Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION

The Ancient Greek civilization was located on today’s Greek land, Ionian Islands, Asia Minor, South Italy, and Sicily. It is surrounded by mountains and in the north by water. The Ionian and the Aegean seas, together with natural islands and bays, gave the Greeks the opportunety to develop their maritime commerce and their rich culture. The mountains, which surrounded Greece, gave us the picture of its political character.

From early times, the Greeks lived in independet settlements, and they were isolated from one another. Later, this settelments grew up into “poles” or city-states.

The Mediteranien Sea moderates Greeks climate ­ cooling air in summer and warmth in winter period. Summers are generaly hot and dry, and winters are mild and rainy in costal regions. In mountain region winters are stronger.

GREEK’S HISTORY

The Greek civilization has made great contributions in many areas to western society. Greeks scientists made revolutionary discoveries in medicine, mathematics, physics and astronomy. They also developed the expression of individuality. Those are only some reasons why the Greek civilization was and still is one of the most important civilizations in the world.

TIME PERIODS

1. PROTOGEOMETRIC STYLE (1100-900 BC)

The protogeometric period is time of economic and cultural depression. The depths of this depression occurred from circa 1100 to 1050 BC. This period is also known as the Sub ­ Mycenean period on the Greek mainland, and Minoan period on the island of Crete. Contribution made by the Minoan and Mycenean Empire to the creation of the Greek civilization, helped them to develop their own Empire. The use of iron and the cremation of the dead became the greatest progress in Greek civilization. The urns for the ashes are among the most characteristic vessels of that period.

2. THE GEOMETRIC PERIOD (900-700 BC)

This period, the Geometric period, is well known by many transformations and startling innovation in Greek architecture and sculpture. The population has increased, and people have moved from the isolated settlements to the city ­ states. The Greeks also moved to the new teritories to the east, and to the west. In that, new-concured teritories, the Greeks founded commercial trading posts and colonies. Also in this period, new script was adopted ­ the Semtic alpha...

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... of workers, usually slaves or free people who were very poor. Those activities required a broad range of skills - the stone, clay and metal trades, sculptures, potters, painters; the clothing industry; the leather trade, tanners and cobblers; construction, stone cutters, carpenters; maritime transport, ship building, food production and many others.

RELIGION

The ancient Greeks were very religious people. They were poligamics, and they believed that a certain god shows up in a human form. In the Greek art, especially on the vases, many scenes with gods were illustrated. For people of the ancient Grrek, many gods usually had the affair with the usual man. This is even written in some myths, and the result of that event was that many demi-gods appeared.

Sarcifices were the gifts for their gods. There were two types of sarcifices ­ the bloodless (roots, cereal grains, fruits, cheese), and blood-offerings (animals, birds and fish).

The Greeks housed their gods in temples, which were often enclosed by the walls. In the inside of the temples, big statues of their gods were exposed. When the ceremony took place, those statues were even bathed, clothed and symbolicayy fed.