ARCH 210 Bronze Age Greece

Bronze Age Greece

1900-1050 BCE

Bronze Age Civilization around the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas

Two distinct yet interconnected groups over 3 regions

The Minoans

based on island of Crete, and then also the Cycladic Islands in the Aegean Sea; diplomacy through trade

·       Cretans formed large fleets, traded with Egypt, Turkey, Mediterranean roughly 1900-1600 BCE

·       Knossos might have had 50k inhabitants

·       No kings on Crete during period of the great temple

·       Cities without defensive walls—communication towers along coasts to link settlements and protect the island

·       Processions in remote natural sites, performed sacrifices at sacred caves, trees, mountaintops

·       Labyrinth of Knossos, the axis of the central bull court pointed to Mount Juktas

·       Ruins at Gournia: 60 houses, population less than 1k, had a temple, shaped public space, houses densely packed and small, indoor plumbing, flushable toilets

·       Decorated walls with spirals, botanical motifs, entered upper story by external stairs and used lower level as cellar

·       Had ceramic tiles

Labyrinth/Palace of Knossos

Knossos, Crete, Greece, 1450 BCE, Minoan

Regarded at a relatively peaceful culture

One of the first major excavators was Sir Arthur Evans, beginning 1900, responsible for heavy reconstruction of the site

Called ‘Labyrinth’ because they were thinking about the location in relation to the myth of the Minotaur

Others thought that it must be a palace because of its size

Not one single ruler in Knossos—egalitarian culture where there were elites, but probably more urban, less stratified society

Long chambers (magazines) for remains of large ceramic vessels for grains, oils—this place seems to be the place where agricultural stuff was brought to be stored, traded, given out—reminiscent of theocratic socialism of Sumerian culture

Site of communal and ritual celebration

Tiers of rooms stacked on top of one another

Entries on all sides of site

Up on a rise, but is open to the rest of the landscape

Open Central Courtyard

Corridors are long and colonnaded—open to the public

Tapered (table-leg) columns around the complex

·       Maze-like circulation: none of 8 entry points led to central court

·       Hundreds of life size painted young men and women bearing sacrificial offerings lined Corridor of the Procession

Throne Room at Palace of Knossos

Around central courtyard, there is the “Throne Room”, which may have served as a preparatory chamber for priestesses before public ceremonies in the Central Court

Features a chair with a high stone back

Snake Goddess, Knossos, Crete, 1600 BCE, Minoan—found in Throne Room

Queen’s Bathroom at Palace of Knossos

attached to grand staircase that comes to the Hall of the Double Axes

In east wing of palace

Stone and mud brick were plastered and painted with fresco

Motifs of aquatic life—connection to Minoan’s seafaring traditions

Bull-Leaping Toreador Fresco at Palace of Knossos

Acrobats leaping over bull

Bulls also seen in pouring vessels

Mycenaeans

based on mainland Greece, in the area called the Peloponnese; warfare and conquest

·       Demolished all Minoan temples except for Labyrinth

·       Created mostly lithic, solid, hierarchical structures based on military imperatives

·       Mycenae houses were tiny, dark, no windows opening to nature

·       Added cyclopean walls around their city—protected the houses of the elite

·       Heavily fortified hilltop towns created local infighting among feudal lords

·       Each lord built a great hall/megaron

·       Oblong parallelpiped, entered by a colonnaded porch, rose taller than other structures of the palace

·       Grand enough to offer hospitality to the gods

·       Great hall focused on circular heath that was raised up a step and paved with stuccoed clay

Citadel

Mycenae, Greece, 1600-1200 BCE, Mycenaean

On top of a hill

Cyclopean masonry: construction technique using very large, irregularly shaped stones (as if made by giants)

Entering the Lion Gate, you move up with the ramp

Lion Gate at the Citadel

Mycenae, Greece, 1250 BCE, Mycenaean, limestone relief, 9 ½’ high

Large rocks stacked on top of each other

Relief of lion figures sit above lintel, they are on either side of a tapered arch

Entry into lower town of Mycenae is through this gateway

Cantilevered arch—weight is pushed down through the sides

Grave Circle A at the Citadel

a burial enclosed in a circular form—predates fortified city and palace—probably the ancestors of the people who built up Mycenae—lower circuit walls to make it part of the protected area of the Citadel

Grave Circle and Grave Stele, Citadel, Mycenae, Greece, 1500-1300 BCE

Shaft Grave: a deep, narrow pit, often cut into natural rock, used for burials

Has death masks

Circular iconography for burials—cemented with function of burial—cycle of life? Strong geometric form from the natural world—going back to the natural world?

Megaron

Citadel, Mycenae, Greece, 1600-1200 BCE

up the ramp in a more protected area

from the Greek “large room”, square/rectangular room with circular, central hearth and four columns, used for administrative and ritual purposes; accessed through a porch with two columns at entry

Go through front porch, through vestibule, into room with hearth

Treasury of Atreus

Mycenae, Greece, 1250 BCE, Mycenaean

Tholos tomb: a round burial structure of stone, cut into a hillside, with a corbelled ‘false dome’ roof; sometimes called a beehive tomb

Has a side chamber

Dromos: the stone lined passage leading to the tholos chamber

Similar to Newgrange and Stonehenge

Façade would have been decorated with columns, ceramic decoration, color, doors to lower portion that protected the tomb, décor in the relieving arch

Inside, made with precise cut stone instead of cyclopean Dromos—smooth rising from base to top—13m high at apex

Block creating lintel of door is enormous

King becomes part of the landscape—is still prominent in the landscape even in death

Classical Period

480-400 BCE

Classicism

Ancient Greek/Roman architectural forms and features, or the revivals of such in later periods

Orthogonal planning

urban designed based on rectilinear forms, usually with perpendicular intersections

Includes grid plans, Hippodamian planning

Per strigas

a gridding system of land division using a small number of east-west avenues to divide a site into long bands, which were then subdivided using narrow north-south streets

Paestum—in southern Italy, established by Greeks—has per strigas planning

Long, thinly separated avenues, perpendicular streets

Hippodamian planning

Urban development schema using orthogonals devised by Hippodamus of Miletus in 5^th century BCE. Such planning formally employed a grid, but also social theory, in which society was divided into religious, public, private zones

Rigorous geometry deployed: overall grid of squares, which were quartered and then further divided into 6 parts, leaving blocks of 30x30m used for 6 courtyard houses