Friday, August 30, 2013

LH pottery typically stored such goods as olive oil and wine

LH pottery typically stored such goods as olive oil and wine. LHI ware had reached Santorini just before the Thera eruption. LHIIB began during LMIB, and has been found in Egypt during the reign of Tuthmosis III. LHIIB spanned the LMIB/LMII destruction on Crete, which is associated with the Greek takeover of the island. Sony VAIO PCG-31311M Battery
LHIIIA:1 corresponds with the reign of Amenhotep III, who recorded with the heading ti-n3-y 'Danaans' (Mycenaean *Danawoi) the apparently equal cities d-y-q-e-i-s 'Thebes' (Mycenaean *Thegʷais) and m-w-k-i-n-u 'Mycenae' (Mycenaean *Mukanai). Sony VAIO PCG-8152M Battery

LHIIIA:1 also corresponds with the time of Attarsiya, the Man of Ahhiya, who alternately attacked and aided the rebel Madduwatta of Zippasla.[20] Ahhiya and its LHIIIA:2-B derivative, Ahhiyawa, can be linked to Greece only indirectly. The Hittites did not use any term approximating ti-n3-y; and they did not link Ahhiya, with these cities, or any other projected LBA names of known Greek cities. Sony VAIO PCG-61111M Battery

Also, no "Attarsiyas layer" of LHIIIA:1 has yet been found in western Anatolia. Still, Ahhiya must refer to a powerful people off the coast of Miletus, and Greece is the best available option at this time.

LHIIIA:1-period ti-n3-y / "Ahhiya" (and for that matter LHIIIA:1 Greece) did not feature otherwise in the inscriptions of the great kings of the Bronze Age, and certainly not as a coherent state. Sony PCG-71213M Battery

LHIIIA:2 ware was in the Uluburun shipwreck, and was in use at Miletus before Mursili II burned it ca 1320 BC. At this time, actual maritime trade was the specialty of the Cypriots and Phoenicians (so the presence of LH ware does not necessarily mean the presence of Mycenaeans). Sony PCG-71311M Battery

During the LHIIIA:2 period, kings of "Ahhiyawa" began to come to the attention of the Hittites, possibly as rulers of the "Achaean" states. In LHIIIB, they rose almost to the status of the Great Kings in Egypt and Assyria. LHIIIB is also the period of Linear B script at the mainland palaces; prior to then, Linear B was in use primarily in the Cyclades and Crete. Sony PCG-71312M Battery

The term "Submycenaean" was introduced in 1934 by T. C. Skeat.[21] but this is now regarded as a pottery style rather than a distinct period. Current opinion sees this style as the final stage of Late Helladic IIIC (and perhaps not even a very significant one).[22] Arne Furumark already termed it LHIIIC:2 in his monumental "Mycenaean Pottery: Sony PCG-71212M Battery

Analysis and Classification" (Stockholm 1941). This pottery is best known from the cemeteries of Kerameikos in Athens, the island of Salamis located in the Saronic Gulf off Attica, Skoubris in Lefkandi (Euboea), and the markets of Athens (Agora), Tiryns, and Mycenae.

Since the decipherment of the somewhat younger Linear B tabletsSony VAIO PCG-5J4M Battery

, it is thought that the people we call Mycenaeans might have been Achaeans or later subjected by them. No written source found at a Mycenaean site reveals what they called themselves. Upon a reading of the Iliad, where the residents of the Peloponnesus and adjacent islands are often called Achaeans, and taking into account mention of the Ahhiyawa[23] in Hittite sources from the Late Bronze Age, Sony VAIO PCG-5K1M Battery

the theory suggests itself that the Mycenaeans could possibly even be Achaeans.[24] The Tawagalawa Letter[25] written by an unnamed Hittite king of the empire period (14th–13th century BC) to the king of Ahhiyawa, treating him as an equal, suggests that Miletus (Millawanda) was under his control and refers to an earlier Sony VAIO PCG-5K2M Battery

"Wilusaepisode" involving hostility on the part of Ahhiyawa. Ahhiya(wa) has been identified with the Achaeans of the Trojan War and the city of Wilusa with the legendary city of Troy. However the exact relationship of the term Ahhiyawa to the Achaeans beyond a similarity in pronunciation is hotly debated by scholars, Sony VAIO PCG-5J5M Battery

even following the discovery that Mycenaean Linear B is an early form of Greek; the earlier debate was summed up in 1984 by Hans G. Güterbock of the Oriental Institute.

In the absence of direct sources, the general political organization of the Mycenaean world cannot be known with certainty. Sony VAIO PCG-5L2M Battery

In the tradition recorded centuries later in Homer, there were several states, the cities of the Iliad: Mycenae, Pylos, Orchomenos—which are known to archaeology—and perhaps also unconfirmed Sparta or Ithaca. Only the states of Pylos and Knossos are clearly attested in the Linear B texts. Sony VAIO PCG-6S4M Battery

Even so, it is impossible to know which was the dominant political center in Argolis, if there indeed was one. Possible candidates are Mycenae, Tiryns, Argos, Athens, Gla, and Iolcos. In Argolis, Mycenae seems to have enjoyed a hegemonial position for some time, while in Boiotia the rulers of the great fortification of Gla probably played a leading role. Sony VAIO PCG-6W1M Battery

The existence of a persistent unified state in Greece during the Mycanaean era is unlikely, especially due to lack of some important preconditions, such as an educated bureaucracy. Even the Minoan writing, imported from Crete, seems not to have been in widespread use in mainland Greece.[27] Sony VAIO PCG-6W2M Battery

Connection of the mention of a King of the Ahhiyawa in Hittite sources with the King of the Achaeans, the Mycenaean king Agamemnon of the Iliad, rests on the insecure foundations of an Ahhiyawa/Achaean identity; the very location of the Ahhiyawa kingdom remains a matter for debate; Sony VAIO PCG-7Z1M Battery

it has been suggested it may have been in Asia Minor, Rhodes or Peloponesus.

On a smaller scale, some uncertain information about the internal organization of the best-known kingdoms, Pylos and Knossos, can be gleaned from sources in Linear B.

The state appears to have been ruled by a king, the wa-na-ka (ϝάναξ / wánax), Sony VAIO PCG-8Y2M Battery

whose role was no doubt military, judicial, and religious. He is identifiable in the Homeric anax (ἄναξ) ("divine lord, sovereign, host"). Nine occurrences of the word in texts having to do with offerings suggest that the sovereigns of Pylos and Knossos were probably worshiped, but the term "for the king" is usually accompanied by another name. Sony VAIO PCG-8Y3M Battery

The term qa-si-re-u (cf. βασιλεύς / "basileús") which was later used in Greece for "king" , seems that was used for the "chief" of any group of people. ( Later Homer mentions many basilees inIthaca).

The land posessed by the king is usually the te-me-no (τέμενος / "témenos"). Sony VAIO PCG-8Z1M Battery

Other important land owners were the ra-wa-ke-ta ("lāwāgetas"), the leader of the people , and the te-re-ta ("telestai"), the officials. Lawagetas could be the leader of the army, but it is not confirmed by the inscriptions. The e-qe-ta("equetai"), literally, "the companions" or "followers", were a group of nobles (aristocrats), who followed the king in piece and war.[28] Sony VAIO PCG-8Z2M Battery

Besides the members of the court, there were other dignitaries in charge of local territorial administration. The kingdom of Pylos was divided into two great provinces, the de-we-ra ka-ra-i-ja, the near province, and the pe-ra-ko-ra-i-ja, the far province, around the town of re-u-ko-to-ro. Sony VAIO PCG-8Z3M Battery

The kingdom was further subdivided into sixteen districts. To manage these districts, the king named a ko-re-te (koreter, '"governor") and a po-ro-ko-re-te (prokoreter, "deputy"). Ada-mo-ko-ro (damokoros, "one who takes care of a damos"), was an official appointment probably in charge of the commune. Sony VAIO PCG-7112M Battery

The communal land was held at the hands of da-mo (literally, "people", cf. δῆμος / dễmos), or "plot holders" that probably expressed the voice of the district.[28] A council of elders was chaired, the ke-ro-si-ja (cf. γερουσία / gerousía). It is, incidentally, interesting to note that in Classical Greece, the basileus is the king, the monarch, Sony VGP-BPL15/B Battery

as if between the disintegration of Mycenaean society and the Classical Age no higher authority survived — de facto, and then, over the generations, de jure — than the communal official.

Mycenaean society appears to have been divided into two groups of free men: the king's entourage, who conducted administrative duties at the palace, and the people, da-mo (demos), Sony VGP-BPS15/B Battery

who lived at the commune level; these last were watched over by royal agents and were obliged to perform duties for and pay taxes to the palace.

Among those who evolved in the palace setting could be found well-to-do high officials who probably lived in the vast residences found in proximity to Mycenaean palaces, but also others, Sony VGP-BPL15/S Battery

tied by their work to the palace and not necessarily better off than the members of the da-mo: craftsmen, farmers, and perhaps merchants, to name a few. On a lower rung of the social ladder were found the slaves, do-e-ro (masculine) and do-e-ra (feminine) (cf. δούλος / doúlos). These are recorded in the texts as working either for the palace or for specific deities. Sony VGP-BPS15/S Battery

By the close of the Bronze Age (up to Late Helladic IIIC) contacts between the Aegean and its neighbours were well established. Mycenaean connection extended as far as southern Spain while Mycenaean pottery, for example, has been found in Sardinia, Southern Italy and Sicily, Sony VGP-BPS15 Battery

Asia Minor (amongst others at the settlement of Milawatta, modern Miletus,high-quality Palace style and Mycenaean ceramics have been recovered),Cyprus,] the Levant[and Egypt (especially Tell el Amarna). The circulation of goods and produce between centres are attested in Linear B records, though evidence of direct exchange is not. Sony VGP-BPL15 Battery

The economic organization of the Mycenaean kingdoms known from the texts seems to have been bipartite: a first group worked in the orbit of the palace, while another was self-employed. This reflects the societal structure seen above. But there was nothing to prevent a person working for the palace from running his own business. Sony VGN-P series Battery

The economy was supervised by scribes, who made note of incoming and outgoing products, assigned work, and were in charge of the distribution of rations. Thedu-ma-te seems to have been a sort of supervising quartermaster.

