Aegean Architecture 70k2k

Details Aegean Civilization

Before the dawn of Ancient Greece, a vibrant Neolithic and then Bronze Age society thrived in several different cultures found along the Aegean Sea. The Aegean is home to many clusters of islands, and the earliest known Aegean culture, established around 6000 BC, was centered on several of the Cycladic Islands off the southeast coast of Greece. Today these islands appear to be quite barren, rocky outposts with few trees, but by around 3000 BC they were home to a thriving culture of farmers and seafaring traders, and their inhabitants began to use local stone to create not only the famous Cycladic figurines of musicians, but also fortified towns and burial mounds. Several of these islands have quarries of the beautiful white marble that later became the preferred building material in Ancient Greece. To date, however, no habitations have been excavated on these islands. Also from around 3000 BC, another Bronze Age culture thrived on the much larger island of Crete, located in the southern area of the Aegean, and this island culture developed into what was later called the Minoan civilization. Minoan peoples are named after their legendary ruler, King Minos, who is described in Homer’s epic tales as ruling from his labyrinth-like palace in the ancient city of Knossos. This palace, dating from 1900 BC to around 1100 BC, was discovered by the archaeologists Heinrich Schliemann, who located the site, and then Arthur Evans, who subsequently discovered and excavated the area. Both scholars argued that Homer’s tales were not entirely fictional, but could be used to unearth pre-Homeric cities such as the ancient site of Troy in Turkey and the Peloponnesian city of the ancient ruling family of Atreus, known as Mycenae. Minoan peoples farmed and maintained herds of animals, but they also fished for food and established vast trade routes across the Aegean and the Mediterranean. This thriving culture is also known for its own system of writing, which was needed in order to keep sophisticated trade books, while music, dance, and other high levels of aesthetic culture appear in murals painted on the walls of vast palace complexes. The most famous palace, the Palace of Knossos, had beautiful walls made of mud brick and rubble shaped within a wooden framework that was then covered in a veneer of local stone. After an earthquake destroyed several parts of the palace around 1700 BC, it was rebuilt and extensively enlarged. This newer palace was multistoried, which was a newer architectural feature made possible by the relatively light materials of wood framing and stone veneer used in construction. SL

Details Aegean Civilization

Not only did many windowed openings allow light and air into the internal courtyards, but many stairs, open porticoes, and columned rooms set at different levels also allowed light and air to circulate in an unprecedented manner. Organized around a large rectangular central courtyard, the palace complex was divided into quadrants loosely organized into suites of royal apartments, istrative wings, areas for various social entertainments and religious rituals, workshops, and vast storage areas that clearly reveal an extremely centralized urban unit. Wall murals and the various artifacts found on the island attest to a beautiful maritime aesthetic and prosperous culture. Although not obviously fortified, the palace enjoyed an island location that was logistically difficult to breach by foreigners and a complexity of design that defied entry by outsiders not familiar with the layout of the palace. These are the two features of the palace that helped to shape the legend of the Minotaur, who lived beneath the palace and was paid an annual tribute of 14 young girls and boys brought from the city of Athens, ruled by King Aegeus at the time but dominated by King Minos of Knossos. One of these sacrificial victims was Theseus, who went on to free his people from this punishing tribute by navigating the underground labyrinth of the palace to slay the Minotaur, all the while untwining a ball of silk thread so that he could then find the exit. Even better known is the legend of the architect of the palace, Daedalus. Because Daedalus had designed the palace, he was not allowed to leave the island of Crete so as not to divulge the secret layout of the palace to foreigners. It was for this reason that Daedalus and his son, Icarus, fashioned wings of bird feathers and wax in order to flee the island, a venture that was not successful because Icarus did not heed his father’s warning and flew too close to the sun. Ultimately, this Minoan culture did not survive; it was usurped in regional importance by the Mycenaean peoples from the northern Peloponnese. These Bronze Age people, whose earlier origins remain unknown, anticipated many of the great advances of the Ancient Greeks. They spoke a proto-Greek language and came into the Peloponnese around 3000 BC, overthrowing the preexisting Neolithic culture and establishing a more sophisticated culture evident in their expert metalwork and architecture. The citadel at Mycenae, home to the legendary Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and conqueror of Troy, as well as the smaller citadel at Tiryns, where Hercules is reputed to have been born, form the core of what remains of this culture. SL

