HANDOUT FOR SEPT. 26: BRONZE-AGE AND HOMERIC GREECE

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Names:

Hellas, Hellenes: Classical Greek name for Greece and its people

Achaeans: Homeric name for the warriors of mainland Greece

Chronology:

c.6000 BC: First agriculture in Greece.

c.3000-2500: Bronze-working in Greece.

c.2000-1500: Minoan palace-civilization of Crete.

c.1800: First writing in Crete, the Linear A script (still undeciphered).

c.1600: Mycenean charioteers set up first kingdoms in mainland Greece.

c.1500: Myceneans conquer Crete.

c.1400-1200: Height of the Mycenean palace-kingdoms; use Linear B (Greek) script.

c.1250-1200: Traditional date of Trojan War; archaeology confirms destruction at Troy.

c.1200-1150: The "Catastrophe": Palaces and cities throughout Greece, Anatolia, Syria, Palestine sacked and burned; Egypt attacked by Sea Peoples.

c.1150-900: "Dark Age" in Greece. No palaces, no monuments, no writing; population plunges.

c.900-750: Population slowly recovers in Greece.

c.750-700: Writing returns to Greece. Possible dates for poet Homer.

AD 1870: Archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann begins excavating at Troy.