The territory of the Mycenaean kingdoms of Pylos and Knossos was divided into two parts: Sony VGN-P11Z/Q Battery

the ki-ti-me-na, the palace land, and the ke-ke-me-na, the communal land, cultivated by those the texts call ka-ma-na-e-we, undoubtedly the da-mo. The palace lands are those attested in the texts. One part makes up the te-me-noof the wa-ka-na and of the ra-wa-ge-ta, as seen above. Sony VGN-P11Z/R Battery

The other part was granted as a perquisite to members of the palace administration. These lands might be worked by slaves or by free men to whom the land had been leased.

Agricultural production in these kingdoms reflected the traditional "Mediterranean trilogy": grain, olives, and grapes. The grains cultivated were wheat andbarley. Sony VGN-P11Z/W Battery

Olive orchards were planted for the production of olive oil. This was not only a foodstuff, it was much used as a body oil and in perfume. Grapes were also cultivated, and several varieties of wine were produced. Besides these, flax was grown for linen clothing and sesame for its oil, and trees were planted, such as the fig. Sony VGN-P21S/W Battery

Livestock consisted primarily of sheep and goats. Cows and pigs were less common. Horses were kept chiefly for the pulling of chariots in battle.

The organization of artisanal labor is especially well known in the case of the palace. Sony VGN-P21Z/G Battery

The archives of Pylos show a specialized workforce, each worker belonging to a precise category and assigned to a specific place in the stages of production, notably in textiles.

The textile industry was one of the principal sectors of the Mycenaean economy. Sony VGN-P21Z/R Battery

The tablets of Knossos reveal the entire chain of production, from the flocks of sheep to the stocking of the palace storerooms with the finished product, through the shearing and the sorting of the wool in the workshops, as well as working conditions in those workshops. The palace of Pylos employed around 550 textile workers. Sony VGN-P29VN/Q Battery

At Knossos there were some 900. Fifteen different textile specialties have been identified. Next to wool, flax was the fiber most used.

The metallurgical industry is well attested at Pylos, where 400 workers were employed. It is known from the sources that metal was distributed to them, that they might carry out the required work: Sony VGP-BPS18 Battery

on average, 3.5 kilograms (7.7 lb) of bronze per smith. On the other hand, it is not known how they were paid — they are mysteriously absent in the ration distribution lists. At Knossos, several tablets testify to the making of swords, but with no mention of the true industry of metallurgy. Sony VGP-BPL18 Battery

The industry of perfumery is attested as well. Tablets describe the making of perfumed oil. It is known, too, from the archaeology that the workers attached to the palace included other kinds of artisans: goldsmiths, ivory-carvers, stonecarvers, and potters, for example. Olive oil was also made there. Certain areas of endeavor were turned toward export. Sony VGP-BPL18 Battery

Commerce remains curiously absent from the written sources. Thus, once the perfumed oil of Pylos has been stored in its little jars, the inscriptions do not reveal what became of it. Large stirrup jars that once contained oil have been found at Thebes, in Boeotia. They carry inscriptions in Linear B indicating their place of origin, western Crete. Sony VGP-BPS26 Battery

Sony VGP-BPL26 Battery

However, Cretan tablets say nothing about the exportation of oil. There is little information about the distribution route of textiles. It is known that the Minoans exported fine fabrics to Egypt; the Mycenaeans no doubt did the same. Indeed, it is probable that they borrowed knowledge of navigational matters from the Minoans, Sony VGP-BPS26A Battery

as is evidenced by the fact that their maritime commerce did not take off until after the founding of the Minoan civilization. Despite the lack of sources, it is probable that certain products, notably fabrics and oil, even metal objects, were meant to be sold outside the kingdom, for they were made in quantities too great to be consumed solely at home. Sony VGP-BPS22 Battery

Archaeology can, however, shed some light on the matter of the exportation of Mycenaean products outside of Greece. A number of vases have been found in the Aegean, in Anatolia, the Levant, Egypt and farther west in Sicily, even in Central Europe and as far away as Great Britain.[51] Sony VGP-BPL22 Battery

In a general way, the circulation of Mycenaean goods is traceable thanks to nodules, ancestors of the modern label. They consisted of small balls of clay, molded with the fingers around a lanyard (probably of leather) with which they were attached to the object. The nodule displayed the imprint of a seal and an ideogram representing the object. Sony VGP-BPS22A Battery
Other information was sometimes added: quality, origin, destination, etc.

Fifty-six nodules found at Thebes in 1982 carry an ideogram representing an ox. Thanks to them, the itinerary of these bovines can be reconstructed. From all over Boeotia, even from Euboea, they were taken to Thebes to be sacrificed. Sony VAIO PCG-3B1M Battery

The nodules served to prove that they were not stolen animals and to prove their origin. Once the animals arrived at their destination, the nodules were removed and gathered to create a book-keeping tablet. The nodules were used for all sorts of objects and explain how Mycenaean book-keeping could have been so rigorous. Sony VAIO PCG-3D1M Battery
The scribe did not have to count the objects themselves, he could base his tables upon the nodules.

The religious element is difficult to identify in Mycenaean civilization, especially as regards archaeological sites, where it remains problematic to pick out a place of worship with certainty. Sony VAIO PCG-3G2M Battery

John Chadwick points out [52] that at least six centuries lie between the earliest settling of proto-Greek speakers in Hellas and the earliest Linear B inscriptions, during which concepts and practices will have fused with indigenous beliefs, and—if cultural influences in material culture reflect influences in religious beliefs—with Minoan religion. Sony VAIO PCG-5R1M Battery

As for these texts, the few lists of offerings that give names of gods as recipients of goods reveal nothing about religious practices, and there is no surviving literature. John Chadwick rejected a confusion of Minoan and Mycenaean religion derived from archaeological correlations [53] Sony VAIO PCG-7162M Battery

and cautioned against "the attempt to uncover the prehistory of classical Greek religion by conjecturing its origins and guessing the meaning of its myths"[54] above all through treacherous etymologies.[55] Moses I. Finley [56] detected very few authentic Mycenaean reflections in the eighth-century Homeric world, in spite of its "Mycenaean" setting. Sony VAIO PCG-7181M Battery

However Nilsson based not on the uncertain etymologies but on religious elements, on the representations and on the general function of the gods, asserts that a lot of Minoan gods and religious conceptions were fused in the Mycenean religion. From the existing evidence it seems that the Mycenean religion was the mother of the Greek religion.[57] Sony VAIO PCG-41112M Battery
The Mycenaean pantheon already included many divinities that can be found in Classical Greece.[58]

Poseidon (Po-se-da-o) seems to have occupied a place of privilege. He was a chthonic deity, connected with the earthquakes (E-ne-si-da-o-ne: earth shaker), Sony VAIO PCG-7153M Battery

but it seems that he also represented the river spirit of the underworld as it often happens in Northern European folklore.[59] Also to be found are a collection of "Ladies" .On a number of tablets from Pylos, we find Po-ti-ni-ja (potnia: lady or mistress) without any accompanying word. Chadwick suggests that she was the mother-goddess of the Mycenaeans. Sony VAIO PCG-71312M Battery

It seems that she had an important shrine at the site Pakijanes near Pylos.[60] In an inscription at Knossos in Crete, we find the "mistress of the Labyrinth" (da-pu-ri-to po-ti-ni-ja), who calls to mind the myth of the Minoan labyrinth. The title was applied to many goddesses. In aLinear B tablet found at Pylos the "two queens and the king" (wa-na-ssoi, wa-na-ka-te) are mentioned, Sony VAIO PCG-7144M Battery
and John Chadwick relates these with the precursor goddesses of Demeter, Persephone and Poseidon.[60][61]

Demeter and her daughter Persephone, the goddesses of the Eleusinian mysteries, were usually referred to as "the two goddesses" or "the mistresses" in historical times.[62] Sony VAIO PCG-7191L Battery

Inscriptions in Linear B found at Pylos, mention the goddesses Pe-re-swa, who may be related with Persephone, and Si-to po-ti-ni-ja,[63]who is an agricultural goddess.[60]( A cult title of Demeter is "Sito" (σίτος: wheat) [64] The mysteries were established during the Mycenean period (1500 BC) at the city Eleusis[65] and it seems that they were based on a pre-Greek vegetation cult with Minoan elements.[66] Sony VAIO PCG-3C1M Battery

The cult was originally private and we don't have any information about it, but certain elements suggest that it could have similarities with the cult of Despoina ("the mistress")-the precursor goddess of Persephone- in isolated Arcadia that survived up to classical times. In the primitive Arcadian myth Poseidon, Sony VAIO PCG-3F1M Battery

the river spirit of the underworld appears as a horse (Poseidon Hippios). He pursues Demeter who becomes a mare and from the union she bears the fabulous horse Arion and a daughter, "Despoina", who obviously originally had the shape or the head of a mare. Pausanias mentions animal-headed statues of Demeter and of other gods in Arcadia. Sony VAIO PCG-3H1M Battery

At Lycosura on a marble relief appear figures of women with the heads of different animals, obviously in a ritual dance.[67] This could explain a Mycenaean fresco from 1400 BC that represents a procession with animal masks[68] and the procession of "daemons" in front of a goddess on a goldring from Tiryns.[69] Sony VAIO PCG-3J1M Battery

The Greek myth of the Minotaur probably originated from a similar "daemon".[70] In the cult of Despoina at Lycosura the two goddesses are closely connected with the springs and the animals, and especially with Poseidon and Artemis, the "mistress of the animals" who was the first nymph. Sony VAIO PCG-8141M Battery
The existence of the nymphs was bound to the trees or the waters which they haunted.Artemis appears as a daughter of Demeter in the Arcadian cults [71] and she became the most popular goddess in Greece. The earliest attested forms of the nameArtemis are the Mycenaean Greek a-te-mi-to and a-ti-mi-te, written in Linear B at Pylos.[72] Sony VAIO PCG-8161M Battery

Her precursor goddess (probably the Minoan Britomartis) is represented between two lions on a Minoan seal and also on some goldrings from Mycenae.[73] The representations are quite similar with these of "Artemis Orthia" at Sparta. In her temple at Sparta have been found wooden masks representing human faces, Sony VAIO PCG-3C2M Battery,Sony VAIO PCG-5N2M Battery,Sony VAIO PCG-5P1M Battery

The Romans divided the region into four smaller republics

TheAchaean League, while nominally subject to the Ptolemies was in effect independent, and controlled most of southern Greece. Sparta also remained independent, but generally refused to join any league.

