Greek Art, Architecture and Archaeology

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Greek Art, Architecture and Archaeology

• Early Bronze Age
• c. 3000-2000 BCE
• Cycladic
• from kuklos
• Syros
• Naxos
• Lerna (mainland)

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• Cycladic Architecture
• Fortification walls at Syros, Naxos, Lerna
• No evidence of fortification on Crete
• Troy extremely sophisticated
• Houses with stone walls, roof of branches, wooden
  posts as support, rectangular shape

• Cemetaries on hill slopes, rectangular or curved,
  built of stone in slabs (cist graves) or in
  brick-like corbeled fashion

Example of cist grave from Glassamuck Co. Dublin
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• Cycladic Sculpture
• Marble quarries abundant on Naxos, Paros
  providing material for large figures
• Small figures carved from beach pebbles
• Range in size from 20cm to 1.53m

• Some found on mainland and Crete
• Found in graves, homes
• Unknown purpose
• Males, females, musicians, violin figures

Marble male musician, originally painted,
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
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• Cycladic Pottery
• Vases, jars, beakers, cosmetic boxes, pans
• Some zoomorphic shapes
• Incised decoration (spirals, impressed triangles)

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• Early Bronze Age
• c. 3000-2000 BCE
• Helladic
• From Hellas (Greece)

• Laconia
• Nemea Valley (near Corinth)
• Lithares (Boeotia)
• Manika (Euboea)
• Tsoungiza (Nemea)
• Lerna

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• Troy
• Heinrich Schliemann (exc. 1870-1890 CE)
• University of Cincinnati
• Hissarlik
• Troy I-IX (c. 3000 BCE 300 CE)
• VIIa (destroyed c. 1260-1100 BCE)

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Mid to Late Bronze Age Architecture, c. 2000 -
1100 BCE

• Cycladic
• Multi-room
• Stone
• Phylakopi on Melos
• Gateway with towered fortifications

• Helladic
• Tripartite houses
• Apsidal/rectangular plan
• megaron

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• Early-Mid Bronze Age Cycladic Sculpture
  (c.3000-1550 BCE)
• Terracotta males with upraised arms
• Females with bell skirts
• Faience snake goddess
• Male acrobats

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• Late Bronze Age Cycladic Sculpture
• (c. 1550-1100 BCE)
• Ivory figurines with gold accent
• Rhyta (singular rhyton)
• Terracotta females

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• Late Bronze Age Helladic Sculpture, c. 1550
  1100 BCE
• Mycenae
• Lions Gate
• Plaster females head (sphinx?)
• Ivory group carving

• Keos
• Laconian lead figure
• Terracotta female figurines

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• Early-Mid Bronze Age Cycladic Pottery
• (3000-1550 BCE)
• Pottery wheel!
• Kamares Ware
• Eggshell thin
• Abstract to natural designs
• White on black
• Exported to Greece, Cyclades, Syria, Egypt

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• Late Bronze Age Cycladic Pottery
• (c. 1550-1100 BCE)
• Dark on light (esp. Melos)
• Beak spouted jug
• Pattern Style/Floral Style/Marine Style
• Panels
• Bird and fish motifs
• Linear B tablets

The Odyssey in Linear B
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• Bronze Age Helladic Pottery, c. 3000 1100 BCE
• Early evidence at Lithares revealed simple
  vessels
• sauceboats appear mid-bronze age, used for
  pouring/drinking
• Maeanders
• Chevrons
• minyan ware
• Warrior vase

Stirrup Jar, Metropolitan Museum, NY
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Mid to Late Bronze Age, c. 2000-1100 BCE

• Crete
• Knossos
• Palace
• Drainage system (terracotta)
• Stairways (lustral basins)
• No fortification
• 4 compass point entrances
• Multi levels
• Depictions of griffins, bulls, snakes
• horns of consecration
• snake goddess

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• Thera, destroyed c. 1500 BCE
• Akrotiri
• Modern Santorini Islands
• Minoan-like architecture, painting style
• No palace

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• Mycenae
• Schliemann grave circle A (19th century)
• Grave circle B discovered excavated 1952
• Both grave circles outside citadel walls
• Cist or shaft graves
• Grave markers
• Funerary gifts
• Cyclopean walls
• Tholos tomb (beehive tomb)

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