UNIT II

CLASSICAL WORLD

Landscape and culture of Greece Greek character Greek polis and democracy
Domestic architecture Evolution of the Greek temple and the building of the Acropolis
Public architecture: Theatre and Agora- optical illusions in architecture- City Planning.
Roman history: Republic and Empire Religion, culture, lifestyle - Roman character
Roman urban planning architecture as imperial propaganda: forums and basilicas
structural forms: materials and techniques of construction spanning large spaces with
relevant examples - domestic architecture.
CLASSICIAL PERIOD: GREECE
Classical Greece was a 200 year period in Greek culture lasting from the 5th through
4th centuries BC.

This classical period had a powerful influence on the Roman Empire and greatly
influenced the foundation of Western civilizations.

Much of modern Western politics, artistic thought, such as architecture, scientific

thought, literature, and philosophy derives from this ancient society.

In the context of the art, architecture, and culture of ancient Greece, the Classical
period corresponds to most of the 5th and 4th centuries BC (the most common dates
being the fall of the last Athenian tyrant in 510 BC to the death of Alexander the Great in
323 BC).

The Classical period in this sense follows the Archaic period and is in turn succeeded
by the Hellenistic period.
SOCIAL STRUCTURE:-
Greece in the Archaic Period was made up from independent states, called Polis, or city
state.

The polis of Athens included about 2,500 sq kilometers of territory, but other Polis with
smaller areas of 250 sq kilometers.

Greek Society was mainly broken up between Free people and Slaves, who were
owned by the free people.

Slaves were used as servants and laborers, without any legal rights. Sometimes the
slaves were prisoners of war or bought from foreign slave traders.

Although many slaves lived closely with their owners, few were skilled craftsmen and
even fewer were paid.

As Athenian society evolved, free men were divided between Citizens and Metics.
SOCIAL STRUCTURE:-
A citizen was born with Athenian parents and were the most powerful group, that could
take part in the government of the Polis.

After compulsory service in the army they were expected to be government officials and
take part in Jury Service.

A metric was of foreign birth that had migrated to Athens, to either trade or practice a
craft.

A metic had to pay taxes and sometimes required to serve in the army.

However, they could never achieve full right s of a Citizen, neither could they own
houses or land and were not allowed to speak in law courts.
LANDSCAPE AND CLIMATE:-
Greek mainland is a peninsula body of land with water on three sides

This peninsula sticks out into Mediterranean Sea

southern tip is a second peninsula called the Peloponnesus

Isthmus narrow strip of land links Peloponnesus to rest of Greece

Greece also includes thousands of islands

Mountains cover 70 to 80 percent of Greece, divide land into regions

Rugged landscape, lack of large rivers made transportation hard

Made it difficult to unite Greece under single government

LANDSCAPE AND CLIMATE:-
Mankind's relationship with the environment is always important, and this is certainly
true in the Mediterranean area.

The sea itself provided relatively easy lanes of transport and communications; the
numerous islands and rough coastline encouraged the movement of people and goods,
throughout the centuries.

In addition, the sea provided a moderating climatic influence: the so-called

"Mediterranean climate" brings hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters, commonly with
enough rainfall to make farming without irrigation possible.

Away from the sea the climate is more extreme, with hotter summers and colder
winters.
LANDSCAPE AND CLIMATE:-
Landscape archaeology is a relatively new approach to the study of the human-
environment relationship in Greece.

Archaeologists are using the methods of intensive surface survey to illuminate the
culture of farmer, peasant, and slave by the material remains left behind.

With the help of geomorphologists, who study the processes in which landscapes are
created and changed, archaeologists are now able to reconstruct the human exploitation
of natural resources as well as the restrictions that geography and environment posed
on local society.

On the one hand, human utilization and demands on the landscape have resulted in a
constantly (but gradually) changing appearance to the countryside so that the Greece of
today is vastly different from the Greece of 2000 years ago.
MINOAN CIVILIZATION:-
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that arose on the island of Crete
and flourished from approximately the 27th century BC to the 15th century BC.

The early inhabitants of Crete settled as early as 128,000 BC, during the Middle
Paleolithic age.

