Bronze Age Hellas

Vocabulary-style flashcards covering key terms, people, places, and concepts from the Bronze Age Hellas lecture notes.

Myth

A traditional narrative used to convey social identity, shared values, and relations, often involving interactions with meta-human realms and the gods (theoi).

Legend

A narrative about past individuals or events believed true but often embellished with fantastical or mythic elements.

History

A narrative of the past that uses evidence systematically to explain events, causes, and effects.

theoi

Greek gods; the various deities in the Hellenic cosmos.

Heinrich Schliemann

German archaeologist who excavated Troy (1871–1873) and Mycenae (1876), helping move the story from myth toward history.

Homer

Ancient Greek epic poet credited with composing the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Troy

Ancient city on the northwest coast of Asia Minor; site excavated by Schliemann, linked to Bronze Age conflict.

Mycenae

Bronze Age city in the Peloponnese; center of Mycenaean civilization; excavated by Schliemann.

Mycenaean

Relating to Mycenae or its Bronze Age Greek civilization; dominated Minoans and developed palace-states.

Evans

Sir Arthur Evans, archaeologist who named and studied the Minoan civilization on Crete (notably Knossos).

Minoan

Bronze Age civilization on Crete; palace-centered, extensive trade, distinctive art and religion.

Knossos

Minoan palace complex on Crete; administrative and ceremonial center of a redistributive economy.

Linear B

Early Greek script used by Mycenaeans for administrative records.

House of Tiles

Large tiled-roof house at Lerna (c. 2200 BCE) indicating advanced socio-political structure; destroyed by 2250 BCE.

Indo-European

Language family to which Greek belongs; migration from the steppes north of the Black Sea contributed to Greek.

Cyclades

Island group near Crete; important for Minoan trade and cultural connections.

Middle Paleolithic Age

Approximately 45,000 years before present; Homo sapiens footprints and hearths in Thessaly; hunter/gatherers.

Neolithic Age

Beginning around 7000 BCE; agriculture, domesticated animals, loom-weaving, pottery, and village life.

Early and Middle Bronze Ages

(c. 3000–1600 BCE) Bronze technology (copper + tin) and rising social stratification with elite influence.

Bronze Age

Era defined by bronze use, large-scale urban centers, writing, and complex societies in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Elites

High-ranking families who finance technology, control trade, and hold governance and defense roles.

Mesopotamia

Eastern Mediterranean civilization with irrigation, cities, laws, and writing; influential to surrounding regions.

Tholoi

Beehive tombs used by Mycenaeans for elite burials and display of wealth.

Wanax

Mycenaean king or warrior-king at the top of the palace-state administration.

Pylos

Mycenaean palace-site; center of administration; site of the Nestor’s palace and Linear B tablets.

Nestor

King described in Homeric epic; his palace at Pylos became an archaeological focus for Mycenaean administration.

Do ut des

Latin phrase meaning 'I give that you might give'— reciprocity between humans and gods.

Charis

Greek concept of grace/reciprocity in exchanges between humans and the divine.

Mother goddess

Prominent female deity in Minoan religion, associated with fertility and nature.

Bull-jumping

Minoan fresco depicting ritual bull-leaping, an iconic religious/cultural activity.

Griffin Warrior Seal

Elite agate seal from Pylos symbolizing wealth and powerful governance.

Sea Peoples

Widespread seafaring groups implicated in Bronze Age collapse, affecting Egypt, the Levant, and Greece.

Drought

One of the proposed causes of the Bronze Age collapse, contributing to famine and migration.

Bronze Age Collapse

Destruction/abandonment of Bronze Age civilizations around 1200 BCE due to drought, invasions, earthquakes, and trade disruption.

750 BCE

Approximate return of writing to the Greek world and the beginning of the Iron Age after the collapse.