In 267 BC, Ptolemy II persuaded the Greek cities to revolt against Macedon, in what became the Chremonidean War, after the Athenian leader Chremonides. HP Compaq HSTNN-MB05 Battery

The cities were defeated and Athens lost her independence and her democratic institutions. This marked the end of Athens as a political actor, although it remained the largest, wealthiest and most cultivated city in Greece. In 225 BC Macedon defeated the Egyptian fleet at Cos and brought the Aegean islands, except Rhodes, under its rule as well. HP Compaq HSTNN-OB06 Battery

Sparta remained hostile to the Achaeans, and in 227 BC invaded Achaea and seized control of the League. The remaining Acheans preferred distant Macedon to nearby Sparta, and allied with the former. In 222 BC the Macedonian army defeated the Spartans and annexed their city—the first time Sparta had ever been occupied by a different state. HP Compaq HSTNN-OB52 Battery

Philip V of Macedon was the last Greek ruler with both the talent and the opportunity to unite Greece and preserve its independence against the ever-increasing power of Rome. Under his auspices, the Peace of Naupactus(217 BC) brought conflict between Macedon and the Greek leagues to an end, and at this time he controlled all of Greece except Athens, Rhodes and Pergamum. HP Compaq HSTNN-OB62 Battery

In 215 BC, however, Philip formed an alliance with Rome's enemy Carthage. Rome promptly lured the Achaean cities away from their nominal loyalty to Philip, and formed alliances with Rhodes and Pergamum, now the strongest power in Asia Minor. The First Macedonian War broke out in 212 BC, and ended inconclusively in 205 BC, but Macedon was now marked as an enemy of Rome. HP Compaq HSTNN-UB05 Battery

In 202 BC, Rome defeated Carthage, and was free to turn her attention eastwards. In 198 BC, the Second Macedonian War broke out because Rome saw Macedon as a potential ally of the Seleucid Empire, the greatest power in the east. Philip's allies in Greece deserted him and in 197 BC he was decisively defeated at the Battle of Cynoscephalae by the Roman proconsul Titus Quinctius Flaminius. HP Compaq HSTNN-UB11 Battery

Luckily for the Greeks, Flaminius was a moderate man and an admirer of Greek culture. Philip had to surrender his fleet and become a Roman ally, but was otherwise spared. At the Isthmian Games in 196 BC, Flaminius declared all the Greek cities free, although Roman garrisons were placed at Corinth and Chalcis. HP Compaq HSTNN-UB18 Battery

But the freedom promised by Rome was an illusion. All the cities except Rhodes were enrolled in a new League which Rome ultimately controlled, and aristocratic constitutions were favoured and actively promoted.

Militarily, Greece itself declined to the point that the Romans conquered the land (168 BC onwards), HP Compaq HSTNN-UB68 Battery

though Greek culture would in turn conquer Roman life. Although the period of Roman rule in Greece is conventionally dated as starting from the sacking of Corinth by the Roman Lucius Mummius in 146 BC, Macedonia had already come under Roman control with the defeat of its king, Perseus, by the Roman Aemilius Paullus at Pydna in 168 BC. HP Compaq HSTNN-UB69 Battery

The Romans divided the region into four smaller republics, and in 146 BC Macedonia officially became a province, with its capital at Thessalonica. The rest of the Greek city-states gradually and eventually paid homage to Rome ending their de jure autonomy as well. The Romans left local administration to the Greekswithout making any attempt to abolish traditional political patterns. HP Compaq HSTNN-W42C Battery

The agora in Athens continued to be the centre of civic and political life.

Caracalla's decree in AD 212, the Constitutio Antoniniana, extended citizenship outside Italy to all free adult men in the entire Roman Empire, effectively raising provincial populations to equal status with the city of Rome itself. HP Compaq HSTNN-W42C-A Battery

The importance of this decree is historical, not political. It set the basis for integration where the economic and judicial mechanisms of the state could be applied throughout the Mediterranean as was once done from Latium into all Italy. In practice of course, integration did not take place uniformly. HP Compaq HSTNN-W42C-B Battery

Societies already integrated with Rome, such as Greece, were favored by this decree, in comparison with those far away, too poor or just too alien such as Britain, Palestine or Egypt.

Caracalla's decree did not set in motion the processes that led to the transfer of power from Italy and the West to Greece and the East, but rather accelerated them, HP Compaq HSTNN-XB0E Battery

setting the foundations for the millennium-long rise of Greece, in the form of the Eastern Roman Empire, as a major power in Europe and the Mediterraneanin the Middle Ages.

The history of the East Roman or Byzantine Empire is described by Byzantinist August Heisenberg as the history of "the Christianized Roman empire of the Greek nation".[13] HP Compaq HSTNN-XB11 Battery

The division of the empire into East and West and the subsequent collapse of the Western Roman Empire were developments that constantly accentuated the position of the Greeks in the empire and eventually allowed them to become identified with it altogether. HP Compaq HSTNN-XB18 Battery

The leading role of Constantinople began when Constantine the Great turned Byzantium into the new capital of the Roman Empire, from then on to be known asConstantinople, placing the city at the center of Hellenism a beacon for the Greeks that lasted to the modern era.

The figures of Constantine the Great and Justinian dominated during 324–610. HP Compaq HSTNN-XB21 Battery

Assimilating the Roman tradition, the emperors sought to offer the basis for later developments and for the formation of the Byzantine Empire. Efforts to secure the borders of the Empire and to restore the Roman territories marked the early centuries. At the same time, the definitive formation and establishment of the Orthodox doctrine, HP Compaq HSTNN-XB24 Battery

but also a series of conflicts resulting from heresies that developed within the boundaries of the empire marked the early period of Byzantine history.

In the first period of the middle Byzantine era (610–867) the empire was attacked both by old enemies (Persians,Lombards, Avars and Slavs) as well as by new ones, appearing for the first time in history (Arabs, Bulgars). HP Compaq HSTNN-XB28 Battery

The main characteristic of this period was that the enemy attacks were not localized to the border areas of the state but they were extended deep beyond, even threatening the capital itself. At the same time, these attacks lost their periodical and temporary character and became permanent settlements that transformed into new states, HP Compaq HSTNN-XB51 Battery

hostile to Byzantium. Those states were referred by the Byzantines as Sclavinias.

Changes were also observed in the internal structure of the empire which was dictated by both external and internal conditions. The predominance of the small free farmers, the expansion of the military estates and the development of the system of themes, HP Compaq HSTNN-XB52 Battery

brought to completion developments that had started in the previous period. Changes were noted also in the sector of administration: the administration and society had become immiscibly Greek, while the restoration of Orthodoxy after the iconoclast movement, HP Compaq HSTNN-XB59 Battery

allowed the successful resumption of missionary action among neighboring peoples and their placement within the sphere of Byzantine cultural influence. During this period the state was geographically reduced and economically damaged, since it lost wealth-producing regions; however, it obtained greater lingual, dogmatic and cultural homogeneity. HP Compaq HSTNN-XB61 Battery

From the late 8th century, the Empire began to recover from the devastating impact of successive invasions, and the reconquest of Greece began. Greeks fromSicily and Asia Minor were brought in as settlers. The Slavs were either driven out or assimilated and the Sclavinias were eliminated. HP Compaq HSTNN-XB62 Battery

By the middle of the 9th century, Greece was Greek again, and the cities began to recover due to improved security and the restoration of effective central control.

When the Byzantine Empire was rescued from a period of crisis by the resolute leadership of the three Komnenoi emperors Alexios, Johnand Manuel in the 12th century, HP Compaq HSTNN-XB68 Battery

Greece prospered. Recent research has revealed that this period was a time of significant growth in the rural economy, with rising population levels and extensive tracts of new agricultural land being brought into production. The widespread construction of new rural churches is a strong indication that prosperity was being generated even in remote areas. HP Compaq HSTNN-XB69 Battery

A steady increase in population led to a higher population density, and there is good evidence that the demographic increase was accompanied by the revival of towns. According to Alan Harvey in his book ‘’Economic expansion in the Byzantine Empire 900–1200’’, towns expanded significantly in the twelfth century. HP Compaq HSTNN-XB85 Battery

Archaeological evidence shows an increase in the size of urban settlements, together with a ‘notable upsurge’ in new towns. Archaeological evidence tells us that many of the medieval towns, including Athens,Thessaloniki, Thebes and Corinth, experienced a period of rapid and sustained growth, starting in the 11th century and continuing until the end of the 12th century.Sony PCG-31211T Battery

The growth of the towns attracted the Venetians, and this interest in trade appears to have further increased economic prosperity in Greece. Certainly, the Venetians and others were active traders in the ports of the Holy Land, and they made a living out of shipping goods between the Crusader Kingdoms of Outremer and the West while also trading extensively with Byzantium and Egypt. Sony PCG-31311T Battery

The 11th and 12th centuries are said to be the Golden Age of Byzantine art in Greece. Many of the most important Byzantine churches in and around Athens, for example, were built during these two centuries, and this reflects the growth of urbanisation in Greece during this period. Sony PCG-51111T Battery

There was also a revival in the mosaic art with artists showing great interest in depicting natural landscapes with wild animals and scenes from the hunt. Mosaics became more realistic and vivid, with an increased emphasis on depicting three-dimensional forms. With its love of luxury and passion for color, Sony PCG-81111T Battery

the art of this age delighted in the production of masterpieces that spread the fame of Byzantium throughout the Christian world.Beautiful silks from the work-shops of Constantinople also portrayed in dazzling color animals—lions, elephants, eagles, and griffins—confronting each other, or representing Emperors gorgeously arrayed on horseback or engaged in the chase. Sony PCG-81311T Battery

