave the Delian League in 476 BCE.
How many islands are there in the Aegean?
The Aegean Civilizations. In the Aegean Archipelago, southeast of mainland Greece, a group of 220 islands forms the Cyclades. The name “Cyclades” would translate as circle of islands, forming a circle around the sacred island of Delos.
Who discovered the Minoan civilization?
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, British archaeologist Arthur Evans commenced excavations at Knossos. He discovered a structure that reminded him of the legendary Labyrinth where King Minos had imprisoned the Minotaur. As a result, Evans decided to name the Bronze-Age civilization on Crete “Minoan”, the name persisted ever since, and he regarded it as ‘the cradle of European civilization’.
What are the Minoan palaces in Crete?
Minoan Palaces, so far excavated in Crete are: 1 Knossos, the Minoan palace of Knossos in Crete 2 Phaistos, the Minoan palace of Phaistos in Crete 3 Malia Palace, the Minoan Palace of Malia in eastern Crete 4 Zakros Palace, the Minoan Palace of Zakros in eastern Crete
When did the Cycladic civilization begin?
The ancient Cycladic culture flourished from c. 3300 to 1100 BC. Along with the Minoan civilization of Crete and the Mycenaean of mainland Greece, the Cycladic civilization and art are the main Bronze Age civilizations of Greece.
What was the Cyclades Islands?
The Cyclades Islands, source pinterest.com. The phenomenon of classical Greece spread in the known world, mostly by the conquests of Alexander the Great, the Hellenistic period marked the expansion of Greek art, sciences, philosophy but also its eventual decline and sepsis.
How many people live on the island of Cyclades?
The island until today has maintained its sanctity and has only 14 inhabitants, the caretakers of the archaeological site. According to the Greek mythology, Poseidon, God of the sea, furious at the Cyclades nymphs turned them into islands, positioned to worship god Apollo.
Where are the Cyclades located?
Today Cyclades are from the most popular tourist destinations in Greece, the islands of Santorini, Mykonos, Naxos, Paros, Milos, Sifnos, Syros and Koufonisia. Two of those islands are volcanic namely Santorini and Milos. RECOMMENDED ARTICLE: Masaccio (& The Italian Renaissance): 10 Things You Should Know.
Who were the Mycenaeans?
The Mycenaeans were talented potters whose ceramic styles and decorations reflect their skill and the values of their culture.
Where are the Cyclades located?
The Cyclades are a group of Greek islands in the Aegean Sea that encircle the island of Delos. The islands were known for their white marble, mined during the Greek Bronze Age and throughout Classical history.
How big is the Minoan sculpture?
The so-called Palaikastro Kouros (not to be confused with the stylized male sculptures of ancient Greece), which dates to the Late Minoan period (late fifteenth century BCE), stands at almost 20 inches (50 cm) tall.
Why did the Mycenaeans use corbels?
Therefore, a corbeled (or corbel) arch is employed over doorways to relieve the weight on the lintel.
What are some examples of Cycladic sculptures?
Examples include the terra cotta figurines of bovine animals (possibly oxen or bulls) that date to 2200–2000 BCE, and small, flat sculptures that resemble female figures shaped like violins; these date to the Grotta–Pelos culture, also known as Early Cycladic I (c. 3300–2700 BCE). Like other Cycladic sculptures discovered to date, the purposes of these figurines remain unknown.
What was the Cyclades' high point?
Their geographical location placed them, like the island of Crete, in the center of trade between Greece, Egypt, Asia Minor, and the Near East. The indigenous civilization on the Cyclades reached its high point during the Bronze Age. The islands were later occupied by the Minoans, Mycenaeans, and later the Greeks.
When were Cycladic sculptures discovered?
From the late fourth millennium BCE to the early second millennium BCE, Cycladic sculptures went through a series of stylistic shifts, with their bodily forms varying from geometric to organic. The purpose of these figurines is unknown, although all that have been discovered were located in graves.
What were the Aegean people?
