Daria Nessel| Dec 15, 2016
The Pyramid of Cheops
Neither he nor his wife lived to see the completion of construction. The architects and sculptors completed the work they started on their own initiative so that people could admire this masterpiece of architecture.
The crypt of Mausolus stood in Halicarnassus for 1700 years, until an earthquake destroyed the three-tiered 50-meter walls, decorated with bas-reliefs and sculptures.
Four marble horses at a gallop, with the royal couple, crowned this tombstone, called the mausoleum. Since then, all such structures are called mausoleums.
From 270 to 220 BC on the shore of the island of Rhodes stood, amazing in its size, a monument to the sun god Helios in the form of a young man with a torch in his raised hand. Delightful on the outside, in reality it consisted mainly of mortar, its power was only a mirage that soon dissipated.
The statue of the radiant handsome man collapsed, unable to withstand the vibrations of the earth's surface, and lay there for 900 years, until the iron and bronze were sent for smelting, leaving no mention of the place where it was located.
The 32 m clay-filled giant is the progenitor of the colossi that appeared later, such as, for example, the Statue of Liberty in the USA. There is a project for a virtual embodiment of the Colossus of Rhodes.
Alexandrian lighthouse
The signal tower on the island of Pharos at the entrance to the harbor was erected in 280 BC. in five years and served for almost 1000 years, showing the right path to sailors and reliably protecting the capital of Egypt from attack from the sea.
The design proposed by the architect Sostratus was implemented so successfully that in the future all coastal lighthouses decided to build according to its model.
The giant fire, which burned day and night on the third level, was visible at sea almost 100 km away, thanks to mirror reflectors made of polished bronze plates, first used here.
Strong seismic shocks destroyed the building, leaving only the ruins on which another fortress was built.
In 2015, the Egyptian authorities decided to restore the Alexandria Lighthouse.
Some of the disappeared ancient wonders of the world have been reconstructed as mini-copies in the miniature park in Istanbul: the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, the Halicarnak Mausoleum.
It is better to see in reality once than to hear (read) a million times in order to understand and appreciate these beautiful works of art.
The 7 wonders of the ancient world are the results of human genius, covered with a veil of mystery and legend, created many centuries ago and almost all of them sank into the abyss without a trace.
Why exactly 7 wonders of the world? Were there really so few of them? In fact, this list should be much longer, but seven has been revered since ancient times as a magical, divine number in which providence manifests its will.
Maybe that’s why so many colors of the rainbow, notes, and days of the week are known. This is where the expressions come from: behind seven seals, seven circles of hell, in seventh heaven...
In those distant times, the Greeks annually determined a list of wonders, making it a kind of lottery, because there was so much to choose from. Until the ancient Greek poet Antipater of Sidon, in his famous poem about the 7 wonders of the world, named the objects that he considered worthy of this title.
I’m an Image Caption ready-to-use.
Later it became fashionable and ancient historians, poets and writers began to repeat it. The Seven Ancient Wonders of the World were built within 2,500 years before Christ. The geography of their location is the Mediterranean region: the territory of modern Egypt, Greece, Iraq, Turkey. This unprecedented surge of creative energy and talent took place here, leaving a bright mark on world culture.
The Pyramid of Cheops
The largest of all existing pyramids in the Giza Valley, dating from 2540–2560 BC, 146 m high (currently 138 m), with a base of just over five hectares. This is the memorial complex of Pharaoh Cheops and the only one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world that has survived to this day.
A stone monolith, completely filled with heavy, weighing more than 2 tons, blocks of cut limestone with three granite burial chambers inside. Today you can hear many hypotheses about the purpose of rooms and new ones are constantly being put forward.
More than 5 million tons - this is the weight. Over the course of twenty years, 4 thousand builders laid them out in a geometrically correct form during a period when wheels were unknown in Egypt.
Looted in ancient times, the tomb of Khufu keeps the secret of its creation, continuing to attract the attention of scientists and archaeologists.
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Babylonian miracle, built by order of Nebuchadnezzar 3000 BC. for his wife, the daughter of the Median king, so that she could dispel longing for her native land.
Four platforms, placed in tiers on powerful supports, were like a mountain hill, planted with rare trees and bushes. It was an oasis of peace and coolness in the sultry and noisy Babylon.
The name of Semiramis, a legendary woman who lived several centuries earlier, was connected by people's rumors with this unique creation, creating beautiful fairy tales. Amytis, for whose sake the birds sang and the streams gurgled, is forever forgotten by history.
Statue of Olympian Zeus
In Olympia from the 7th century BC. popular athletic competitions were held. The patron of athletes participating in competitions and citizens of the polis was the formidable head of Olympus. He was feared and respected, so a palace was built for him, suitable for such a powerful protector.
The marble temple was the largest ever dedicated to deities. An impressive ivory and gold statue of the thunder god, created by the sculptor Phidias, sat on a throne in the center of the building.
The optical effect, thanks to which the figure of the Thunderer seemed to shine in the twilight of the room, amazed those present.
For almost a millennium, the Olympians brought gifts to, until Emperor Theodosius the Second ordered the burning of the temple of the supreme pagan god in order to strengthen the formation of the Christian religion.
The Temple of Zeus at Olympia is reproduced in the Archaeological Museum of Olympia.
Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
Residents of Ephesus in the 5th century BC. In honor of their patroness, Artemis, the always young goddess of the hunt, they erected a magnificent temple. They worked for almost a hundred years, experiencing serious difficulties with the foundation, located on shaky, swampy soil.
