Ancient Greece Architecture

Ancient Greece Architecture

Aegean Civilization (3000 – 1200 B.C.)

• The Aegean Sea is located between Greece and Anatolia (Turkey) with Crete to the south.

Historians' Divisions of Aegean Civilizations

• During the 2nd millennium, historians identify two distinct civilizations.
• These include both the Minoans and Mycenaeans.
• Both of these civilizations contributed to the cultural legacy of classical Greece.

Minoan Civilization (3000 – 1500 B.C.)

• The Minoan civilization centered on the island of Crete, marking it as a crucial Bronze Age culture.
• The civilization gets its name from the legendary King Minos.
• A flourishing economic, political, and social organization defined the Minoan civilization.
• The Minoans possessed a strong fleet, facilitating trade and colonization.
• Early Cretans practiced nature worship, with deities linked to mountains, trees, and animals.
• Sir Arthur Evans's excavations brought the Minoan civilization to light.
• Faience is a glazing technique for earthenware and ceramics, creating bright colors and a sheen.
• The Snake Goddess artifact was discovered in Knossos, Crete, dating back to 1600 B.C.

Minoan Battle Ship

• In 1900, Evans uncovered the ruins of a grand palace at Knossos, Crete
• Knossos became the dominant city in Crete after 1700 B.C.

Minoan Trading Route

• The Minoans were notable sailing traders, active around the Eastern Mediterranean and Aegean seas.
• Cultural exchange occurred among traders sharing these seas.
• Pottery and its contents, tin, copper, timber, weapons, metal vessels, textiles, and amber were all examples of traded goods.

The Palace at Knossos

• This establishment represents the largest of Crete's known palaces.
• It spanned nearly 6 acres and rose at least 3 stories high.
• The palace was constructed using brick and limestone, featuring unique downward-tapering wooden columns.

Origin of the Greek Myth about the Labyrinth

• Knossos served as a commercial, religious, and royal center.

• The Palace at Knossos contained several floors.

• Industry, trade, and justice were administered at the palace.

• Post-and-lintel construction defined the palace, using low ceilings and stone masonry walls.

• Short, downward-tapering wooden columns were a unique architectural feature.

Light-well staircase

• Major ceremonial rooms were situated partially underground.
• Staircases were built around open shafts to bring light and air to these lower levels.

Throne Room

• This room was provided with bench seating along its walls.
• It was used for religious rituals rather than for royal audiences.

Queen's Megaron

• The Queen's Megaron was a pleasant space decorated with frescoes of rosettes and flying dolphins.
• Smaller rooms behind the megaron contained a bathtub and a water closet, connected to the palace's drain system.

Toreador Fresco, Knossos. 1500 B.C.

• This painting represents the sacred character of the bull along with the myth of the Minotaur.
• The fresco shows a ritual sport featuring the bull's sacrifice and the athletes' death.

End of Minoan Civilization (1450 B.C.)

• The volcanic island of Thera (Santorini) erupted.
• It was the most massive and destructive event in history.
• Extensive damage occurred to the island and surrounding areas.
• This was a pivotal cause in the destruction of the Minoans.

Mycenaean Civilization (1600 - 1200 B.C.)

• Mycenae was the center of a powerful Mycenaean Greek civilization.
• The city was a trading society.
• High ground protected the city with mountains around the north and south, flanked by ravines.

The Golden Land

• Graves from this period hold golden objects alongside weapons.

The City of Mycenae

• Mycenae's citadel was strongly defended, unlike undefended complexes such as Knossos

The Bronze Age Citadel at Mycenae

• The citadel held spacious homes for the aristocracy and a royal palace with a central megaron.
• A secret tunnel allowed escape in case of a siege
• Grave Circle A was a cemetery for noble burials.
• The city gate was fortified.

The Lion Gate (1300 B.C.)

• The Lion Gate served as the entrance to Mycenae.
• The gate was positioned such that visitors had to pass through an increasingly narrow passage, letting defenders attack hostile forces before they could reach the entrance.

