GREEK CIVILIZATION

PREPARED BY
TERESA SAIKIA
SAUVIK DAS GUPTA
HIMASHRI BHAGAWATI
GREEK CIVILIZATION
GREEK CIVILIZATION
•2000B.C.-300B.C.
•Timeline of Classical Greece

•Ancient Greek civilization, the period following Mycenaean civilization, which ended about 1200 BCE, to the death
of Alexander the Great.
•LOCATION- It was located in the Balcanes peninsula.
•LANDSCAPE – powerfully assertive
• HIGH PLACES – fortified hilltop
sacred precinct
•NOTABLE CITIES– Sparta, Athens, Mycenae, Delphi, Thebes, Troy, Crete, Corinth
•TOWN DESIGN = SENSE OF THE FINITE
-Aristotle’s ideal size of city = 10,000 – 20,000 people
- never attempted to overwhelm nature
- buildings give a sense of human measure to landscape
•THE STREET - Not a principal element but as a leftover space for circulation .
-Wandering and unpaved lanes.
•ETHNIC TRIBES--Aetolian
--Dorian
--Ionian
--Achean
GEOGRAPHY
•It Is the main reason for the shape of the Greek civilization.
•Mountains divided the land into number of different regions which influenced the
political life Unable to create a unified empire sailed to reach one another
skilled sailors and wide traders.
•LAND: ¾ is hilly terrain It helps in cattle grazing.
It is not suitable for farming.
very little fresh water.
•Regions like Anatolia(Turkey) were founded to attain more farmlands
•SEA: Surrounded by Mediterranean ,Ionic and Aegean seas.
• Settlement grew near water Source of food and water By fishing and agriculture
Transportation and Trade.
•This civilization was mainly dependent on commerce than agriculture.
CLIMATE:
•Mild rainy winters.
•Hot summers
GREEK ISLANDS:
•Cyclades Islands
•Ionian Islands
•Dodecanese Islands
•Sporades Islands
•Saronic Islands
•Crete Islands
 EARLY GREEK CIVILIZATION

Mycenean—warriors and
traders.
Minoans—sailors.
ECONOMY:
•Farming-Dryland farming and Irrigation farming.

e.g. Olives, e.g. vegetables, fruits,

Vine, wheat corn, rice etc.

•Trade-Long distance trade and Local trade.

Mediterranean Sea Peasants and Craftsman

Products from Greek poleis crop Product

for food, wood and copper

AGORA(Market)
The main market place covers 5% of the city.
•Fishing The 1/5th the width and depth of the city.
•Crafts— Pottery, Clothes, wooden furniture Social, political and commercial meeting
ground(Assembly Hall, Council Hall and Chamber etc.)
Irregular in shape

GREEK EXPANSION
•8th and 6th centuries BC population increased and as the land
wasn’t fertile Scarcity of food Migration around the
Mediterranean sea
•Colonies had traditions and organizations as the polis they came from,
but they were independent.
•Colonization spread Greek influence beyond its frontiers.
SOCIETY
•In early Greek Society, landowners were considered upper class.
Didn’t depend on others for food.
Had money to buy weapons and shields.
Could serve in the army and protect themselves and their homeland
• Merchants and poor were seen as class below in comparison.
•They lived together in city-states or polis, which had its own government, laws and army.
•Types of buildings
Temples To store a religious statue
Stoas large gathering places for the public, such as market places, public offices.
Theatres Built along hillside for the public to sit along the hills and watch the action .
The oldest one is at Olympia
Assembly Hall Important town meetings.
Gymnasia wrestling grounds ,running tracks, lecture halls and other smaller rooms where Greek
athletes and warriors could train.
CULTURAL ASPECT
•One of the many accomplishments of the ancient Greeks is their art and architecture .
•The style used in Athens in the 400s B.C.E became standard in the Greek world and is known today as Classical
Architecture.
•Columns or Orders (Classical orders)
Adopted from the Egyptians
Modified and developed their own style of column or order decoration.
Three types of Greek columns(Doric, Ionic and Corinthian)—which are still used today.

Stadium The Theater at Epidaurus

RELIGIOUS ASPECT:
•In the ancient Greek world, religion was personal.
•Temples
homes for the community’s god or goddess
a place to keep offerings
often constructed to show civil pride and power or to offer thanks to a patron god or goddess of the city-
state for success in war.
surrounded by open colonnades which is character of the Greek architecture

The PARTHENON
The temple of Athena, the Greek goddess.
Built on Acropolis in 5th century BC.
It changed to worship to Maria in 6th century due to
political conflict.
Iktinos and Kallikratis were the architects.
Made of Limestone

GREEK INFLUENCE ON MODERN SOCIETY

Democracy Trial by jury Theatre Olympics Art & Architecture
Teachings of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle Discoveries in Maths, Science &Engineering The Alphabet
 TOWN PLANNING IN ATHENS

•Athens grew from its focal point, the Acropolis, which became the ceremonial center of the city-state, decked with
temples including the Parthenon.
•It has organic plan.
•Propylea, is the main entrance gate at Athens.
•Agora was the center of Athenian life. Laid out in the 6th century B.C., northwest of the Acropolis, it was a square
lined by public buildings, which served Athens' needs for commerce and politics.

