Classics 10 Midterm Prep

pls help me get an A!!!

• Polychrome (multi-colored) vase from Late Neolithic Dimini (abstract designs on surface), pottery,

• Its abstract decoration illustrate that this vessel has been enhanced beyond its utilitarian use by this decoration (not strictly utilitarian)

• Complicates common view that early civilizations were primitive—-they clearly cared about giving objects decorative flourish

• Site of Dimini, half a mile away from the sea on fertile plain, evidence of farming/herding (agropastoral)

• Walls of site bring up many questions: are they defensive? Are they retaining the Earth? Why are they concentric?

• A roof may have been built over these walls—-concentric circles have passageways cut in them

• Central space = megaron—implies that something was conceived as being important enough to be protected by these concentric walls; evidence of complex, developed society

• Does this megaron/site reflect central authority figure? Centralized site of stored goods/crops grown?

Bronze Age

• widespread adoption of Bronze as metal

• Technological advancement from previous Neolithic (Stone) age

• Greater circulation of goods/ppl throughout Aegan Sea + Eastern Mediterranean

Megaron

Central Space

Cycladic figure

• Named after string of islands (“Cyclades Islands”)

• Marble, small

• Usually found in burial sites

• Anonymous, female bodies with typically folded arms (but can be in other positions)

• Could it be religious idol?

• Representation of person with whom it was buried?

• Bronze Age

• Found in multiple sites/islands across Aegan sea, evidence of trade!!

Minoan palace in Crete, AKA Palace at Knossos

• Appears labyrinthine

• Suggestive of sophisticated society that have ability/wealth/leisure to construct vast complex

• Center contains megaron, leading to throne room—-similar to Dimini site, complex wall structures protecting inner room—why? Protect goods?

• Evidence of settlements close to site, perhaps signs that this wasn’t a palace… ceremonial space? Uncertain.

• May also suggest hierarchically complex society (someone important could’ve lived here) ←based on evidence from site in Syria, also had similar palatial/labyrinthine structure

• Evidence of bathing rooms, lustral basins (hypothesized to be used for purification)

• Most of these conclusions are projections/theories!!