Myceneaen and Dark Ages

Ahhiyawa

Name of the land referred to in the Hittite archives, which some scholars think corresponds to the Greek “Archaeans”, the name by which Homer frequently refers to the Greeks

Anatolia

Region in northern Asia Minor in which Troy was located

Basileus

The classical Greek word for “king”

Bronze Age

The period of Greek history extending from the appearance of bronze technology in the Agean basin (3000BC - 1100BC)

Carl Blegan

Archaeologist (1887-1971); excavated at Troy and Pylos

Crete

Large island to the south of Greece and home of the Bronze Age Minoan civilization

Cyclades

Islands in the eastern Mediterranean, which are an continuation of the mountain range running in a slight arc from Greece to the coast of Asia Minor; identified with a cultural period of how the Bronze Age often referred to as Cycladic

Cyclopean

Term given to the construction of the walls at Mycenae, which are built from stones weighing many tons and so precisely fitted together, without the use of mortar, that Greek tradition ascribed their construction to the giant Cyclopes

Franchthi Cave

Cave in southwestern Greece, inhabited almost continuously from 20,000 to 3000BC, preserving evidence of the first complex societies in Greece in the early Bronze Age

Heinrich Schliemann

Founder of modern archeology (1822-1890); conducted excavations at Troy, Tiryns, and Mycenae

Hellas

The Greek name for Greece

Hittites

Near Easter peoples who established a vast empire that had contact with Egypt, Troy and Greece; supplied valuable information about the nature of those contacts and relationships

Indo-Europeans

A family of languages spoken from India in the East to Europe in the west; includes Greek, Sanskrit, Latin, Iranian, Slavic, Celtic, and Germanic languages

Knossos

Chief palatial complex on Crete during the Minoan period; king was Minos

Labrys/labyrinth

“Double headed axe”; tools found on Crete and may be behind the story for the “labyrinth”, a maze used to house the Minotaur.

Lawagetas

Name for the second important figure (second to the wanax); translates as “leader of the people”

Linear A

Name given to the Bronze Age script used by the people on Crete (undeciphered)

Linear B

Name given to the Bronze Age script by the Mycenaeans; it was found to be an early form of Greek

Luwian

A fielder of Hittite which helped scholars translate between Greeks of the Mycenaean period and Hittites

Megaron

Large rectangular building that served as the focal point of Mycenaean palaces; functions as a great hall of the ruler which continued in the reign of the Dark Age chiefs. In city states it achieved immortality as the basic plan of the Greek temple

Michael Ventris and John Chadwick

Credited with the decipherment of Linear B (1952)

Minoan

Name of the Bronze Age civilization (3000-1100BC) on Crete, name after Minos, the legendary kind of Knossos; divided into early, middle and late Minoan subperiods

Minos

Legendary king of Knossos, after whom the Bronze Age civilization in Crete is named

Mycenae/Mycenaean

Bronze Age Palatial complex in the Argolid

Neolithic Period

Cultural epoch (6000-3000BC)

Nostos

The Greek world for “return”. The cycle of stories referring to the returns of the Greek heroes from Troy are referred to as the “nostoi” (the returns)

Paleolithic Period

Cultural epoch before 70,000 BC

Peak sanctuaries

Shrines at the top of hills where communal rituals took place

Phoenician

Semitic people living in and around modern Lebanon they were widely traveled merchants their script borrowed by the Greek and adapted to the Greek language (first true alphabet)

Pylos

Kingdom of Nestor on the west coast of the Peloponnese (excavated by Carl Blegan)

Redistributive system

The term for the kind of economic and political arrangements found in the Bronze Age kingdoms of the Near East and Greece; most of the agricultural and manufactured production of a region was controlled from the center (king and his palace), which redistributed sources as it saw fit. The Greek city states by contrast government exercised only limited control over production and distribution

“Sea Peoples”

Name given to bands of raiders who are said to have contributed to the destabilization of the Easter Mediterranean

Shaft Graves

Deep rectangular burial pits used to bury the rulers of Mycenae from the late seventeenth century BC to the end of the sixteenth century BC. Often reused in successive periods

Sir Arthur Evans

Archaeologist; conducted excavations of Knossos in Crete (1899)

Snake Goddess

Statues in Minoan dig sites; depicts a female wearing an elaborate headdress and flounced skirt with open bodice and exposed breasts holding a pair of snakes. Supports theory that before Greeks the Minoans worshipped a great mother goddess.