Corbeled Arch

• Single upright stones supported a lintel, creating a corbeled arch.
• The arch space was filled with a triangular stone bearing a relief sculpture of two lions.
• Corbeled arches were constructed by cantilevering lintels to create an arch.

Cyclopean Structure

• Cyclopean structures, built in prehistoric times, used huge stones and minimal clearance without mortar.

Treasury of Atreus (1300 B.C.)

• Cyclopean structures were used during the prehistoric times.
• The Treasury of Atreus demonstrates corbeled-arch construction.
• The interior showcases the entrance lintel and a door leading to a side chamber referred to as the "Treasury of Atreus".

Mycenaean Megaron

• The megaron was a large room in the Mycenaean palace.
• The megaron had an antechamber, throne room, and columns.

End of Mycenaean Civilization (1100 B.C.)

• The Mycenaean palaces and civilization collapsed around 1100 B.C.
• Various theories suggest economic factors, climatic changes, social upheaval, or invasion from outside.
• Major Mycenaean sites were abandoned.
• There is little information about Greece for 150 years (1050 – 900 B.C.)
• This period is called "The Dark Ages".

Greek World in the Dark Age (1100 – 750 BC)

• No written records survived from this period.
• Homer provides some glimpses into the time.
• Simple political patterns emerged.
• An aristocracy began exerting societal influence.
• Many Greeks migrated from the mainland to various islands.

Parallel Timelines (3000 - 1100 BC)

• 3000-1600 BC (Aegean - Cycladic): Marble figures, Landscape painting, Destruction of Thera.
• 3000-1600 BC (World): Great Pyramids (Giza); Ziggurats (Sumer); Stonehenge (England).
• 3000-1400 BC (Aegean - Minoan): Bronze tools, Knossos and other palace complexes, Gold jewelry.
• 2000-1100 BC (World): Gilgamesh epic (Sumer); Shang Dyns. (China); Stela of Hummurabi (Babylon). -1400-1100 BC (Aegean - Mycenaean): Citadel of Mycenae, Beehive tombs, Treasure of Atreus.

Ancient Greece

• Greece entered a dark decline after the Mycenaean world until about 900 B.C.
• The origins of the Hellenes or Greeks are unknown.

Geography of Ancient Greece

• Greece was divided into independent city-states (polis) because of islands and mountains.
• Warrior aristocracies took hold with main centers such as Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Delphi, and Thebes.
• City-states controlled areas, competing with one another.

Politics

• Monarchy: 2000-1200 BC
• Oligarchy: 1200-600 BC
• Tyranny: 600-500 BC
• Democracy: 500 BC onwards

Three Periods

• Archaic (650 – 490 B.C.)
• Classical (480 – 323 B.C.)
• Hellenistic (323 – 145 B.C.)
• The focus of all three periods was on colonizing areas outside of Greece - the best surviving structures are in Italy and Sicily.

The Archaic Period

• City-states began a program of colonization during this period.
• Trade with the coast of Asia Minor led to new artistic styles and eastern artifacts.
• City-states banded together to defeat the Persian Empire.
• Athens developed into the first democracy.

Building Types

• Houses were founded on stone, with mud-brick superstructures.
• Houses were closed to the public, and had little to no windows.
• Courtyards doubled as workspaces.

Ancient Greece Characteristics

• The Greeks are considered the last of the megalithic architects.
• Greek architects focused on civic architecture rather than tombs and palaces.
• They were more interested in forms such as theatres, council halls, and public porticos.

Megalithic Building

• Egyptian influence inspired the Greeks.
• The Greeks studied Egyptian techniques to develop their own style.
• The Doric order is an example comparing Greek and Egyptian styles.
• Egypt built with stone, and Greeks studied their techniques.

Ancient Greek Temples

• Finest building materials were used.
• Structures served as symbolic dwellings for the deity.
• Early temples featured rectangular interiors known as cella.
• Temples had an entrance porch with columns between projecting walls.
• Early temples had animal sacrificial altars, later replaced with statues.

Ancient City-State of Athens

• Street network and city wall were prominent.
• The acropolis hill stood as a landmark.

