Week 1 - Overview and the Land of Greece

Introduction, Greece and the Sea, The Science of Archaeology, The Labels "Stone" and "Bronze" Age, B.C. or B.C.E., The English Spelling of Ancient Greek Names

Into what body of water does mainland Greece jut southward into?

The Mediterranean Sea

What are Greece’s neighbouring countries?

Italy (West) and Asia Minor/Türkiye (East)

What are the three large islands of Greece?

Sicily, Crete, and Cyprus

What body of water lies along the north of Asia Minor/Türkiye?

The Black Sea

What lies to the south of Greece?

North Africa

What is the Aegean Sea?

A north-eastern corner of the Mediterranean Sea

What is another name for the Aegean Sea?

The Greek Sea

In what body of water do most of the Greek islands lie?

The Aegean Sea

What two countries does the Aegean Sea lie between?

Greece (West) and Asia Minor/Türkiye (East)

What Greek island lies south of the Aegean Sea?

Crete

What is the definition of archaeology?

The systematic study of the past through discovery and interpretation of material remains. Much of archaeology involves excavation, often of ancient tombs

What kind of materials were used by ancient societies for daily life?

Wood, leather, thatch, wickerwork, woven textiles, mud bricks, and animal sinews

Into what category do most ancient materials for daily life fall?

They are perishable materials and decay in any climate with moisture, even if buried underground

What ancient society has perishable materials still preserved enough for study?

Ancient Egypt - Egypt’s dry climate allows for the study of writings on papyrus or sheepskin, something not possible for Greek writings

What sorts of materials could survive underground in Greece?

Hard materials such as:

• Worked stone - statues, building-remnants (marble, limestone, granite, sandstone, etc.)

• Metals - iron swords, ploughshares, bronze armour, cooking utensils, gold jewellery, silver coins, etc.

• Bones - humans in tombs, domestic animals buried alongside owners as offerings, mass graves at battlefields

• Ceramic/clay/pottery/terra cotta - most important and abundant

What is the process of creating ceramic/clay/pottery/terra cotta?

• Soft clay is moulded into a shape by a potter

• The item is sometimes painted or glazed

• The item is fired (baked in a kiln)

Once fired, the clay is hard and any painted images or glaze is permanent

What is an ancient kiln?

A type of small charcoal furnace made of ceramic

What is the technical name for baked clay?

Ceramic

What is the definition of porcelain?

It is a high-end ceramic made by a certain process with a special type of clay

What is the definition of faience?

It is a high-end ceramic with a tin-based glaze

When and where was pottery-making invented?

Around 7000 B.C., perhaps in Syria, soon spreading west to Greece

When and where was the potter’s wheel invented?

Around 3000 B.C., perhaps in Mesopotamia

What were the uses for ceramic?

• Pottery - most common

• Figurines

• Floor tiles

• Roof tiles

• Primitive appliances - cauldrons and ovens

What is the definition of terra cotta?

Ceramic that isn’t glazed

What is the definition of clay?

Clay is more general and does not specify that the substance has been fired in a kiln

What is the definition of pottery?

It excludes secondary uses of ceramic, such as for tiles and figurines

From where does the word ceramic come?

The ancient Greek keramos meaning “potter’s clay”

Why is pottery so important for the world of archaeology?

• Durability - fragments can last 10,000 years buried underground

• Commonplace use in ancient times

• Ability to take a permanent painted image - only true for high-end pottery painted to be valuable

How have fragments of pottery been important to archaeology?

• Not every settlement has stone temples or palaces

• In Near East and eastern Mediterranean settlements every single settlement since ~6000 B.C. has left pottery

• fragments

• Fragments are sometimes found in trash pits which help preserve them

• Pottery fragments were not recyclable and so were not reused as bronze and other materials may have been

How can archaeologists use pottery to yield information?

They can analyse fragments through tests like:

• Thermoluminescence and rehydroxylation which can reveal approximate dates of firing

• Chemical analyses of the ceramic and interpretation of the reconstructed pot’s design and painted style can determine whether the pot was produced locally or came from elsewhere

What could be some reasons for foreign pottery in settlements?