The eyes of many patrons were attracted and the economy of Greece grew. In the provinces, regional schools of Architecture began producing many distinctive styles that drew on a range of cultural influences. All this suggests that there was an increased demand for art, with more people having access to the necessary wealth to commission and pay for such work. Sony VPCF138FC Battery

Yet the marvelous expansion of Byzantine art during this period, one of the most remarkable facts in the history of the empire, did not stop there. From the tenth to the 12th century Byzantium was the main source of inspiration for the West. By their style, arrangement, and iconography the mosaics of St. Sony VPCF219FC Battery

Mark's at Venice and of the cathedral at Torcello clearly show their Byzantine origin. Similarly those of the Palatine Chapel, the Martorana at Palermo, and the cathedral of Cefalu, together with the vast decoration of the cathedral at Monreale, prove the influence of Byzantium οn the Norman Court of Sicily in the 12th century. Sony VPCS135EC Battery

Hispano-Moorish art was unquestionably derived from the Byzantine. Romanesque art owes much to the East, from which it borrowed not only its decorative forms but the plan of some of its buildings, as is proved, for instance, by the domed churches of south-western France. Princes of Kiev, Sony VPCS136EC Battery

Venetian doges, abbots ofMonte Cassino, merchants of Amalfi, and the Norman kings of Sicily all looked to Byzantium for artists or works of art. Such was the influence of Byzantine art in the 12th century, that Russia, Venice, southern Italy and Sicily all virtually became provincial centers dedicated to its production. Sony VPCS138EC Battery

The year 1204 marks the beginning of the late Byzantine period, when probably the most important event for the Empire occurred. Constantinople was lost for the Greek people for the first time, and the empire was conquered by Latin crusaders and would be replaced by a new Latin one, for 57 years. Sony VPCS139GC Battery

In addition, the period of Latin occupation decisively influenced the empire's internal development, as elements of feudality entered aspects of Byzantine life.In 1261 the Greek empire was divided between the former Greek Byzantine Comnenos dynasty members (Epirus) and Palaiologos dynasty (the last dynasty until the fall of Constantinople). Sony VPCYA15EC Battery

After the gradual weakening of the structures of the Greek Byzantine state and the reduction of its land from Turkish invasions, came the fall of the Greek Byzantine Empire, at the hands of the Ottomans, in 1453, when the Byzantine period is considered to have ended.

When the Ottomans arrived, two Greek migrations occurred. Sony VPCYA16EC Battery

The first migration entailed the Greek intelligentsia migrating to Western Europe and influencing the advent of the Renaissance. The second migration entailed Greeks leaving the plains of the Greek peninsula and resettling in the mountains.[14] Sony VPCYA25EC Battery

The millet system contributed to the ethnic cohesion of Orthodox Greeks by segregating the various peoples within the Ottoman Empire based on religion.

The Greeks living in the plains during Ottoman domination were either Christians who dealt with the burdens of foreign rule or Crypto-Christians (Greek Muslims who were secret practitioners of the Greek Orthodox faith). Sony VPCYA26EC Battery

Some Greeks became Crypto-Christians to avoid heavy taxes and at the same time express their identity by maintaining their ties to the Greek Orthodox Church. However, Greeks who converted to Islam and were not Crypto-Christians were deemed Turks in the eyes of Orthodox Greeks, even if they didn't adopt Turkish language. Sony VPCYB15JC Battery

The Ottomans ruled Greece until the early 19th century.

In the early months of 1821, the Greeks declared their independence but did not achieve it until 1829. The Great Powers first shared the same view concerning the necessity of preserving the status quo of theOttoman Empire, but soon changed their stance. Sony VPCYA17GH/R Battery

Scores of non-Greeks volunteered to fight for the cause, including Lord Byron.

On 20 October 1827, a combined British, French and Russian naval force destroyed the Ottoman and Egyptian armada. The Russian minister of foreign affairs, Ioannis Kapodistrias, himself a Greek, returned home as President of the new Republic. Sony VPCCW2S8E/W Battery

The first capital of the idependent Greece was Aigina (1828–1829) and the second was Nafplio (1828–1834). After his assassination the European powers helped turn Greece into a monarchy; the first King, Otto, came from Bavaria and the second, George I, from Denmark. King Otto, in 1934 transferted the capital to Athens. Sony VPCCW2Z1E/B Battery

During the 19th and early 20th centuries Greece sought to enlarge its boundaries to include the ethnic Greek population of the Ottoman Empire. The Ionian Islands were returned by Britain upon the arrival of the new King George I in 1863 and Thessaly was ceded by the Ottomans. Sony VPCY11S1E Battery

As a result of the Balkan Wars of 1912–13 Epirus, southern Macedonia, Crete and the Aegean Islands were annexed into the Kingdom of Greece. Another enlargement followed in 1947, when Greece annexed the Dodecanese Islands from Italy.

The outbreak of World War I in 1914 produced a split in Greek politics, Sony VPCY11S1E/S Battery

with King Constantine I advocating Greece remain neutral, while Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos pushing for Greece to join on the side of the Allies.[15] The conflict between monarchists and the Venizelists sometimes resulted into open warfare and became known as the National Schism. Sony VPCW1 Battery

Greece eventually sided with the Entente powers against the Ottoman Empire and the other Central Powers.[15]Following the war, the Great Powers agreed that the city of Smyrna (Izmir) and its hinterland, both of which had large Greek populations, be handed over to Greece.[15] Sony VPCW1E8R/BU Battery

Greek troops occupied Smyrna in 1919, and in 1920 the Treaty of Sevres was signed by the Ottoman government, which stipulated that in five years time a plesbicite would be held in Smyrna on whether the region would join Greece.[15]However, the Turkish nationalists, led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Sony VPCY11AGJ Battery

overthrew the Ottoman government and organised a military campaign against the Greek troops, resulting in the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922). A major Greek offensive ground to halt in 1921, and by 1922 the Greek troops were in retreat. The Turkish forces recaptured Smyrna on 9 September 1922, and 4 days afterwards a great fire broke out in the city, incinerating the Greek and Armenian quarters.[15] Sony VPCY11AHJ Battery

The war was concluded by the Treaty of Lausanne, according to which there was to be a population exchange between Greece and Turkey on the basis of religion. Over one million Orthodox Christians left Turkey in exchange for 400,000 Muslims from Greece.[15] The events of 1919–1922 are regarded in Greece as a particularly calamitous period of history. Sony VPCY11AVJ Battery

Between 1914 and 1923, and estimated 750,000[16] to 900,000[17] Greeks died at the hands of the Ottoman Turks, in what many scholars have termed a genocide.

Despite the country's numerically small and ill-equipped armed forces, Greece made a decisive contribution to the Alliedefforts in World War II. Sony VPCY11M1E Battery

At the start of the war Greece sided with the Allies and refused to give in to Italian demands.Italy invaded Greece by way of Albania on 28 October 1940, but Greek troops repelled the invaders after a bitter struggle (see Greco-Italian War). This marked the first Allied victory in the war. Sony VPCY11S1E Battery

Primarily to secure his strategic southern flank, German dictator Adolf Hitler reluctantly stepped in and launched theBattle of Greece. Troops from Germany, Bulgaria, and Italy successfully invaded Greece, through Yugoslavia, overcoming Greek, British, Australian, and New Zealand units. Sony VPCY11V9E Battery

On 20 May 1941, the Germans attempted to seize Crete with a large attack by paratroops—with the aim of reducing the threat of a counter-offensive by Allied forces in Egypt—but faced heavy resistance. The Greek campaign might have delayed German military plans against Soviet Union, Sony VPCY11V9E/S Battery

and it is argued that had the German invasion of the Soviet Union started on 20 May 1941 instead of 22 June 1941, the Nazi assault against the Soviet Union might have succeeded. The heavy losses of German paratroopers led the Germans to launch no further large-scale air-invasions. Sony VPCY219FJ/S Battery

During the years of Occupation of Greece by Nazi Germany, thousands of Greeks died in direct combat, in concentration camps, or of starvation. The occupiers murdered the greater part of the Jewish community despite efforts by the Greek Orthodox Church and many other Christian Greeks to shelter the Jews. The economy of Greece was devastated. Sony VPCY21AFJ Battery

When the Soviet Army began its drive across Romania in August 1944, the German Army in Greece began withdrawing north and northwestward from Greece intoYugoslavia and Albania to avoid being cut off in Greece. Hence, the German occupation of Greece ended in October 1944. Sony VPCY21AGJ Battery

The Resistance ELAS seized control of Athens on 12 October 1944. British troops had already landed on 4 October in Patras, and entered Athens at 14 October 1944.

The Greek Civil War (Greek: Eμφύλιος πόλεμος Emfílios pólemos), was fought between 1944 and 1949 in Greece between the Governmental forces of Greece supported by the United Kingdom at first, and later by the USA, and the Democratic Army of Greece; Sony VPCY21AHJ Battery

the military branch of the Greek communist party. According to some analysts, it represented the first example of a post-war West interference in the political situation of a foreign country.[24] The victory of the British—and later US-supported government forces led to Greece's membership in NATO and helped to define the ideological balance of power in the Aegean for the entire Cold War. Sony VPCY21AVJ Battery

The civil war consisted on one side of the armed forces of the postwar non-Marxist Greek administrations, and on the other, communist-led forces, and key members of the former resistance organization (ELAS), the leadership of which was controlled by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). Sony VPCY21S1E/L Battery

The first phase of the civil war occurred in 1942–1944. Marxist and non-Marxist resistance groups fought each other in a fratricidal conflict to establish the leadership of the Greek resistance movement. In the second phase (1944) the ascendant communists, in military control of most of Greece, Sony VPCY21S1E/P Battery

confronted the returning Greek government in exile, which had been formed under Western Allied auspices in Cairo and originally included six KKE-affiliated ministers. In the third phase (commonly called the "Third Round" by the Communists) (1946–1949), guerrilla forces controlled by KKE fought against the internationally recognized Greek Government which was formed after elections boycotted by KKE. Sony VPCY21S1E/SI Battery

Although the involvement of KKE in the uprisings was universally known, the party remained legal until 1948, continuing to coordinate attacks from its Athens offices until proscription.