•The streets of Athens as narrow and tortuous, unpaved, unlighted, and more like a chaos of mud and sewage than
even the usual Greek road.
NEOLITHIC ERA - 6000BC-1600BC

Early settlements chose to

stay on top of the hill
SEA

Gradually they
descended down the
slope towards the
northern and southern
sides
THE EARLY BRONZE AGE (3200–2000 BC)
•The northern parts also started developing and expanding..
•Feudal system existed.
•The settlements started expanding over wider area . They started moving towards the sea.
DARK AGES (1150 BC– 900 BC)
•Invasion of Peloponnese reduction of population.

GEOMETRIC PERIOD (900 BC –750 BC)

Drought followed by famine and epidemic diseases.

ARCHAIC ATHENS (750 BC -494 BC)

•No concrete town planning
• Streets were narrow and irregular in
shape
• The inhabitants built their houses
arbitrarily.
•Peisistratus built the first wall around
the city.
•This wall was almost circular and had
eight gates.
•For the first time an underground
aqueduct was constructed to bring
water from mount Hymettus.
•The city was again attacked destroyed,
this time by Persians
CLASSICAL ATHENS(494 BC -478 BC)

• City rebuilt
according to plan
devised by
Hippodamus, for
50,000 people.

• Themistocles wall
was built around
the city. Athens soon
prospered again.

• The port of the

harbour-town
Peiraeus grew in
importance in 5th
century. Ship sheds
and dry docks were
constructed for the
warships.
Broad, straight
streets

Right angles

Open space for

development of
agora
HELLENISTIC ATHENS (339 BC - 168 BC)
•Demand for regularity.
•Acropolis was the initial core . Some main streets started at its entrance, and the road immediately
surrounding it proceeded radially throughout the city to the city wall gates some free areas are
left, the most important of which was Agora.
ROMAN ATHENS (183 BC-BC 31)

ACROPOLIS

New Roman closed

agora- houses and
buildings here were
demolished.

Athenian agora-
new buildings
built here
The Athenian empire was limited to the post Roman fortification with development of smaller towns around it.
These merged later to form Athens as we see today.
ATHENS IN 19TH CENTURY
•The road network spokes with hubs at circular plazas horizontals and verticals with the main axes.
•The shape of the main axes would be an isosceles triangle, with its peak at today’s Omonia Square,.
•Kleanthes and Schaubert developed a capital plan for a city of 35,000 to 40,000 inhabitants even though in 1833
Athens had only 4,000 citizen.
PIRAEUS

HORIZONTAL
& VERTICAL

SPOKES AT
CIRCULAR PLAZAS

ACROPOLIS
LOE VON KLENZE’S PLAN(1834)
• The concept of the 'southern city'.
• Expansion was directed to the west and to the south in his plan.
• Strict planning and grid patterns are less necessary to the southern city.
• They are more organic in development.
• Streets and squares are smaller in size. Thus he left the existing city, especially its residential parts, untouched.
 We see the growth in the
City Of Athens (1870) in the
KAUPERT PLAN

ATHENS IN THE 20th CENTURY

•Vast population increase of 4,000 in 1833 to 1,490,000 in 1959 1960-64 the first Athens Regional Plan .
•In 1982 the socialist government set up local and national planning boards but they were ineffective.
SIMILARITIES BETWEEN ANCIENT GREEK AND ROMAN CIVILIZATION

GREEK ROMAN

SIMILARITIES
•Ship builders. •Road builders.

•Seas surrounded •Farmers. •Located next to a river

Greece. •Traders
•Mountains/Hills •Today it is Rome, a city
•Today it is Greece, a •Limited rich soil in Italy
country in Europe •Both were countries
long ago
•Centre for public life
and trade, Agora and
Forum
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INTERNET:

• http://www.athens-today.com/
• http://www.eie.gr/archaeologia/En/chapter_more_9.aspx
• http://athang1504.blogspot.com/2011/01/ancient-athens.html
• http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=23182822
• http://ancientathens3d.com/ottomanathensEn.htm
• TOWN PLANNING REPORTS FROM SPA LIBRARY

BOOKS:

• HISTORY OF HUMAN SETTLEMENT

• URBAN PATTERN