Intro to Greek and Roman Archeo Test 1 Study Guide Flashcards

Comprehensive practice flashcards for Introduction to Classical Art and Archaeology Test 1, covering chronological periods, key dates, historical figures, archaeological sites, architectural orders, and stylistic terminology.

Proto-Archaic Period

The period in ancient Greek history and art dated to 700-600 BCE.

Archaic Period

The era of ancient Greek art and history dated to 600-480 BCE.

Classical Period

The historical and cultural period in ancient Greece dated to 480-323 BCE.

Hellenistic Period

The period in ancient Greek history and art dated to 323-146 BCE.

1200 BCE

The date marking the collapse of the Mycenaean palaces across the Aegean.

Olympics (776 BCE)

The traditional founding date of the ancient Olympic Games held in 776 BCE.

Sack of Athens by the Persians

A pivotal historical event dated to 479 BCE during the Persian invasion of Greece.

Destruction of Olynthus

The destruction of the northern Greek city of Olynthus by Philip II of Macedon in 348 BCE.

Death of Alexander the Great

The landmark historical event occurring in 323. BCE marking the conclusion of the Classical Period.

Joachim Winckelmann

An influential scholar recognized as the foundational pioneer of classical art history and archaeology who developed the stylistic periodization of ancient Greek art.

Heinrich Schliemann

An early archaeologist who excavated Bronze Age Mycenae, uncovering Grave circle A, and sought physical evidence for Homeric epic traditions.

Arthur Evans

The British archaeologist who excavated the palace at Knossos on Crete and defined the Minoan civilization.

Carl Blegen

An American archaeologist who conducted systematic excavations at the Mycenaean palace at Pylos and at Troy, recovering major caches of Linear B tablets.

Minos

Was the king

Homer

The ancient Greek epic poet of the Iliad and Odyssey whose texts inspired early archaeological investigations of Aegean Bronze Age citadels.

J.D. Beazley

The classical archaeologist who established the modern connoisseurship method for attributing Attic black-figure and red-figure pottery to specific painters and workshops.

Peisestratos

The 6th-century BCE tyrant of Athens whose civic patronage stimulated major public religious monuments, festivals, and the Athenian pottery industry.

Perikles

The prominent 5th-century BCE Athenian statesman who initiated the monumental Periklean building program on the Athenian Acropolis.

Mnesikles

The ancient Greek architect credited with designing the monumental Propylaia gateway on the Athenian Acropolis.

Pheidias

Athenian Classical sculptor who oversaw the artistic program of the Parthenon and created statues of Athena at the Parthenon and Zeus at Olympia.

Skopas of Paros

A celebrated 4th-century BCE sculptor and architect renowned for introducing intense emotional expression (pathos) and designing the Temple of Athena Alea at Tegea.

Praxiteles

Classical Athenian sculptor famous for his humanized gods, S curves

Lysippos

Sculptor to Alexander the Great, known for elongated proportions ($1:8$).

Philip II

The king of Macedon who was interred in the Royal tombs at Vergina. (Alexander the Great’s father)

Alexander the Great

The Macedonian king who conquered the Persian Empire; his death in 323. BCE traditionally delineates the close of the Classical period and the onset of the Hellenistic period.

Attalos

The Hellenistic ruler of Pergamon from the Attalid dynasty known for monumental civic dedications and victories against the Galatians.

Knossos

The primary Bronze Age Minoan palace center situated on Crete, excavated by Arthur Evans.

Crete

The large southern Aegean island that served as the geographic heartland of the Bronze Age Minoan civilization.

Mycenae

The fortified Late Bronze Age citadel in the Peloponnese famous for the Lion Gate, Grave circle A, Shaft Graves, and tholos tombs.

Pylos

A major Mycenaean palace site in Messenia excavated by Carl Blegen, containing a monumental megaron and an extensive archive of Linear B administrative tablets.

Samos

An eastern Aegean island known for its major Archaic sanctuary and monumental temple architecture dedicated to Hera.

Lefkandi

Burial practices for the elite (horses and showed wealth)

• Long-distance trade still existed

• Elite families still possessed wealth

• Monumental buildings were still being constructed

• Social hierarchy remained important

Ionia

The region of central coastal Asia Minor settled by Greeks, distinguished by its intellectual developments and the Ionic architectural order.

Magna Graecia

Costal settlements in greece

Olynthus

ancient Greek city-state destroyed by Philip II, preserving exceptional archaeological evidence of domestic planning, androns, and pebble mosaics.

Vergina

The ancient Macedonian royal site (Aegae) in northern Greece where unlooted 4th-century BCE subterranean Macedonian Royal tombs were uncovered.