The civil war left Greece with a legacy of political polarization; as a result, Greece also entered into alliance with the United States and joined NATO, while relationships with its Communist northern neighbours, both pro-Soviet and neutral, became strained. Sony VPCCW1E8R/WU Battery

In the 1950s and 1960s, Greece developed rapidly, initially with the help of the U.S. Marshall Plan's grants and loans, and later through growth in the tourismsector. New attention was given to women's rights, and in 1952 suffrage for women was guaranteed in the Constitution, full Constitutional equality following, Sony VPCCW1S1E Battery

and Lina Tsaldari becoming the first female minister that decade.

In 1967, the Greek military seized power in a coup d'état, overthrew the centre right government of Panagiotis Kanellopoulos.[25] It established the Greek military junta of 1967-1974 which became known as the Régime of the Colonels. Sony VPCCW1S1R Battery

In 1973, the régime abolished the Greek monarchy. In 1974, dictator Papadopoulosdenied help to the U.S. After a second coup that year, Colonel Ioannides was appointed as the new head-of-state.

Ioannides was responsible for the 1974 coup against President Makarios of Cyprus.[26] Sony VPCCW1S1T Battery

The coup became the pretext for the first wave of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 (see Greco-Turkish relations). The Cyprus events and the outcry following a bloody suppression of Athens Polytechnic uprising in Athens led to the implosion of the military régime. An exiled politician, Sony VPCCW1S1T/R Battery

Konstantinos Karamanlis, returned and became interim prime minister on July 23, 1974[27] and later gained re-election for two further terms at the head of the conservative Nea Dimokratia party. In August 1974, Greek forces withdrew from the integrated military structure of NATO in protest at the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus. Sony VPCCW1S1T/W Battery

In 1974, a referendum voted 69%–31% to confirm the deposition of King Constantine II. A democratic republican constitution came into force.[29] Another previously exiled politician, Andreas Papandreou also returned and founded the socialist Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) party, which won the elections in 1981 and dominated the country's political course for almost two decades.[30] Sony VPCCW1Z4E Battery

Since the restoration of democracy, the stability and economic prosperity of Greece have grown remarkably. Greece rejoined NATO in 1980. Greece joined theEuropean Union in 1981 and adopted the euro as its currency in 2001. New infrastructure, funds from the EU and growing revenues from tourism, Sony VPCCW12EN/BU Battery

shipping, services, light industry and the telecommunications industry have brought Greeks an unprecedented standard of living. Tensions continue to exist between Greece and Turkey over Cyprus and the delimitation of borders in the Aegean Sea but relations have considerably thawed following successive earthquakes—Sony VAIO VGN-FW139E Battery

first in Turkey and then in Greece—and an outpouring of sympathy and generous assistance by ordinary Greeks and Turks (see Earthquake Diplomacy).

From late 2009, fears of a sovereign debt crisis developed among investors concerning Greece's ability to meet its debt obligations due to strong increase ingovernment debt levels.[ Sony VAIO VGN-FW139N Battery

This led to a crisis of confidence, indicated by a widening of bond yield spreads and risk insurance on credit default swapscompared to other countries, most importantly Germany.[33][34] Downgrading of Greek government debt to junk bonds created alarm in financial markets. Sony VAIO VGN-FW140E Battery

On 2 May 2010, the Eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund agreed on a €110 billion loan for Greece, conditional on the implementation of harsh austerity measures.

In October 2011, Eurozone leaders also agreed on a proposal to write off 50% of Greek debt owed to private creditors, Sony VAIO VGN-FW145E Battery

increasing the EFSF to about €1 trillion and requiring European banks to achieve 9% capitalization to reduce the risk of contagion to other countries. These austerity measures have proved extremely unpopular with the Greek public, precipitating demonstrations and civil unrest. Sony VAIO VGN-FW160E Battery

Mycenaean Greece (c. 1600 BC – c. 1100 BC) was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece. It takes its name from the archaeological site of Mycenae in northeastern Argolis, in the Peloponnese of southern Greece; other important sites of this period are Athens, Pylos, Thebes, and Tiryns. Sony VAIO VGN-FW180E Battery

It is the historical setting of much ancient Greek literature and myth, including the epics of Homer.

Mycenaean civilization flourished between roughly 1600 BC, when Helladic culture in mainland Greece was transformed under influences from Minoan Crete, and 1100 BC, when it perished with the collapse of Bronze-Age civilization in the eastern Mediterranean. Sony VAIO VGN-FW190E Battery

The collapse is commonly attributed to the Dorian invasion, although other theories describing natural disasters and climate change have been advanced as well. The major Mycenaean cities were Mycenae and Tirynsin Argolis, Pylos in Messenia, Athens in Attica, Thebes and Orchomenus in Boeotia, and Iolkos in Thessaly. Sony VAIO VPCS11B7E Battery

In Crete, the Mycenaeans occupied Knossos. Mycenaean settlement sites also appeared in Epirus,[2][3] Macedonia,[4][5] on islands in the Aegean Sea, on the coast of Asia Minor, the Levant,[6] Cyprus[7] and Italy.[8][9] Mycenaean artifacts have been found well outside the limits of the Mycenaean world: namely Sony VAIO VPCS11M1E/W Battery

Mycenaean swords are known from as far away as Georgiain the Caucasus,[10] an amber object inscribed with Linear B symbols has been found in Bavaria, Germany[11] and Mycenaean bronze double axes and other objects dating from 13th century BC have been found in Ireland and in Wessexand Cornwall in England. Sony VAIO VPCS11M9R/B Battery

Quite unlike the Minoans, whose society benefited from trade, the Mycenaeans advanced through conquest. Mycenaean civilization was dominated by a warrior aristocracy. Around 1400 BC, the Mycenaeans extended their control to Crete, center of the Minoan civilization (which had been crippled by the eruption of Santorini), Sony VAIO VPCS11V9E/B Battery

and adopted a form of the Minoan script (called Linear A) to write their early form of Greek in Linear B.

Not only did the Mycenaeans defeat the Minoans, but according to later Hellenic legend they defeated Troy, presented in epic as a city-state that rivaled Mycenae in power. Sony VAIO VPCS12A7E Battery

Because the only evidence for the conquests is Homer's Iliad and other texts steeped in mythology, the existence of Troy and the historicity of the Trojan War is uncertain. In 1876, the German archaeologistHeinrich Schliemann uncovered ruins at Hissarlik in western Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) that he claimed were those of Troy. Sony VAIO VPCS12A7R Battery

Some sources claim these ruins do not match well with Homer's account of Troy,[16] but others disagree.[17]

The Mycenaeans buried their nobles in beehive tombs (tholos tombs), large circular burial chambers with a high vaulted roof and a straight entry passage lined with stone. They often buried daggers or some other form of military equipment with the deceased. Sony VAIO VPCS12B7E Battery

The nobility were frequently buried with gold masks, tiaras, armor, and jeweled weapons. Mycenaeans were buried in a sitting position, and some of the nobility underwent mummification, whereas Homer's Achilles and Patroclus were not buried but cremated, in Iron-Age fashion, and honoured with a gold urn, instead of gold masks. Sony VAIO VPCS12C5E Battery

No Mycenaean priestly class has yet been identified. Worshiper and worshiped are identified in seals, rings and votive figures through their gestures: worshipers fold their arms, or raise the right arm in greeting, or place a hand on the forehead. Deities lift both arms in the "epiphany gesture" or reach forward to give or receive. Sony VAIO VPCS12D7E Battery

Thepantheon of Mycenaean deities has been reassembled from inscriptions in Linear B found at Pylos and at post-palatial Mycenaean Knossos in Crete. Some of the deities' names are recognizably present in the Olympic pantheon of written myth. Others are not: Ares, the god of war for example, Sony VAIO VPCS11V9E Battery

is represented only as "Enyalios" (e-nu-wa-ri-jo ) which was retained as an epithet. Pa-ja-wo ("Paian") is an alternative name of Apollo, if not a separate god. Far more prominent are A-ta-na po-ti-ni-ja (Athena Potnia, "Athena the Mistress", a form similar with the later Homeric form), Sony VAIO VPCS11X9E Battery

E-re-u-ti-ja (Eileithyia), later merely invoked during childbirth, andErinus (Erinyes) or furies. Poseidon (Po-se-da-o) already the "Earth-Shaker" (E-ne-si-da-o-ne) with his consort "Poseidia", who was not retained in the transition to Classical Greece. At Pylos, he appears as the king (wa-na-ka:"Fanax") Sony VAIO PCG-5S1M Battery

with the "Two Queens" (wa-na-ssoi) who may be related with Demeter and Persephone. We find also the inscriptions a-te-mi-to do-e-ro ( servant of the godess Artemis), a-pa-i-ti-jo ( probably Hephaistos), Qo-wi-ja ( cow eyed), an Homeric epithet for Hera.[18] Sony VAIO PCG-9Z1M Battery

Around 1100 BC, the Mycenaean civilization collapsed. Numerous cities were sacked, and the region entered what historians describe as a dark age for its lack of inscriptions, with some Mycenaeans fleeing to Cyprus as well as other Greek islands and coastal parts of Anatolia. During this period, Sony VAIO PCG-7171M Battery

Greece experienced decreasing population and the limited literacy, connected with bureaucrats of palace culture, disappeared. Historians have traditionally blamed this decline on an invasion or uprising by another wave of Greek people, the Dorians, who may have been a subjugated local people, although Pylos was probably destroyed by sea peoples.[19] Sony VAIO PCG-7186M Battery

Alternate theories for the decline also include natural disasters such as a series of earthquakes or large-scale drought, although these recent theories are more controversial.