Acropolis

• According to Plato, the Acropolis used to cover the area from the Pynx to the rivers Eridanos and Ilissos with Lycabettos mountain at the border.
• Long earthquakes and three cataclysms took away parts of the earth.

Agora

• Agora (II cent AD) had multiple sacred and public houses

Doric Order

• The first (oldest) Greek order, named for the Dorians, was male, squat, severe, and rough.
• The style was widespread in mainland Greece, southern Italy, and Sicily.

Doric Order details

• Cyclopean Structures were constructed during the prehistoric times, using a unique technique.
• They used huge stones as building elements and had minimal clearance between adjacent stones.
• No use of mortar.

Mutulary Doric Details

Temple Details

• The temple front should appear as it is meant to.
• To give the Parthenon the designed shape, architectural aspects were adjusted.
• The physical corrections (exaggerated) were made so it would appear to be as it should.

Temple of Hera at Paestum (550 B.C.)

• The original Greek name was Poseidonia.
• This structure was built in the Doric order.
• Paestum is known for its three ancient Greek temples, two to Hera and one to Athena.

Ionic Order Details

• The Ionic order was developed around 590 B.C. - it is more slender than the Doric style.
• Ionic temples were erected in Sicily and on the Acropolis in Athens.

Temple of Athena Nike (420 BC)

• As Nike means "victory" (in Greek), the Temple of Athena Nike signifies the nation.
• It is the earliest fully Ionic temple in the Acropolis of Athens.
• Built as an expression of Athens's ambition to lead Greek city-states.

Corinthian Order

• Evidence indicates the Corinthian Order existed from the late 5th century B.C.
• It was associated with a "feminine" character.
• The order was mainly used in interiors

Tholos Temple (380 – 360 BC)

• The design is a round temple with a concentric composition.
• The exterior presents 20 Doric columns, measuring 14.76 m in exterior diameter.

The Classical Period

• The Persians attacked the Greek empire.
• The Greek navy secured a victory over the Persians near Salamis.
• It was the golden age of Greek art.
• There was a high sense of conviction in the body's underlying organic structure.
• Figures had a sense of organic animation.

Contrapposto

• The Contrapposto sculptures shifted in the Classical Period

The Persian War (490 – 480 BC)

• Marathon (490 BC)
• Thermopylae (480 BC)
• Salamis (480 BC)

Greek Colonization, 750 – 500 BC

• Greeks settled throughout the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions.

The Parthenon, Athens. 448 B.C.

• The building symbolizes a temple to Athena, in Athens.
• The Persians destroyed the older Parthenon in 480 B.C.
• Iktinos and Kallikrates designed and built the new marble temple
• The earlier Greek structure expresses proportional balance and unity.

The Parthenon design

• It was constructed as a rectangle and divided into 2 smaller rectangular rooms.
• They cut the marble blocks and fitted with no mortar.
• There were 4 inner Ionic columns
• The temple had continuous Ionic frieze

The Erechtheum, Athens. 421 – 407 B.C.

• It sits on the Northern side of the Acropolis with an uneven site.
• It replaced an old temple to Athena holding a wooden statue of the goddess.
• Ionic structure was chosen for the temple built 2 levels high to support the site.

Caryatids Details

• The cayatids illustrate the harmonious metaphorical relationship between ideal and organic, human and abstract.
• 2 differing levels includes the eastern and north porticos.

Peloponnesian War (431 – 404 BC)

• Dissension between Athens and former allies after the Persian wars.
• Mainly between the Spartans and the Athenians
• Macedonians reshape easter mediterranean

Hellenistic Period

• During this time the Roman empire was built.
• Theatricality and melodrama demonstrated strong emotion, and symmetry was abandoned.
• "Hellenistic" marks the art that was associated with Alexander and his successors.

The Theater

• During the period, structures for performances were made for theaters.
• The word's speaker was heard among all the seats in the areas.
• Theaters situated at natural slopes and wanted harmony with nature: minimal requirements were to built one into a hill, provide a area, and perform at area

The Death of Alexander the Great

• The Hellenistic taste for emotion, energetic movement, and exaggerated musculature.
• The highly dramatic frieze contrasts with the colonnade building above.