Before the dawn of Ancient Greece, a vibrant Neolithic and then Bronze Age society thrived in several different

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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

Aegean Civilization
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 account 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.
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Not only did many windowed openings allow light and air into the internal courtyards, but many stairs, open

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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, administrative 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

Aegean Civilization
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.
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Unlike the Minoans, the Mycenaean peoples earned a reputation as fierce warriors, given that their territory was

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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-and-
lintel 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

Aegean Civilization
conical shape, housed hammered gold face masks, bronze swords, pottery, and carved figurines. These beehive
tombs, made with massive rocks, recall Prehistoric passage 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 supporting columns. This megaron plan anticipated the arrangement of many subsequent Ancient
Greek temples.
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Troy was the most powerful kingdom in the Mediterranean sea, and thrived under the long rule of King Priam. His

Troy
many sons, including the valiant, strong, unbeatable Hektor and Paris, a creative character who was not a strong
fighter but a passionate 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 join 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 joined the fighting cause of King Agammenon.

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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 supported the upper floor and the roof of a large hall.

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 Troy
The Troy City The Citadel

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A House Of Lower City A Pillar House Along The Fortification
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The tholos tomb became popular for the burials of entire royal families later in the Mycenaean period. These tombs

Mycenae
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 passage. 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.

Aegean Civilization
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.
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The citadel of Mycenae was probably the greatest and the largest of all the Mycenaean cities. Located on the top of a

Mycenae
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.

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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.
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The prehistory of Sparta is difficult to reconstruct, because the literary evidence is far removed in time from the

Sparta
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

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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.
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