From a chronological perspective, the Late Helladic period (LH, 1550–1060 BC) is the time when Mycenaean Greece flourished under new influences from Minoan Crete and the Cyclades. Sony VAIO PCG-81112M Battery

Those who made LH pottery sometimes inscribed their work in Linear B, a syllabic script recognizable as a form of Greek. LH is divided into I, II, and III; of which I and II overlap Late Minoan ware and III overtakes it. LH III is further subdivided into IIIA, IIIB, and IIIC. Sony VAIO PCG-31111M Battery

The Romans divided the region into four smaller republics

TheAchaean League, while nominally subject to the Ptolemies was in effect independent, and controlled most of southern Greece. Sparta also remained independent, but generally refused to join any league.

In 267 BC, Ptolemy II persuaded the Greek cities to revolt against Macedon, in what became the Chremonidean War, after the Athenian leader Chremonides. HP Compaq HSTNN-MB05 Battery

The cities were defeated and Athens lost her independence and her democratic institutions. This marked the end of Athens as a political actor, although it remained the largest, wealthiest and most cultivated city in Greece. In 225 BC Macedon defeated the Egyptian fleet at Cos and brought the Aegean islands, except Rhodes, under its rule as well. HP Compaq HSTNN-OB06 Battery

Sparta remained hostile to the Achaeans, and in 227 BC invaded Achaea and seized control of the League. The remaining Acheans preferred distant Macedon to nearby Sparta, and allied with the former. In 222 BC the Macedonian army defeated the Spartans and annexed their city—the first time Sparta had ever been occupied by a different state. HP Compaq HSTNN-OB52 Battery

Philip V of Macedon was the last Greek ruler with both the talent and the opportunity to unite Greece and preserve its independence against the ever-increasing power of Rome. Under his auspices, the Peace of Naupactus(217 BC) brought conflict between Macedon and the Greek leagues to an end, and at this time he controlled all of Greece except Athens, Rhodes and Pergamum. HP Compaq HSTNN-OB62 Battery

In 215 BC, however, Philip formed an alliance with Rome's enemy Carthage. Rome promptly lured the Achaean cities away from their nominal loyalty to Philip, and formed alliances with Rhodes and Pergamum, now the strongest power in Asia Minor. The First Macedonian War broke out in 212 BC, and ended inconclusively in 205 BC, but Macedon was now marked as an enemy of Rome. HP Compaq HSTNN-UB05 Battery

In 202 BC, Rome defeated Carthage, and was free to turn her attention eastwards. In 198 BC, the Second Macedonian War broke out because Rome saw Macedon as a potential ally of the Seleucid Empire, the greatest power in the east. Philip's allies in Greece deserted him and in 197 BC he was decisively defeated at the Battle of Cynoscephalae by the Roman proconsul Titus Quinctius Flaminius. HP Compaq HSTNN-UB11 Battery

Luckily for the Greeks, Flaminius was a moderate man and an admirer of Greek culture. Philip had to surrender his fleet and become a Roman ally, but was otherwise spared. At the Isthmian Games in 196 BC, Flaminius declared all the Greek cities free, although Roman garrisons were placed at Corinth and Chalcis. HP Compaq HSTNN-UB18 Battery

But the freedom promised by Rome was an illusion. All the cities except Rhodes were enrolled in a new League which Rome ultimately controlled, and aristocratic constitutions were favoured and actively promoted.

Militarily, Greece itself declined to the point that the Romans conquered the land (168 BC onwards), HP Compaq HSTNN-UB68 Battery

though Greek culture would in turn conquer Roman life. Although the period of Roman rule in Greece is conventionally dated as starting from the sacking of Corinth by the Roman Lucius Mummius in 146 BC, Macedonia had already come under Roman control with the defeat of its king, Perseus, by the Roman Aemilius Paullus at Pydna in 168 BC. HP Compaq HSTNN-UB69 Battery

The Romans divided the region into four smaller republics, and in 146 BC Macedonia officially became a province, with its capital at Thessalonica. The rest of the Greek city-states gradually and eventually paid homage to Rome ending their de jure autonomy as well. The Romans left local administration to the Greekswithout making any attempt to abolish traditional political patterns. HP Compaq HSTNN-W42C Battery

The agora in Athens continued to be the centre of civic and political life.

Caracalla's decree in AD 212, the Constitutio Antoniniana, extended citizenship outside Italy to all free adult men in the entire Roman Empire, effectively raising provincial populations to equal status with the city of Rome itself. HP Compaq HSTNN-W42C-A Battery

The importance of this decree is historical, not political. It set the basis for integration where the economic and judicial mechanisms of the state could be applied throughout the Mediterranean as was once done from Latium into all Italy. In practice of course, integration did not take place uniformly. HP Compaq HSTNN-W42C-B Battery

Societies already integrated with Rome, such as Greece, were favored by this decree, in comparison with those far away, too poor or just too alien such as Britain, Palestine or Egypt.

Caracalla's decree did not set in motion the processes that led to the transfer of power from Italy and the West to Greece and the East, but rather accelerated them, HP Compaq HSTNN-XB0E Battery

setting the foundations for the millennium-long rise of Greece, in the form of the Eastern Roman Empire, as a major power in Europe and the Mediterraneanin the Middle Ages.

The history of the East Roman or Byzantine Empire is described by Byzantinist August Heisenberg as the history of "the Christianized Roman empire of the Greek nation".[13] HP Compaq HSTNN-XB11 Battery

The division of the empire into East and West and the subsequent collapse of the Western Roman Empire were developments that constantly accentuated the position of the Greeks in the empire and eventually allowed them to become identified with it altogether. HP Compaq HSTNN-XB18 Battery

The leading role of Constantinople began when Constantine the Great turned Byzantium into the new capital of the Roman Empire, from then on to be known asConstantinople, placing the city at the center of Hellenism a beacon for the Greeks that lasted to the modern era.

The figures of Constantine the Great and Justinian dominated during 324–610. HP Compaq HSTNN-XB21 Battery

Assimilating the Roman tradition, the emperors sought to offer the basis for later developments and for the formation of the Byzantine Empire. Efforts to secure the borders of the Empire and to restore the Roman territories marked the early centuries. At the same time, the definitive formation and establishment of the Orthodox doctrine, HP Compaq HSTNN-XB24 Battery

but also a series of conflicts resulting from heresies that developed within the boundaries of the empire marked the early period of Byzantine history.

In the first period of the middle Byzantine era (610–867) the empire was attacked both by old enemies (Persians,Lombards, Avars and Slavs) as well as by new ones, appearing for the first time in history (Arabs, Bulgars). HP Compaq HSTNN-XB28 Battery

The main characteristic of this period was that the enemy attacks were not localized to the border areas of the state but they were extended deep beyond, even threatening the capital itself. At the same time, these attacks lost their periodical and temporary character and became permanent settlements that transformed into new states, HP Compaq HSTNN-XB51 Battery

hostile to Byzantium. Those states were referred by the Byzantines as Sclavinias.

Changes were also observed in the internal structure of the empire which was dictated by both external and internal conditions. The predominance of the small free farmers, the expansion of the military estates and the development of the system of themes, HP Compaq HSTNN-XB52 Battery

brought to completion developments that had started in the previous period. Changes were noted also in the sector of administration: the administration and society had become immiscibly Greek, while the restoration of Orthodoxy after the iconoclast movement, HP Compaq HSTNN-XB59 Battery

allowed the successful resumption of missionary action among neighboring peoples and their placement within the sphere of Byzantine cultural influence. During this period the state was geographically reduced and economically damaged, since it lost wealth-producing regions; however, it obtained greater lingual, dogmatic and cultural homogeneity. HP Compaq HSTNN-XB61 Battery

From the late 8th century, the Empire began to recover from the devastating impact of successive invasions, and the reconquest of Greece began. Greeks fromSicily and Asia Minor were brought in as settlers. The Slavs were either driven out or assimilated and the Sclavinias were eliminated. HP Compaq HSTNN-XB62 Battery

By the middle of the 9th century, Greece was Greek again, and the cities began to recover due to improved security and the restoration of effective central control.

When the Byzantine Empire was rescued from a period of crisis by the resolute leadership of the three Komnenoi emperors Alexios, Johnand Manuel in the 12th century, HP Compaq HSTNN-XB68 Battery

Greece prospered. Recent research has revealed that this period was a time of significant growth in the rural economy, with rising population levels and extensive tracts of new agricultural land being brought into production. The widespread construction of new rural churches is a strong indication that prosperity was being generated even in remote areas. HP Compaq HSTNN-XB69 Battery

A steady increase in population led to a higher population density, and there is good evidence that the demographic increase was accompanied by the revival of towns. According to Alan Harvey in his book ‘’Economic expansion in the Byzantine Empire 900–1200’’, towns expanded significantly in the twelfth century. HP Compaq HSTNN-XB85 Battery

Archaeological evidence shows an increase in the size of urban settlements, together with a ‘notable upsurge’ in new towns. Archaeological evidence tells us that many of the medieval towns, including Athens,Thessaloniki, Thebes and Corinth, experienced a period of rapid and sustained growth, starting in the 11th century and continuing until the end of the 12th century.Sony PCG-31211T Battery

The growth of the towns attracted the Venetians, and this interest in trade appears to have further increased economic prosperity in Greece. Certainly, the Venetians and others were active traders in the ports of the Holy Land, and they made a living out of shipping goods between the Crusader Kingdoms of Outremer and the West while also trading extensively with Byzantium and Egypt. Sony PCG-31311T Battery

The 11th and 12th centuries are said to be the Golden Age of Byzantine art in Greece. Many of the most important Byzantine churches in and around Athens, for example, were built during these two centuries, and this reflects the growth of urbanisation in Greece during this period. Sony PCG-51111T Battery

There was also a revival in the mosaic art with artists showing great interest in depicting natural landscapes with wild animals and scenes from the hunt. Mosaics became more realistic and vivid, with an increased emphasis on depicting three-dimensional forms. With its love of luxury and passion for color, Sony PCG-81111T Battery

the art of this age delighted in the production of masterpieces that spread the fame of Byzantium throughout the Christian world.Beautiful silks from the work-shops of Constantinople also portrayed in dazzling color animals—lions, elephants, eagles, and griffins—confronting each other, or representing Emperors gorgeously arrayed on horseback or engaged in the chase. Sony PCG-81311T Battery

