GREEK CIVILIZATION

Aegean Cultures
Proportional relationships
beauty
Aesthetics
Relation between building and its parts
Polis (city state)
Aegean Sea
Timber, stone, metallic ores, clay
Trade with Egypt and Mediterranean, Mesopotamia
Deities associated with nature
 Aegean

Civilizations
The Minoans Mycenaeans

Crete Mainland Greece

Trade
◦ Egypt
◦ Mesopotamia
◦ Asia minor
◦ Cyprus

Production of goods
The Minoans
Name
Labyrinth at Knossos (palace)
Neolithic structure
Palace
◦ Ritual/ ceremonial rooms
◦ Storage areas
◦ Living accommodation
◦ Long corridors staircase built around light wells
◦ Courtyard (primary element)
◦ Destroyed by fire (1380 BCE)
◦ Speculation (first sacred temple than palace)
Palace at Knossos
Lower levels built in Ashlar masonry
Upper floors
◦ Walls made of rubble contained in squared
timber
◦ Wooden columns
◦ Large wooden beams
Columns
◦ Downward tapering shaft
◦ bulbous torus ring and abacus block capital
Unfortified
On a hill overlooking the harbor
 • West propylaea
Palace at Knossos • Throne room
• Lustral Basin
• Storage rooms
• Residential
quarters
• Grand staircase
• Light well
• Hall of axes
• Queen’s
Megaron
• Water supply
• Sewers
• Oldest Lustral
Basin
• Theatre
 The Mycenaeans
1. Mycenae
2. Largest citadel (high ground)
3. Led by warrior kings
4. 1600 BCE
5. Weapons
6. Defense (cyclopean masonry)
7. Main entrance (lion gate)
 Mycenae
Palace
◦ Megaron largest room (40’ square)
◦ Bases of 4 columns that supported roof
◦ Central hearth
◦ View of valley from the court in front
of megaron
◦ North smaller room with stuccoed
pool (bathing room)
 Mycenae
Surrounding settlements
Houses close to tombs of ancestors
9 tombs in circular form (tholoi)
Tholos or beehive tomb (Treasury of Atreus ca. 1330
BCE)
◦ Corbelled stone chamber rising 44’
◦ 48’ in diameter circular plan
◦ Small chamber right of the entrance
◦ All stonework covered in earthen mound
◦ Except entranceway (dromos)
◦ Bronze in interior, decorated entranceway and burial ways
and goods; but no remains left
Mycenae
1200 – 1100 BCE decline
Invasions by nomadic people from east
Invaders used iron weapons
Bronze armory
Dark period
Amalgamation and developments
Local settlements
Classical Greece
THANK YOU
Megaron
Houses in Mycenae
Tiryns