Pergamon

Has the Altar of Zeus

Modern definition of Classical

the definition of perfect

Minoan

Bronze Age civilization on Crete (on an island)

Mycenaean

Late Bronze Age civilization on mainland Greece (warrior elite burials and Linear B tablets)

Thalassocracy

domination over the sea (King Minos/Minoan)

Palace

An economic, religious, and residential center characteristic of Aegean Bronze Age societies at sites like Knossos and Mycenae.

Megaron

The main hall of a Mycenaean palace has a vestibule and a central hearth room

Absolute vs. relative dating

The distinction between dating methods in archaeology: relative dating places objects in sequential chronological order, whereas absolute dating determines specific calendar calendar years.

Pithos

A large ceramic storage jar utilized throughout the Aegean Bronze Age to preserve agricultural surplus such as oil, grain, and wine in palace magazines.

Minoan frescoes

Vibrant wet (buon) plaster wall paintings characteristic of Cretan palaces, frequently depicting naturalistic scenes, marine life, religious rituals, and bull-leaping.

Snake-goddess

Minoan faience statuettes excavated at Knossos portraying bare-breasted female figures in tiered flounced skirts holding writhing snakes.

Linear A and Linear B

The two primary scripts of the Bronze Age Aegean: Linear A is the undeciphered script of the Minoans, while Linear B is the deciphered syllabic script used to write early Greek by the Mycenaeans.

Lion Gate

The monumental main entrance to the Bronze Age citadel of Mycenae, constructed with cyclopean masonry and a carved relieving triangle relief of heraldic lions.

Relieving triangle

An architectural corbeled opening left above a post-and-lintel doorway designed to channel the superincumbent downward weight away from the lintel to the door jambs.

Shaft Grave

A deep, rectangular pit cut into the earth or bedrock used as an elite burial chamber during the Middle-to-Late Bronze Age transition in mainland Greece.

Grave circle A

The elite 16th-century BCE burial enclosure located inside the citadel walls of Mycenae containing six shaft graves excavated by Heinrich Schliemann.

Mask of Agamemnon

A famous repoussé gold funerary death mask discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in Shaft Grave V of Grave circle A at Mycenae.

Tholos tomb

A monumental subterranean stone-built corbeled beehive tomb entered through an open dromos, characteristic of elite Late Helladic Mycenaean architecture.

Heroon of Lefkandi

A 10th-century BCE monumental apsidal building at Lefkandi containing rich human burials and horse sacrifices, covered by a tumulus to commemorate an elite hero.

Proto-geometric and Geometric pottery

Early Iron Age ceramic styles characterized by abstract, compass-drawn concentric circles, linear geometric banding, and eventually stylized silhouette human funerary scenes.

Cremation

The funerary practice of burning the deceased on a pyre, commonly practiced in the Greek Early Iron Age and commemorated with urn burials.

Inhumation

The funerary practice of burying the unburned body of the deceased directly in the ground, in a cist, or within a tomb chamber.

Conspicuous consumption

The intentional public display or deliberate deposition of valuable resources, grave goods, or monuments to demonstrate wealth and social status.

Prosthesis

The formal ritual laying out and mourning of the deceased's body surrounded by relatives, frequently depicted on monumental Geometric funerary vases.

Nestor’s cup

An 8th-century BCE Geometric ceramic drinking cup from Pithekoussai carrying one of the earliest preserved alphabetic Greek inscriptions referencing Homeric epic.

Hekatompedon

A monumental early Greek temple measuring approximately $100\text{ feet}$ in length, representing a crucial phase in Archaic temple evolution.

Architectural orders (Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian)

The three classical Greek styles of architectural design: Doric (simple echinus capitals, triglyphs, metopes), Ionic (fluted columns with volute capitals, continuous frieze), and Corinthian (columns with acanthus-leaf capitals).

Temple at Thermon

An Archaic temple in Aitolia that provides essential evidence for the transition from timber and mudbrick building methods to stone Doric architecture with painted terracotta metopes.

Proto-Corinthian and Corinthian pottery

Ceramic styles originating in Corinth during the Orientalizing and Archaic periods characterized by miniature painting, animal friezes, and the invention of the black-figure technique.

Polyphemus painter amphora

A celebrated 7th-century BCE Proto-Attic neck-amphora illustrating the blinding of the Cyclops Polyphemus by Odysseus on its neck.

Poleis

The independent Greek city-states (singular: polis) that developed in the Archaic period, consisting of an urban core and an integrated rural territory (chora).

Panhellenic Sanctuary

A sacred precinct such as Delphi or Olympia that functioned as an open religious and athletic meeting ground for all Greek city-states.

Temple of Apollo at Delphi

The primary Doric temple at the Panhellenic sanctuary of Delphi where the Pythia delivered her renowned oracular pronouncements.

Treasury of the Siphians

An ornate Archaic Ionic treasury erected at Delphi around 525 BCE, famous for its caryatids and sculptural frieze depicting a dynamic Gigantomachy.