The eyes of many patrons were attracted and the economy of Greece grew. In the provinces, regional schools of Architecture began producing many distinctive styles that drew on a range of cultural influences. All this suggests that there was an increased demand for art, with more people having access to the necessary wealth to commission and pay for such work. Sony VPCF138FC Battery

Yet the marvelous expansion of Byzantine art during this period, one of the most remarkable facts in the history of the empire, did not stop there. From the tenth to the 12th century Byzantium was the main source of inspiration for the West. By their style, arrangement, and iconography the mosaics of St. Sony VPCF219FC Battery

Mark's at Venice and of the cathedral at Torcello clearly show their Byzantine origin. Similarly those of the Palatine Chapel, the Martorana at Palermo, and the cathedral of Cefalu, together with the vast decoration of the cathedral at Monreale, prove the influence of Byzantium οn the Norman Court of Sicily in the 12th century. Sony VPCS135EC Battery

Hispano-Moorish art was unquestionably derived from the Byzantine. Romanesque art owes much to the East, from which it borrowed not only its decorative forms but the plan of some of its buildings, as is proved, for instance, by the domed churches of south-western France. Princes of Kiev, Sony VPCS136EC Battery

Venetian doges, abbots ofMonte Cassino, merchants of Amalfi, and the Norman kings of Sicily all looked to Byzantium for artists or works of art. Such was the influence of Byzantine art in the 12th century, that Russia, Venice, southern Italy and Sicily all virtually became provincial centers dedicated to its production. Sony VPCS138EC Battery

The year 1204 marks the beginning of the late Byzantine period, when probably the most important event for the Empire occurred. Constantinople was lost for the Greek people for the first time, and the empire was conquered by Latin crusaders and would be replaced by a new Latin one, for 57 years. Sony VPCS139GC Battery

In addition, the period of Latin occupation decisively influenced the empire's internal development, as elements of feudality entered aspects of Byzantine life.In 1261 the Greek empire was divided between the former Greek Byzantine Comnenos dynasty members (Epirus) and Palaiologos dynasty (the last dynasty until the fall of Constantinople). Sony VPCYA15EC Battery

After the gradual weakening of the structures of the Greek Byzantine state and the reduction of its land from Turkish invasions, came the fall of the Greek Byzantine Empire, at the hands of the Ottomans, in 1453, when the Byzantine period is considered to have ended.

When the Ottomans arrived, two Greek migrations occurred. Sony VPCYA16EC Battery

The first migration entailed the Greek intelligentsia migrating to Western Europe and influencing the advent of the Renaissance. The second migration entailed Greeks leaving the plains of the Greek peninsula and resettling in the mountains.[14] Sony VPCYA25EC Battery

The millet system contributed to the ethnic cohesion of Orthodox Greeks by segregating the various peoples within the Ottoman Empire based on religion.

The Greeks living in the plains during Ottoman domination were either Christians who dealt with the burdens of foreign rule or Crypto-Christians (Greek Muslims who were secret practitioners of the Greek Orthodox faith). Sony VPCYA26EC Battery

Some Greeks became Crypto-Christians to avoid heavy taxes and at the same time express their identity by maintaining their ties to the Greek Orthodox Church. However, Greeks who converted to Islam and were not Crypto-Christians were deemed Turks in the eyes of Orthodox Greeks, even if they didn't adopt Turkish language. Sony VPCYB15JC Battery

The Ottomans ruled Greece until the early 19th century.

In the early months of 1821, the Greeks declared their independence but did not achieve it until 1829. The Great Powers first shared the same view concerning the necessity of preserving the status quo of theOttoman Empire, but soon changed their stance. Sony VPCYA17GH/R Battery

Scores of non-Greeks volunteered to fight for the cause, including Lord Byron.

On 20 October 1827, a combined British, French and Russian naval force destroyed the Ottoman and Egyptian armada. The Russian minister of foreign affairs, Ioannis Kapodistrias, himself a Greek, returned home as President of the new Republic. Sony VPCCW2S8E/W Battery

The first capital of the idependent Greece was Aigina (1828–1829) and the second was Nafplio (1828–1834). After his assassination the European powers helped turn Greece into a monarchy; the first King, Otto, came from Bavaria and the second, George I, from Denmark. King Otto, in 1934 transferted the capital to Athens. Sony VPCCW2Z1E/B Battery

During the 19th and early 20th centuries Greece sought to enlarge its boundaries to include the ethnic Greek population of the Ottoman Empire. The Ionian Islands were returned by Britain upon the arrival of the new King George I in 1863 and Thessaly was ceded by the Ottomans. Sony VPCY11S1E Battery

As a result of the Balkan Wars of 1912–13 Epirus, southern Macedonia, Crete and the Aegean Islands were annexed into the Kingdom of Greece. Another enlargement followed in 1947, when Greece annexed the Dodecanese Islands from Italy.

The outbreak of World War I in 1914 produced a split in Greek politics, Sony VPCY11S1E/S Battery

with King Constantine I advocating Greece remain neutral, while Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos pushing for Greece to join on the side of the Allies.[15] The conflict between monarchists and the Venizelists sometimes resulted into open warfare and became known as the National Schism. Sony VPCW1 Battery

Greece eventually sided with the Entente powers against the Ottoman Empire and the other Central Powers.[15]Following the war, the Great Powers agreed that the city of Smyrna (Izmir) and its hinterland, both of which had large Greek populations, be handed over to Greece.[15] Sony VPCW1E8R/BU Battery

Greek troops occupied Smyrna in 1919, and in 1920 the Treaty of Sevres was signed by the Ottoman government, which stipulated that in five years time a plesbicite would be held in Smyrna on whether the region would join Greece.[15]However, the Turkish nationalists, led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Sony VPCY11AGJ Battery

overthrew the Ottoman government and organised a military campaign against the Greek troops, resulting in the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922). A major Greek offensive ground to halt in 1921, and by 1922 the Greek troops were in retreat. The Turkish forces recaptured Smyrna on 9 September 1922, and 4 days afterwards a great fire broke out in the city, incinerating the Greek and Armenian quarters.[15] Sony VPCY11AHJ Battery

The war was concluded by the Treaty of Lausanne, according to which there was to be a population exchange between Greece and Turkey on the basis of religion. Over one million Orthodox Christians left Turkey in exchange for 400,000 Muslims from Greece.[15] The events of 1919–1922 are regarded in Greece as a particularly calamitous period of history. Sony VPCY11AVJ Battery

Between 1914 and 1923, and estimated 750,000[16] to 900,000[17] Greeks died at the hands of the Ottoman Turks, in what many scholars have termed a genocide.

Despite the country's numerically small and ill-equipped armed forces, Greece made a decisive contribution to the Alliedefforts in World War II. Sony VPCY11M1E Battery

At the start of the war Greece sided with the Allies and refused to give in to Italian demands.Italy invaded Greece by way of Albania on 28 October 1940, but Greek troops repelled the invaders after a bitter struggle (see Greco-Italian War). This marked the first Allied victory in the war. Sony VPCY11S1E Battery

Primarily to secure his strategic southern flank, German dictator Adolf Hitler reluctantly stepped in and launched theBattle of Greece. Troops from Germany, Bulgaria, and Italy successfully invaded Greece, through Yugoslavia, overcoming Greek, British, Australian, and New Zealand units. Sony VPCY11V9E Battery

On 20 May 1941, the Germans attempted to seize Crete with a large attack by paratroops—with the aim of reducing the threat of a counter-offensive by Allied forces in Egypt—but faced heavy resistance. The Greek campaign might have delayed German military plans against Soviet Union, Sony VPCY11V9E/S Battery

and it is argued that had the German invasion of the Soviet Union started on 20 May 1941 instead of 22 June 1941, the Nazi assault against the Soviet Union might have succeeded. The heavy losses of German paratroopers led the Germans to launch no further large-scale air-invasions. Sony VPCY219FJ/S Battery

During the years of Occupation of Greece by Nazi Germany, thousands of Greeks died in direct combat, in concentration camps, or of starvation. The occupiers murdered the greater part of the Jewish community despite efforts by the Greek Orthodox Church and many other Christian Greeks to shelter the Jews. The economy of Greece was devastated. Sony VPCY21AFJ Battery

When the Soviet Army began its drive across Romania in August 1944, the German Army in Greece began withdrawing north and northwestward from Greece intoYugoslavia and Albania to avoid being cut off in Greece. Hence, the German occupation of Greece ended in October 1944. Sony VPCY21AGJ Battery

The Resistance ELAS seized control of Athens on 12 October 1944. British troops had already landed on 4 October in Patras, and entered Athens at 14 October 1944.

The Greek Civil War (Greek: Eμφύλιος πόλεμος Emfílios pólemos), was fought between 1944 and 1949 in Greece between the Governmental forces of Greece supported by the United Kingdom at first, and later by the USA, and the Democratic Army of Greece; Sony VPCY21AHJ Battery

the military branch of the Greek communist party. According to some analysts, it represented the first example of a post-war West interference in the political situation of a foreign country.[24] The victory of the British—and later US-supported government forces led to Greece's membership in NATO and helped to define the ideological balance of power in the Aegean for the entire Cold War. Sony VPCY21AVJ Battery

The civil war consisted on one side of the armed forces of the postwar non-Marxist Greek administrations, and on the other, communist-led forces, and key members of the former resistance organization (ELAS), the leadership of which was controlled by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). Sony VPCY21S1E/L Battery

The first phase of the civil war occurred in 1942–1944. Marxist and non-Marxist resistance groups fought each other in a fratricidal conflict to establish the leadership of the Greek resistance movement. In the second phase (1944) the ascendant communists, in military control of most of Greece, Sony VPCY21S1E/P Battery

confronted the returning Greek government in exile, which had been formed under Western Allied auspices in Cairo and originally included six KKE-affiliated ministers. In the third phase (commonly called the "Third Round" by the Communists) (1946–1949), guerrilla forces controlled by KKE fought against the internationally recognized Greek Government which was formed after elections boycotted by KKE. Sony VPCY21S1E/SI Battery

Although the involvement of KKE in the uprisings was universally known, the party remained legal until 1948, continuing to coordinate attacks from its Athens offices until proscription.

