Ancient Greece

A collection of individual city-states sharing language, religion, and culture, rather than a single unified country. Begins ca. 1750 BCE with theemergence of the Mycenaean period

Mycenaean Period

largest and most powerful, individual warriors/kings establish their own militarized, develop into larger cities

Wanax

Individual warriors/kings

Megaron

A Mycenaean 'great hall' with a central throne room used for civic and religious events.

Citadel

A citadel is a fortified stronghold within or overlooking a city—the place people could defend or retreat to during an attack. At Mycenae, it refers to the walled hilltop center, including the palace and other important buildings.

Shaft Graves

dug deep in the earth, bury deep pits with bodies and cover it with dirt.

Mask of Agamemnon

ca. 1500 BCE, the traditional era of the Trojan Wa "infant shrouds"

Beehive Tombs (Tholos)

popular in 500 BCE, type of tumulus, charachterized by false dome, narrow stoneway

Treasury of Atreus

a.k.a "Tomb of Agamnenon", ca.1,300 BCE. Famous beehive Tomb named after Agamemnon (No evidence he was buried there). Partially covered with earth, but entryway was public and designed to be visible

Acropolis

A elevated, multi-purpose civic-religious space in a Greek city-state, usually housing patron temples.

Ancient Greek Civilization

Mycenaean power collapses ca. 1,200 BCE, due to conflicts + possibly invasions. Greek civilization" reemerges ca. 800 BCE. Continued shared language and religion, but widely varying economic and political systems between city-states • Athens establishes democratic system by 700 BCE

Acropolis of Athens

"Original" started to be built ca. 600 BCE; largely destroyed in Persian invasion of Athens in 480 BCE, Entirely rebuilt starting in 460 BCE; Reconstruction overseen by Phidias (sculptor) and Ictinus and Callicrates (architects)

Athena Parthenos

A 42-foot chryselephantine (gold and ivory) statue of Athena inside the Parthenon. Functioned as a kind of financial reserve. Statue disappeared sometime after 100 CE; possibly destroyed in the 4th century CE when Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire

Entasis

Human eye will perceive a long, straight vertical line as being slightly concave toward the middle. Entasis corrects this perception by making part of the column slightly wider than the rest