Caryatid

A sculpted draped female figure functioning as an architectural support or pillar in place of a standard column.

Kouroi and korai

Archaic freestanding stone statues of idealized youth: kouroi represent standing nude young men, whereas korai represent clothed young women.

Temple of Artemis at Corfu

An early 6th-century BCE Archaic Doric temple renowned for its monumental limestone pediment featuring a central snaky-haired Gorgon Medusa flanked by panthers.

Temple of Aphaia at Aegina

A late Archaic to Early Classical Doric temple whose pedimental sculptures illustrate the stylistic shift from Archaic conventions to the Severe style.

Severe style

The transitional Early Classical sculptural style ($480\text{--}450\text{ BCE}$) marked by anatomical realism, calm facial expressions, contrapposto, and the abandonment of the Archaic smile.

sophrosyne

The ancient Greek ethical ideal of moderation, inner restraint, and self-control, visually conveyed in Classical sculpture through calm, composed facial expressions.

Black and red figure pottery

The two primary techniques of Attic vase painting: black-figure uses silhouetted black slip with incised details, whereas red-figure leaves figures in clay reserves with painted internal details.

Three-step firing

The three-stage ceramic firing process (oxidizing, reducing, and re-oxidizing) used by Greek potters to turn slip permanently black while leaving unpainted clay orange-red.

Krater

A wide-mouthed ancient Greek ceramic vessel designed specifically for mixing wine and water during a symposion.

Kylix

A wide, shallow ancient Greek drinking cup with two horizontal handles and a stemmed base, used during a symposion.

Amphora

A two-handled tall ceramic vessel with a narrow neck used for the storage and transport of liquids like wine and olive oil, or as a funerary marker.

symposion

A ritualized ancient Greek elite male social gathering centered on wine drinking, music, poetry, and philosophical dialogue held in the andron.

Temple of Zeus at Olympia

The monumental Early Classical Doric temple at Olympia featuring pediments of the Pelops chariot race and Centauromachy, along with metopes depicting the Labors of Herakles.

Bluebeard Pediment

An Archaic limestone pedimental sculpture from the Acropolis of Athens depicting a composite, three-bodied winged daemon holding symbolic natural elements.

Titanomachy/Gigantomachy

Mythological cosmic conflicts: the war between the Olympian gods and the Titans (Titanomachy) or Giants (Gigantomachy), symbolizing the triumph of civilization over barbarism.

Oath of Plateia

The traditional oath sworn by Greek poleis before the battle in 479 BCE vowing not to rebuild temples destroyed by the Persians as a lasting memorial of their sacrilege.

Memory wall on the Acropolis

The intentional incorporation of architectural drums and metopes from temples destroyed in the 479 BCE Persian sack into the northern fortification wall of the Acropolis as a public visual memorial.

Dörpfeld foundations

The stone architectural foundations on the Athenian Acropolis excavated by Wilhelm Dörpfeld, belonging to the Archaic Old Temple of Athena Polias.

Pre-parthenon

The unfinished predecessor of the Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis that was sacked and burnt by the Persians in 479 BCE.

Panathenaic procession

The grand religious civic procession during the Panathenaic festival in Athens to present a sacred peplos to Athena, carved upon the Ionic frieze of the Parthenon.

Temple of Athena Alea at Tegea

A 4th-century BCE Late Classical temple in the Peloponnese designed by Skopas of Paros, famous for integrating interior Corinthian half-columns and expressive pedimental heads.

Andron

The men's formal dining room within a classical Greek private house, characterized by an off-center doorway, raised floor borders for klinai, and pebble mosaics.

Pebble mosaic

A decorative floor paving technique using naturally rounded, colored river stones set into mortar to produce figurative or geometric patterns, seen extensively at Olynthus.

Royal tombs at Vergina

A complex of unlooted 4th-century BCE monumental Macedonian chamber tombs under the Great Tumulus at Vergina, including the tomb of Philip II.

Temple of Apollo at Dydima

A colossal Hellenistic dipteral Ionic temple and oracular sanctuary near Miletus with an unroofed open-air courtyard (sekos) containing an internal laurel grove.

Pergamon altar

A monumental 2nd-century BCE Hellenistic altar structure at Pergamon featuring a dramatic high-relief frieze depicting the Gigantomachy characterized by dynamic movement and pathos.

Pathos

An aesthetic quality and artistic representation of intense suffering, pain, and heightened emotional passion, prominent in 4th-century BCE and Hellenistic Greek sculpture.

Lacoon

A famous Hellenistic marble sculpture group depicting the Trojan priest and his sons being fatally ensnared by giant sea serpents, exemplifying dramatic physical suffering and pathos.

Sleeping Satyr

A celebrated Hellenistic marble statue (the Barberini Faun) depicting a drowsy, intoxicated woodland follower of Dionysos sprawled in an uninhibited, vulnerable pose.