Details Aegean Civilization

Unlike the Minoans, the Mycenaean peoples earned a reputation as fierce warriors, given that their territory was centrally located along a major migratory route and was therefore more vulnerable to outside invaders. The citadel at Mycenae, begun around 1350 BC, was built atop a hill and reflects this need for protection, with its huge stone ring walls and an entry that restricts the visitor to a narrow path through the famous Lion Gate of Mycenae, and then into the walled compound. The Lion Gate, dated around 1250 BC, is built with megalithic stones that rise up in a post-andlintel system and are then capped with a keystone, an inverted triangular stone that helps direct the weight of the heavy materials as well as the weight of gravity down through the posts rather than over the center of the weaker lintel. This feature reflects a more sophisticated structural system than previously employed in architecture. Although the use of the keystone here is conflated with the more traditional post-and-lintel system, which is formed with a slight arch to relieve more of the weight, it set the stage for later structural developments found in Ancient Rome. Two lions are carved into the keystone and flank a column, resting their front legs on its base. The use of guardian lions flanking palace entrances was widespread in Ancient Near Eastern architecture, while the elaborate burial rituals seen in Mycenaean tombs attest to Ancient Egyptian influences. Inside the citadel, beehive tombs, formed in a conical shape, housed hammered gold face masks, bronze swords, pottery, and carved figurines. These beehive tombs, made with massive rocks, recall Prehistoric age graves in Newgrange, Ireland, but have a more fully developed corbel vault, in which the stone layers rise up and gradually close inward to a keystone that anchors the pointed arched roof. Over the entrance, one triangular window allowed a ray of light to enter the dark tomb. The citadel at Tiryns, built several hundred years later, reveals more extensive corbelling in hallways that run through the center of the ring walls. Inside the citadel an audience hall, called a megaron, was located in the center of the city. The megaron was fronted by a courtyard and entered through a two-columned porch. The center of the room had a raised roof with open windows, set above a ritual hearth that was surrounded by four ing columns. This megaron plan anticipated the arrangement of many subsequent Ancient Greek temples. SL

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Troy Aegean Civilization

Troy was the most powerful kingdom in the Mediterranean sea, and thrived under the long rule of King Priam. His many sons, including the valiant, strong, unbeatable Hektor and Paris, a creative character who was not a strong fighter but a ionate man, are the best known in the Troy myth. In Greece lay a Kingdom called Mycene, owned by Mycenian or Mykene people, ruled by King Agammenon, started a large campaign to pressure the Kingdoms of Greece and modern day Turkey to his side and attack Troy, to capture its many riches. Legendary character, and King of Ithaca, King Odysseus (or Ulysses as he was also known), along with King Idomenous of Crete, with up to 22 more Kingdoms and Kings, spent 7 years attacking Troy. Eventually, Troy fell after a coup that Odysseus had thought up, using a wooden trojan horse to hide soldiers within in order to get soldiers behind the Trojan line of defence. Before the fall of Troy, during the dawn of the War, King Priam sought to create an alliance with the strong Kingdom of Sparta in Northern Greece, to defend Troy when the war had begun. King Aeneas, or Helikaon as he was said to be known, King of Dardanos, was a good friend of Hektor and King Priam, and sided with the Trojans in the war. Unfortunately, on the journey back, after Hektor and Paris had forged an alliance in Sparta, Paris had taken the daughter of the King of Sparta, Princess Helen, without his consent, as they had fallen deeply in love. This had caused the alliance to be terminated, and Sparta eventually ed the fighting cause of King Agammenon. The citadel of Troy was protected by a massive stone wall. The centre of the citadel has been destroyed more than two thousand years ago when the temple of Athena was built at the site. In the reconstruction, the gaps in our knowledge have been filled with buildings similar to those wie know from elsewhere at Troy and similar sites. The citadel of Troy was surrounded by a lower city covering some twenty hectares. The lower city was protected from attacks by war chariots by a rock-cut fortificatory ditch. During the time of Troy horses and chariots were new and dangerous weapons. A residential quarter in the lower city has been extensevely excavated during the past few years. The inhabitants of Troy - some 5000 to 7500 people - lived here in houses built of stone and mudbrick. Inside the citadel the large houses of the aristocracy were lined up along the fortification wall. The Pillar house is one of them. Stone pillars ed the upper floor and the roof of a large hall.