However, it was not until 5000 BC that the first signs of advanced agriculture appeared.
The island of Crete is located in the center of the eastern Mediterranean at the
crossroads of Africa, Asia, and Europe.

It measures about 200 Km from east to west, and between 12 to 58 Km from north to
south at its narrowest and widest distances, making it one of the largest islands in the
Mediterranean sea.

Minoan architecture consists of several structures which acted as centers for

commercial, religious, and administrative life.

Archaeologist have unearthed in Crete a Minoan landscape filled with tombs, palaces,
villas, towns and the roads that connected them.

All evidence of a thriving prehistoric culture able to survive and expand in the Aegean
sea.
MINOAN PALACES :-
The Cretan archaeological landscape is adorned with the ruins of several major
prehistoric palaces.

The Minoans began building palaces around 1900 BC to act as cultural, religious,
administrative, and commercial centers for their increasingly expanding society.

The Minoan palaces provided a forum for gathering and celebrations, while at the
same time they offered storage for the crops, and workshops for the artists.

They were built over time to occupy low hills at strategic places around the island in a
manner so complex that they resembled labyrinths to outside visitors.

The Minoan palaces were technologically advanced with expanded drainage systems,
irrigation, aqueducts, and deep wells that provided fresh water to the inhabitants.

The multi-storied palace buildings were laced with impressive interior and exterior
staircases, light wells, massive columns, storage magazines, and gathering outdoor
places the precursor to ancient theaters.
MINOAN PALACES :-
The construction method consisted of rough stones and ceramic bricks connected by
mortar in the interior walls, while the corners of the buildings were fashioned by sharply
defined large rectangular blocks.

None of the Minoan palaces unearthed to date was surrounded by defensive walls, a
testament to the Minoan supremacy at sea.

The Minoan cities were connected with stone-paved roads, formed from blocks cut
with bronze saws.

Streets were drained and water and sewer facilities were available to the upper class,
through clay pipes.

Minoan buildings often had flat tiled roofs; plaster, wood, or flagstone floors, and stood
two to three stories high.
MINOAN PALACES :-
Typically the lower walls were constructed of stone and rubble, and the upper walls of
mud brick

Ceiling timbers held up the roofs.

The materials used in constructing the villas and palaces varied, and could include
sandstone, gypsum, or limestone.

Equally, building techniques could also vary between different constructions; some
palaces used ashlar masonry while others used roughly hewn megalithic blocks.
KNOSSOS:-
The imposing Palace is built on the hill of "Kefala" next to the river "Kairatos", in a site
which was admired for its natural advantages, the strong position, good water
supplies, access to the sea and proximity to a large fertile forest.

The forest that produced the "Cephalonian Pine" a tree that supplied the beams and
the columns for the construction of the Palace.

The site itself includes the Palace of Knossos, The Minoan Houses, the Little Palace,
the Royal Villa, the villa "Dionysos" with famous Roman mosaics, the south Royal
Temple - Tomb and the Caravanserai.

The Palace and the Minoan houses are open for visits to the public. It is well known
that the area lies on a great seismic site.

The Palace had been destroyed time after time and always emerged from its ruins
more magnificent than before until the last time that there was no recovery.
KNOSSOS:-
Excavations showed that the area was inhabited since the Neolithic times (6000 BC
and perhaps even earlier) and verified that the Neolithic levels of Knossos are amongst
the deepest in Europe.

An important Pre Palace already existed on this Neolithic site as far as 3000 BC. while
the first Palace was built around 2000 BC and destroyed 300 years later.

On the same site a new Palace was built, more elaborate than the previous, only to be
severely damaged from an earthquake one hundred years latter.

During this period we see the development of a series of satellite buildings like the
"Little Palace", the "Royal Villa" and the "South House".

Knossos has now developed into a large city whose population - judged by the adjacent
cemeteries - must have not been less than 100 000 inhabitants.
KNOSSOS:-
The Palace now lives and prospers until the next disaster of around 1450 BC connected
to the volcanic eruption of Santorini.

Following this event, it is restored once more and used by the Achaean sovereign until
at least 1380 BC although other city states in Crete had already been destroyed.

After its final destruction the palace was not used again except for the "temple of Rhea"
in later historical times.