Lecture 7 Meaning in the Site, The Greek City

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Lecture 7 Meaning in the Site, The Greek City
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Housing

• Homes, in direct contrast to civic buildings were
  rudimentary structures, either grouped together
  by chance, in organic growth districts, or
  rigidly organized along basic gridiron lines.
• Early dwellings were rude huts, confirmed by the
  traditional burial containers of the Archaic
  Period.

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City Street, Herculaneum
Typical city street in Herculaneum.
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• These climatic conditions encouraged an open-air
  communally oriented attitude to life, which
  assisted in the development of Greek democracy.
• In direct contrast, however, the domestic Greek
  world was that of privacy within the ubiquitous
  courtyard house.
• Planning based on idea that citys form reflected
  its inhabitants. The Greek city is the polis.

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Atrium Garden at Pompeii
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Impluvium at House of the Vettei, Herculaneum
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Insulae
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Insulae at Ostia (Roman)
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Construction Materials

• More immediate impact on the physical character
  of Greek cities, was the availability of quality
  building materials.
• Worked to fine detail, marble was the medium by
  which Greek architecture attained its standards
  of perfection, but the forms remained evocative
  of the original wooden structures.
• The important civic buildings were conceived as
  three-dimensional, free standing sculptural
  objets dart in whose construction neither
  expense nor effort was spared.

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Early Athens
Originally, the city-state started as an
area of high ground on which the inhabitants of
the countryside would take refuge in case of
attack, but later it spread out and was generally
surrounded by a protective wall. A distinction
began to be made between the upper city, or
acropolis, where the inhabitants could seek a
final refuge and where the temples of gods were
situated, and the lower city, or astu, in which
commerce and the business of civil administration
were conducted. Nevertheless, they both formed
part of a single entity, because the city
community acted as sole administrator, whatever
political system it subscribed to.
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Upper City and Lower City

• MAP

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Acropolis

• The original hilltop nucleus of the older Greek
  cities and the fortified citadel of many of the
  colonial foundations.
• Beginning as the site of the whole urban area,
  the acropolis either gradually evolved into into
  the religious sanctuary of the city (as with the
  most famous example at Athens), or became
  deserted, left outside the city limits, (as at
  Miletus.)

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Agora
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Early Helladic 3000 - 2000 BCE Early Helladic
period of Minoan civilization. 2000 - 1550
BCE Middle Helladic period of Minoan
civilization. __________________________________
___________________________________ Middle
Helladic 1900 - 1100 BCE Mycenaean (Greek)
civilization. c. 1550 BCE Apparent invasion
of Crete by Mycenaeans. ________________________
_____________________________________________ Late
Helladic 1550 - 1380 BCE Late Helladic I and
II periods of Minoan civilization. c. 1500
BCE Linear B tablets written in Crete containing
Archaic Greek . c. 1380 BCE Fall of
Knossos. c. 1200 - c. 1000 BCE Dorian
Invasions of Greece. c. 1196 - c. 1186
BCE Trojan War (dates very approximate and in
dispute). _______________________________________
_______________________________ Dark Age c.
1050 - c. 800 BCE Greek "Dark Age". 800 - 479
BCE Greek "Archaic Age" _______________________
_______________________________________________ Ar
chaic Period 760 BCE Cumae (in Italy) founded.
c. 725 BCE The Iliad and Odyssey written
down. .
Hellenic Period c. 600 BCE Massalia
(Marseilles in Gaul) founded. Early 6thc. BCE
Archonship of Solon (traditional date). c. 495
BCE Pericles born 479 - 322 BCE Greek
"Classical Age" c. 470 BCE Socrates born.
431 BCE Peloponnesian War between Athens and
Sparta starts. 429 BCE Pericles dies. c.
427 BCE Plato born. 404 BCE Peloponnesian
War ends with Spartan victory. 399 BCE
Socrates executed. 384 BCE Aristotle born.
347 BCE Plato dies. 336 BCE Philip II of
Macedon murdered Alexander the Great becomes
ruler of Macedon and dependencies.
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_____________________ Hellenistic Period 323 BCE
Alexander dies. 322 Aristotle dies. 322
BCE Greek "Hellenistic Age" Begins 4th 3rd
c. BCE Hellenistic influence throughout the
Mediterranean world c.168 BCE Final Roman
defeat of the remnants of the Alexandrian
Empire at Pydna. Roman Influence
Time line from Doug Allen at Georgia Tech
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Mycenaean Athens
c. 1050 - c. 800 BCE Greek "Dark Age". c. 800
- 479 BCE Greek "Archaic Age"
Area of Expansion of the Mycenaean City The
Areopagus
from Doug Allen at Georgia Tech
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from Doug Allen at Georgia Tech
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Archaic Athens
Archaic Shrines
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from Doug Allen at Georgia Tech
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Development of Greek Theater 1200 BCE to 500
BCE Based on Daniel Boorstin, The Creators.
New York, Random House, 1992. pp. 202-219
from Doug Allen at Georgia Tech
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from Doug Allen at Georgia Tech
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Development of Pnyx
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from Doug Allen at Georgia Tech
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The Long Wall to Piraeus
from Doug Allen at Georgia Tech
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