The Aegean peoples were of seafaring cultures from agriculture islands that valued aquatic life and nature.
What is the Aegean art period?
The Aegean Art period encompasses works from the Grecian area (ancient Greece), most notably the Mycenaeans (Early Greeks or the first one who spoke Greek), the art of the Cyclades (an island in the Aegean Sea), and Minoan (Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands) art. Aegean art encompasses these local arts ...
What was the architecture of the Minoan civilization?
The architecture of the Minoan culture was decorative and very advanced, including indoor plumbing. Like the Egyptians, the Minoans celebrated their culture by painting frescoes and murals on their walls depicting courtly processions, acrobatics, and images of daily life.
What was the Minoan queen's art?
The Minoans were lovers of nature, beauty, sport, and luxury and all of these things are represented in their brightly painted frescoes, intricate gold jewelry, ivory carvings, sculptures influenced by nature, and beautifully rendered images on pottery. The architecture of the Minoan culture was decorative ...
What are the Minoans known for?
The Minoans were lovers of nature, beauty, sport, and luxury and all of these things are represented in their brightly painted frescoes, intricate gold jewelry, ivory carvings, sculptures influenced by nature, and beautifully rendered images on pottery.
What did the Mycenaeans focus on?
The Mycenaeans focused heavily on metalworking in their sculptures. Homer is said to be from this area which is why it plays prominently in his works. He spoke of some of the major artworks of these islands that would not be seen for many years until they were rediscovered in the late 19th century.
What is the first Greek sculpture?
From Cycladic artists, we have the first known Greek sculpture, characterized by nearly featureless faces on simplistic oval heads, and often Venus type figurines. The simplicity of Cycladic cultures is often compared to modern sculptors such as Henry Moore. Many of the sculptures feature only a nose, or sometimes the outlines of eyes.
Overview
Evidence
For details of monumental evidence the articles on Crete, Mycenae, Tiryns, Troad, Cyprus, etc., must be consulted. The most representative site explored up to now is Knossos (see Crete) which has yielded not only the most various but the most continuous evidence from the Neolithic age to the twilight of classical civilization. Next in importance come Hissarlik, Mycenae, Phaestus, Hagia Triada, Tiryns, Phylakope, Palaikastro and Gournia.
Aegean Neolithic farmers
A DNA study from 2019 indicates that agriculture was brought to Western Europe by the Aegean populations that are known as "Aegean Neolithic farmers". These Neolithic groups arrived to northern France and Germany already around 5000 BC. About 1000 years later, they arrived in Britain.
When they left the Aegean, these populations quickly split into two groups with somewhat differ…
Periodization
• Early Helladic (EH): 3200/3100–2050/2001 BC
• Middle Helladic (MH): 2000/1900–1550 BC
• Late Helladic (LH): 1550–1050 BC
• Early Minoan (EM): 3200–2160 BC
Commerce
Commerce was practiced to some extent in very early times, as is proved by the distribution of Melian obsidian over all the Aegean area. Cretan vessels appeared to be exported to Melos, Egypt and the Greek mainland. In particular, Melian vases, eventually, found their way to Crete. After 1600 BC, there was very close commerce with Egypt, and Aegean goods found their way to all coasts of the Mediterranean. No traces of currency have come to light, excluding certain axeheads, too slig…
Discovery
The curtain-wall and towers of the Mycenaean citadel, its gate with heraldic lions, and the great "Treasury of Atreus" had borne silent witness for ages before Heinrich Schliemann's time. However, they were regarded as a crude precursor of later Greek culture. It was not until Schliemann's excavations that Mycenaean culture attracted serious scholarly attention.
There had been, however, a good deal of other evidence available before 1876, which, had it bee…
End
The final collapse of the Mycenaean civilisation appears to have occurred about 1200 BC. Iron took the place of bronze, cremation took the place of burial of the dead, and writing was lost.
See also
• Mycenaean Greece
• Prehistory of Southeastern Europe