• Brought by someone from where the pot was made

• Brought by someone where the post was found

• Purchased through trade

• Carried home as plunder from a foreign war

• Foreign invasion

What is an example of ancient Greek pottery shedding light on history?

• In the mid-1700s A.D. specific ancient painted pottery was discovered in ancient tombs in Tuscany and Umbria

  • Had belonged to Etruscans in the 600s and 400s

• Pottery found to be Greek from Corinth and then Athens in the 600s-500s B.C.

• Etruscans had been importing large amounts of Greek pottery, and therefore were also likely importing other goods like wine, textiles, jewellery, perfumes, wooden furniture, armour, etc.

What is an example of ancient pottery shedding light on history (not Greek)?

• In Calabria native Italian people from 900 B.C. have been studied and ceramic medallions from Egypt have been found

• The medallions would have had religious value and protected dead individuals in the afterlife

• It is thought that the Phoenicians brought them and indicates that they facilitated trade over-seas

Who were the Phoenicians?

• A people based in Lebanon and were famous seafarers and traders

• By 900 B.C. had a trade network including Egypt and that would stretch as far as Spain

• Can be placed on the island of Sardinia by 800 B.C.

What are the benefits to modern scholarship of ancient Greek painting on pottery?

• Painted scenes give information on Greek daily life or mythology

• Greeks painted on many different surfaces - textile canvases, wooden panels, stucco walls, etc.

• Only a few wall paintings and wood specimens have survived whereas many pottery images have been preserved

What is the Stone Age?

An immense time-span beginning over 3 million years ago, at which point humans were not yet evolved into homo sapiens

What era of the Stone Age is where the foundations for Greek civilisation were laid?

The Neolithic Era

When was the Neolithic Era?

7000-3000 B.C.

What were some of the Neolithic achievements?

• Human organisation

• Spread of agricultural technology

• Proliferation of permanent settlements

• Domestication of farm animals

• Invention of the wheel, plow, loom, and potter’s wheel

• Invention of metallurgy, starting with copper

• Invention of early systems of writing

Where were the people of the Neolithic Era mainly making achievements?

In the eastern Mediterranean and western Asia, especially Mesopotamia

What is Mesopotamia?

• Area roughly corresponding to Iraq encompassing the valleys of Euphrates and Tigris rivers

• The name derives from ancient Greek for “the land between the rivers”, meso- meaning between and potam- meaning river

When was the Bronze Age?

3000-1200 B.C.

Why does the designation change from Neolithic to Bronze?

The earliest remnants of bronze are found and initial use corresponds with other civilising advances signalling a new era of development

What five organised civilisations emerged from the Bronze Age?

• In Mesopotamia - Sumer and Akkad (early Babylon)

• The Egyptian Old Kingdom

• The Minoan Civilisation of Crete (1900-1490 B.C.)

• The Hittite kingdom of Asia Minor

• The Mycenaean Civilisation of mainland Greece (1600-1200 B.C.)

What age follows the Bronze Age?

The Iron Age, after 1200 B.C.

What is bronze?

• A hard alloy of copper and tin that is created by melting the metals at 950 degrees and then poured into a cast to create intricate shapes, armour, panelling, etc.

• Bronze is much harder than copper alone and is a sign of long-range trade to acquire the materials for its production

How were the materials for bronze acquired in Greece?

• Copper was found in the eastern Mediterranean including in Athens and Cyprus (Greek kupros is the origin of the word copper)

• Tin was imported to Greece at great expense from mines in England, Spain, Iran, and Afghanistan

What does A.D. stand for?

Anno Domini → in the year of our Lord

What are the two systems for English spelling of ancient Greek names?

• Letter-by-letter transliteration

• Traditional latinised spellings

Into what two broad categories do sources fit?

• Physical remains → anything material

• Written remains → words of the Greeks or others who wrote of them

Line blurs a bit between the two sometimes

What archaeology specialists aid ancient historians?

• papyrologists and paleographers → not done