Thera/Santorini

Island in the Mediterranean northwest of Crete who’s eruptions often pointed to as one of the contributing factors to the fall of Minoan civilization (modern Santorini)

Tholos

A type of monumental stone tomb favored by the elites of the late Bronze Age

Troy

City of Anatolia, famed in saga as the site of the Trojan war; the mound of earth at a place called Hisarlik has been identified by archaeologists as the site of Troy

Wanax

“Lord” “Master”, the title of the monarchical ruler of a Mycenaean kingdom. In the form of “anax” it appears as the title of gods and high-ranking chiefs in Homer

Agathos

Greek adjective that when used if men in Homer is usually restricted to the qualities of bravery and skill in fighting and athletics

Agon

Greek noun which means “contest” or “struggle”. Nearly every aspect of Greek life is marked by an agon or competitive struggle to be the best.

Agora

the term used for the assembly of the people or a gathering which comprised of men of fighting age or older. Layer Greek it was the word for the marketplace

Amphora

A type of storage jar in Greek antiquity and one of the principle pottery shapes; two handled vessel with a neck narrower than the body

Aristos

Greek adjective that means “best”.

Assembly

One of the two primary elements of Greek governance (alongside the council); made up of adult males in the community. In the dark age the assembly has limited power vis-a-vis the chiefs but eventually became the deciding body of state policy

Basileus (dark age)

The warrior/chiefs who ruled the villages and districts (soon to be replaced by oligarchies of landed aristocrats)

Boule

Most common term for the “council” which is one of two primary governing institutions of the Greeks. Composed of chiefs and men of influence it became the major organ of aristocratic power in the Archaic Age

Dactylic Hexameter

Greek meter used for epic poems, consisting of six feet whose basic metrical unit was the sequence of a long syllable followed by two shorts (dactyl)

Dark Age

The period of Greek history extending from the age of the Bronze Age (1100 BC) to the beginning of the Archaic period (700 BC)

Demos

A territory and the people who live in it; “the land” and “the people”

Geometric style

Type of style that dominated vase paintings from around 900 to 700 BC.

Hectare

The basic modern archaeological unit for site size (equivalent to 2.5 acres)

Heroön

Shrine or sanctuary used in cultic worship of a hero; typically over a burial site of the hero

Hesiod

Boeotian poet who wrote the Theogony and Works and Days

Hetairos

Companion or comrade. In the Dark ages follower-band of hetairoi formed the military and political support of the chiefs who recruited and rewarded them.

Homeric epics

Terms used for the two poems produced in the Late Geometric Period (750-720 BC), the Iliad and the Odyssey. They were the culmination of a long oral tradition going back centuries

Ionian migration

Process in which the islands of the Aegean Sea and central portion of the west coast of Turkey were settled by speakers of the Ionic dialect of Greek in the dark ages.

Kakos

Greek adjective that when used of men in Homer usually means cowardly or unskilled and useless in battle

Kleos

The word means “glory” in Greek, specifically what people say about you

Kleros

An allotment of farmland sufficient to support a citizen-family; passed down through male heritage

Lefkandi

Town on the island of Euboea, originally Mycenaean town that was revised after the collapse of the palace system

Nichoria

Town in western Messenia in the southwest Peloponnese. Originally a town of the kingdom of Pylos, it was abandoned around 1200BC then revived around 1075BC

Oikos

“Household”. The fundamental social and economic unit in Greek society comprised of the family group, its house, land, animals, and property

Opson

A Greek word meaning “relish” or “sides dish” or anything eaten alongside a staple of grain to add variety of flavor

Oral composition

The manner in which the Homeric epics were composed. Required “singers” of great talent and skill, who in retelling the stories relied on formulas (or fixed phrases) and traditional themes

Panhellenism

The idea that what was common to all Greeks was more important than what divided them and that Greece was at its peak during the Persian wars when Greeks united to defeat the Persians

Pithos

The Greek word denoting a large ceramic jar for bulk storage

Polytheism

The rosbif of many gods and goddesses

Protogeometric style

A kind of pottery developed around 1000BC where the use of a faster wheel, rulers, and multiple brushes (alongside shinier glaze produced by higher temperatures) enabled potters to create a wider, more proportional, and higher variety of vases

Temenos

A parcel of choice land given as a due to the preeminent families. Also a term for a sacred precinct of land given to a god or a hero

Thetes

Greek term for hired workers who were poor, free men who did hard work for low pay

Time

The high regard in which Greeks whisked to be held by their peers (meaning honor)

Xenia

A form of ritual friendship where a stranger entered into a hereditary relationship of mutual friendship with a man from another demos, each obliged to offer hospitality and aid when they visited each others community