The civil war left Greece with a legacy of political polarization; as a result, Greece also entered into alliance with the United States and joined NATO, while relationships with its Communist northern neighbours, both pro-Soviet and neutral, became strained. Sony VPCCW1E8R/WU Battery

In the 1950s and 1960s, Greece developed rapidly, initially with the help of the U.S. Marshall Plan's grants and loans, and later through growth in the tourismsector. New attention was given to women's rights, and in 1952 suffrage for women was guaranteed in the Constitution, full Constitutional equality following, Sony VPCCW1S1E Battery

and Lina Tsaldari becoming the first female minister that decade.

In 1967, the Greek military seized power in a coup d'état, overthrew the centre right government of Panagiotis Kanellopoulos.[25] It established the Greek military junta of 1967-1974 which became known as the Régime of the Colonels. Sony VPCCW1S1R Battery

In 1973, the régime abolished the Greek monarchy. In 1974, dictator Papadopoulosdenied help to the U.S. After a second coup that year, Colonel Ioannides was appointed as the new head-of-state.

Ioannides was responsible for the 1974 coup against President Makarios of Cyprus.[26] Sony VPCCW1S1T Battery

The coup became the pretext for the first wave of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 (see Greco-Turkish relations). The Cyprus events and the outcry following a bloody suppression of Athens Polytechnic uprising in Athens led to the implosion of the military régime. An exiled politician, Sony VPCCW1S1T/R Battery

Konstantinos Karamanlis, returned and became interim prime minister on July 23, 1974[27] and later gained re-election for two further terms at the head of the conservative Nea Dimokratia party. In August 1974, Greek forces withdrew from the integrated military structure of NATO in protest at the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus. Sony VPCCW1S1T/W Battery

In 1974, a referendum voted 69%–31% to confirm the deposition of King Constantine II. A democratic republican constitution came into force.[29] Another previously exiled politician, Andreas Papandreou also returned and founded the socialist Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) party, which won the elections in 1981 and dominated the country's political course for almost two decades.[30] Sony VPCCW1Z4E Battery

Since the restoration of democracy, the stability and economic prosperity of Greece have grown remarkably. Greece rejoined NATO in 1980. Greece joined theEuropean Union in 1981 and adopted the euro as its currency in 2001. New infrastructure, funds from the EU and growing revenues from tourism, Sony VPCCW12EN/BU Battery

shipping, services, light industry and the telecommunications industry have brought Greeks an unprecedented standard of living. Tensions continue to exist between Greece and Turkey over Cyprus and the delimitation of borders in the Aegean Sea but relations have considerably thawed following successive earthquakes—Sony VAIO VGN-FW139E Battery

first in Turkey and then in Greece—and an outpouring of sympathy and generous assistance by ordinary Greeks and Turks (see Earthquake Diplomacy).

From late 2009, fears of a sovereign debt crisis developed among investors concerning Greece's ability to meet its debt obligations due to strong increase ingovernment debt levels.[ Sony VAIO VGN-FW139N Battery

This led to a crisis of confidence, indicated by a widening of bond yield spreads and risk insurance on credit default swapscompared to other countries, most importantly Germany.[33][34] Downgrading of Greek government debt to junk bonds created alarm in financial markets. Sony VAIO VGN-FW140E Battery

On 2 May 2010, the Eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund agreed on a €110 billion loan for Greece, conditional on the implementation of harsh austerity measures.

In October 2011, Eurozone leaders also agreed on a proposal to write off 50% of Greek debt owed to private creditors, Sony VAIO VGN-FW145E Battery

increasing the EFSF to about €1 trillion and requiring European banks to achieve 9% capitalization to reduce the risk of contagion to other countries. These austerity measures have proved extremely unpopular with the Greek public, precipitating demonstrations and civil unrest. Sony VAIO VGN-FW160E Battery

Mycenaean Greece (c. 1600 BC – c. 1100 BC) was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece. It takes its name from the archaeological site of Mycenae in northeastern Argolis, in the Peloponnese of southern Greece; other important sites of this period are Athens, Pylos, Thebes, and Tiryns. Sony VAIO VGN-FW180E Battery

It is the historical setting of much ancient Greek literature and myth, including the epics of Homer.

Mycenaean civilization flourished between roughly 1600 BC, when Helladic culture in mainland Greece was transformed under influences from Minoan Crete, and 1100 BC, when it perished with the collapse of Bronze-Age civilization in the eastern Mediterranean. Sony VAIO VGN-FW190E Battery

The collapse is commonly attributed to the Dorian invasion, although other theories describing natural disasters and climate change have been advanced as well. The major Mycenaean cities were Mycenae and Tirynsin Argolis, Pylos in Messenia, Athens in Attica, Thebes and Orchomenus in Boeotia, and Iolkos in Thessaly. Sony VAIO VPCS11B7E Battery

In Crete, the Mycenaeans occupied Knossos. Mycenaean settlement sites also appeared in Epirus,[2][3] Macedonia,[4][5] on islands in the Aegean Sea, on the coast of Asia Minor, the Levant,[6] Cyprus[7] and Italy.[8][9] Mycenaean artifacts have been found well outside the limits of the Mycenaean world: namely Sony VAIO VPCS11M1E/W Battery

Mycenaean swords are known from as far away as Georgiain the Caucasus,[10] an amber object inscribed with Linear B symbols has been found in Bavaria, Germany[11] and Mycenaean bronze double axes and other objects dating from 13th century BC have been found in Ireland and in Wessexand Cornwall in England. Sony VAIO VPCS11M9R/B Battery

Quite unlike the Minoans, whose society benefited from trade, the Mycenaeans advanced through conquest. Mycenaean civilization was dominated by a warrior aristocracy. Around 1400 BC, the Mycenaeans extended their control to Crete, center of the Minoan civilization (which had been crippled by the eruption of Santorini), Sony VAIO VPCS11V9E/B Battery

and adopted a form of the Minoan script (called Linear A) to write their early form of Greek in Linear B.

Not only did the Mycenaeans defeat the Minoans, but according to later Hellenic legend they defeated Troy, presented in epic as a city-state that rivaled Mycenae in power. Sony VAIO VPCS12A7E Battery

Because the only evidence for the conquests is Homer's Iliad and other texts steeped in mythology, the existence of Troy and the historicity of the Trojan War is uncertain. In 1876, the German archaeologistHeinrich Schliemann uncovered ruins at Hissarlik in western Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) that he claimed were those of Troy. Sony VAIO VPCS12A7R Battery

Some sources claim these ruins do not match well with Homer's account of Troy,[16] but others disagree.[17]

The Mycenaeans buried their nobles in beehive tombs (tholos tombs), large circular burial chambers with a high vaulted roof and a straight entry passage lined with stone. They often buried daggers or some other form of military equipment with the deceased. Sony VAIO VPCS12B7E Battery

The nobility were frequently buried with gold masks, tiaras, armor, and jeweled weapons. Mycenaeans were buried in a sitting position, and some of the nobility underwent mummification, whereas Homer's Achilles and Patroclus were not buried but cremated, in Iron-Age fashion, and honoured with a gold urn, instead of gold masks. Sony VAIO VPCS12C5E Battery

No Mycenaean priestly class has yet been identified. Worshiper and worshiped are identified in seals, rings and votive figures through their gestures: worshipers fold their arms, or raise the right arm in greeting, or place a hand on the forehead. Deities lift both arms in the "epiphany gesture" or reach forward to give or receive. Sony VAIO VPCS12D7E Battery

Thepantheon of Mycenaean deities has been reassembled from inscriptions in Linear B found at Pylos and at post-palatial Mycenaean Knossos in Crete. Some of the deities' names are recognizably present in the Olympic pantheon of written myth. Others are not: Ares, the god of war for example, Sony VAIO VPCS11V9E Battery

is represented only as "Enyalios" (e-nu-wa-ri-jo ) which was retained as an epithet. Pa-ja-wo ("Paian") is an alternative name of Apollo, if not a separate god. Far more prominent are A-ta-na po-ti-ni-ja (Athena Potnia, "Athena the Mistress", a form similar with the later Homeric form), Sony VAIO VPCS11X9E Battery

E-re-u-ti-ja (Eileithyia), later merely invoked during childbirth, andErinus (Erinyes) or furies. Poseidon (Po-se-da-o) already the "Earth-Shaker" (E-ne-si-da-o-ne) with his consort "Poseidia", who was not retained in the transition to Classical Greece. At Pylos, he appears as the king (wa-na-ka:"Fanax") Sony VAIO PCG-5S1M Battery

with the "Two Queens" (wa-na-ssoi) who may be related with Demeter and Persephone. We find also the inscriptions a-te-mi-to do-e-ro ( servant of the godess Artemis), a-pa-i-ti-jo ( probably Hephaistos), Qo-wi-ja ( cow eyed), an Homeric epithet for Hera.[18] Sony VAIO PCG-9Z1M Battery

Around 1100 BC, the Mycenaean civilization collapsed. Numerous cities were sacked, and the region entered what historians describe as a dark age for its lack of inscriptions, with some Mycenaeans fleeing to Cyprus as well as other Greek islands and coastal parts of Anatolia. During this period, Sony VAIO PCG-7171M Battery

Greece experienced decreasing population and the limited literacy, connected with bureaucrats of palace culture, disappeared. Historians have traditionally blamed this decline on an invasion or uprising by another wave of Greek people, the Dorians, who may have been a subjugated local people, although Pylos was probably destroyed by sea peoples.[19] Sony VAIO PCG-7186M Battery

Alternate theories for the decline also include natural disasters such as a series of earthquakes or large-scale drought, although these recent theories are more controversial.

From a chronological perspective, the Late Helladic period (LH, 1550–1060 BC) is the time when Mycenaean Greece flourished under new influences from Minoan Crete and the Cyclades. Sony VAIO PCG-81112M Battery

Those who made LH pottery sometimes inscribed their work in Linear B, a syllabic script recognizable as a form of Greek. LH is divided into I, II, and III; of which I and II overlap Late Minoan ware and III overtakes it. LH III is further subdivided into IIIA, IIIB, and IIIC. Sony VAIO PCG-31111M Battery