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A House Of Lower City

The Citadel

A Pillar House Along The Fortification

Aegean Civilization

The Troy City

The tombs of the Mycenaeans are famous for their unique construction and, of course, the amazing riches that were found in many of them. The first style of tomb popular on the mainland was the shaft grave. The major classes of building projects among the Mycenaeans include the palace, the city planning and fortifications, and their immense tombs. In addition to the great architectural feats, the Mycenaeans also produced great engineering works in their system of roadways and waterworks The corbelled vault technique can be used to span arched corridors and circular domes in buildings and is often used to lighten the weight above doorways. The Mycenaeans preferred an indoor hall known as a megaron as the centerpiece of their palatial constrictions. SL

Mycenae Aegean Civilization

The tholos tomb became popular for the burials of entire royal families later in the Mycenaean period. These tombs are known throughout Greece during the Bronze Age and are easily recognized by their bee-hive shape created by corbel vaulting of a round building. The most famous of these tholos tombs by far is the so-called Treasury of Atreus discovered by Heinrich Schliemann. These tholos tombs were entered through a dromos, or entrance age. At the Treasury of Atreus, this dromos is of monumental proportions, 6m wide and 36m long. The dome of the tholos is equally impressive, 14.6m in diameter and 13.5m to the top of the dome. The stone work of the interior is very refined for the period, with a smooth surface of limestone.

The palaces of the mainland Mycenaeans are sprawling buildings usually located at the center of the fortified citadel. Within the palace complex residential space, storerooms and workshops were arranged around the central megaron, considered to function as the audience chamber for the royals. Most were probably two-storied, but in all cases the second story has not survived and must be hypothesized from stairways. The plan of the palace varies a great deal from site to site, but they all share the megaron as their central feature. The palace at Mycenae was mostly destroyed by later construction on the site, so only small portions of the building are visible today. The palatial complex at another major Mycenaean center, Tiryns, is slightly better preserved. This plan features two megarons suggesting a public audience chamber as well as one reserved for more important visitors and family. SL

Mycenae Aegean Civilization

The citadel of Mycenae was probably the greatest and the largest of all the Mycenaean cities. Located on the top of a hill, the city was meant to take the fullest advantage of the natural defenses. The fortified wall surrounding the city was built up in progressive stages with the last section completed only a short time before the city was abandoned. The city walls were immense, incredibly thick, and consisting of several ton boulders. The 'Lion Gate of Mycenae, a rather late addition, is one of the few examples of a decorated entranceway in the Bronze Age on mainland Greece. The space above the lintel is filled with a sculptured image of two lions on either side of a Minoan style column. Underground tunnels were built to wells and springs at both Mycenae and Tiryns in preparation for sieges. Also Significant Sites of the Mycenaeans.

Sparta Aegean Civilization

The prehistory of Sparta is difficult to reconstruct, because the literary evidence is far removed in time from the events it describes and is also distorted by oral tradition.However, the earliest certain evidence of human settlement in the region of Sparta consists of pottery dating from the Middle Neolithic period, found in the vicinity of Kouphovouno some two kilometres south-southwest of Sparta. These are the earliest traces of the original Mycenaean Spartan civilisation, as represented in Homer's Iliad. This civilization seems to have fallen into decline by the late Bronze Age, when, according to Herodot, Macedonian tribes from the north marched into Peloponnese, where they were called Dorians and subjugating the local tribes, settled there. The Dorians seem to have set about expanding the frontiers of Spartan territory almost before they had established their own state. They fought against the Argive Dorians to the east and southeast, and also the Arcadian Achaeans to the northwest. The evidence suggests that Sparta, relatively inaccessible because of the topography of the Taygetan plain, was secure from early on: it was never fortified. Between the eighth and seventh centuries BC the Spartans experienced a period of lawlessness and civil strife, later testified by both Herodotus and Thucydides. As a result they carried out a series of political and social reforms of their own society which they later attributed to a semi-mythical lawgiver, Lykourgos. These reforms mark the beginning of the history of Classical Sparta. Until the early twentieth century, the chief ancient buildings at Sparta were the theatre, of which, however, little showed above ground except portions of the retaining walls; the so-called Tomb of Leonidas, a quadrangular building, perhaps a temple, constructed of immense blocks of stone and containing two chambers; the foundation of an ancient bridge over the Eurotas; the ruins of a circular structure; some remains of late Roman fortifications; several brick buildings and mosaic pavements. The Greek city-wall, built in successive stages from the 4th to the 2nd century, was traced for a great part of its circuit, which measured 48 stades or nearly 10 km. The temple, which can be dated to the 2nd century BC, rests on the foundation of an older temple of the 6th century, and close beside it were found the remains of a yet earlier temple, dating from the 9th or even the 10th century. The votive offerings in clay, amber, bronze, ivory and lead found in great profusion within the precinct range, dating from the 9th to the 4th centuries BC, supply invaluable evidence for early Spartan art. SL