Zeus statue
(Olympia, Greece)
Statue of Olympian Zeus- the work of Phidias, an outstanding work of ancient sculpture. It was located in the Temple of Olympian Zeus, in Olympia - a city in the Elis region, in the north-west of the Peloponnese peninsula, where from 776 BC. e. to 394 AD e. Every four years the Olympic Games were held - competitions between Greek and then Roman athletes. The Greeks considered those who did not see the statue of Zeus unfortunate. The Olympic Games have been held for more than 300 years, when in 470 BC. e. in Greece they began to collect donations for the construction of this temple. Construction of the temple began in 466 BC. e. and ended in 456 BC. e. The construction was supervised by the architect Libon, information about whom has not reached us. According to legend, the temple was magnificent. The entire temple, including the roof, was built of marble. It was surrounded by 34 massive columns made of shell rock. Each was 10.5 meters high and more than 2 meters thick. The area of the temple was 64x27 m. On the outer walls of the temple there were slabs with bas-reliefs depicting the 12 labors of Hercules. Bronze doors, 10 meters high, opened the entrance to the cult room of the temple. 
The statue of Zeus did not appear there immediately. The Greeks decided to invite the famous Athenian sculptor Phidias to create a statue of Zeus. By this time, Phidias had managed to create two famous statues of Athena (“Athena Promachos” and “Athena Parthenos” - not preserved). By his order, a workshop was built 80 meters from the temple. This workshop exactly matched the size of the temple. There he, with his two assistants, who he needed only as garbage collectors, behind a huge purple curtain, created a statue of the thunder god using the chrysoelephantine technique. Phidias himself was very picky about the material that was delivered to him. He was especially picky about the ivory from which he created the body of the god. Then, under heavy security, precious stones and 200 kg of pure gold were brought into the temple at the feet of the Thunderer. Phidias carved the figure of the god from wood and covered it with slabs of pink ivory, and therefore the body seemed alive. The Thunderer sat on a huge gilded throne. In one hand he held a symbol of power - a scepter with an eagle; on the open palm of the other hand stood a figurine of Nike, the goddess of Victory. They were made of gold: a cape that covered part of Zeus’s body, a scepter with an eagle, which he held in his left hand, a statue of the goddess of victory - Nike, which he held in his right hand, and a wreath of olive branches on Zeus’s head. Zeus's feet rested on a stool supported by two lions. The reliefs of the throne glorified, first of all, Zeus himself. Four dancing Nikes were depicted on the legs of the throne. Also depicted were: centaurs, lapiths, the exploits of Theseus and Hercules, frescoes depicting the battle of the Greeks with the Amazons. The base of the statue was 6 meters wide and 1 meter high. The height of the entire statue together with the pedestal was, according to various sources, from 12 to 17 meters. The impression was created “that if he (Zeus) wanted to get up from the throne, he would blow the roof off.” 
For seven centuries, Zeus, smiling benevolently, watched the athletes, until in the 2nd century. n. e. there was no powerful earthquake that severely damaged the statue. But the games in Olympia still continued: the athletes believed that they were being helped, if not by a temple statue, then by God himself, sitting on the top of the mountain. The end to sports competitions was put in 394 by the Christian Emperor Theodosius I, who banned all pagan cults two years earlier. After the Olympic Games were banned, thieves stripped the statue of Zeus, stealing gold and ivory. All that remained of the famous sculpture of Phidias was taken from Greece to the city of Constantinople, but there the wooden sculpture burned down during a strong fire (during the fire of the temple in 425 or in the fire in Constantinople in 476). This is how this wonder of the world perished.
The primacy of compiling a list of the 7 Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is attributed to Antipater of Sidon, who sang them for centuries in his poem:
I saw your walls, Babylon, on which there is spacious
And chariots; I saw Zeus at Olympia,
Miracle of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Colossus of Helios
And the pyramids are the work of many and hard labors;
I know Mausolus, a huge tomb. But I just saw
I am the palace of Artemis, the roof raised to the clouds,
Everything else faded before him; outside Olympus
The sun does not see beauty equal to it anywhere.
At different times, with the construction of new buildings, they tried to change the list of 7 wonders of the world of antiquity, but in the final version, only the Lighthouse of Alexandria appeared among the new ones, which eclipsed the greatness of the walls of Babylon.
Some include here all the pyramids of Egypt, some of the great pyramids of Giza, but for the most part only the largest of them, the Pyramid of Cheops, is perceived as a miracle. The pyramid is also considered the oldest miracle on the list - its construction is estimated to be around 2000 BC. Despite its old age, this is the only structure of the 7 old wonders of the world that has survived to our times.
Created by order of the king of desert Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar II, for his wife, these gardens were supposed to console her and remind her of her distant homeland. The name of Semiramis, the Assyrian queen, appeared here by mistake, but, nevertheless, was firmly entrenched in history.
The statue was created for a temple in the major religious center of Ancient Greece - Olympia. The giant Zeus of the sculptor Phidias amazed the local residents so much that they decided that Zeus himself personally posed for the master.
In the ancient large port city of Ephesus, the goddess of fertility Artemis was especially revered. In honor of her, a huge and majestic temple was created here, which was included in the list of 7 ancient wonders of the world.
The rich king Mausolus wished to erect a mausoleum-temple in Halicarnassus, incomparable in beauty. The best craftsmen of that time worked on the construction. The work ended only after the death of Mavsol, but this did not prevent him from going down in history forever.
In honor of the great victory, the inhabitants of Rhodes decided to build a huge statue of the god Helios. The plan was carried out, but this miracle did not last long, and was soon destroyed by an earthquake.
To navigate ships near the large port of Alexandria, it was decided to build the largest lighthouse at that time. The building immediately eclipsed the walls of Babylon and took a place on the list of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Early slave states in the Aegean Basin
The beginning of the 2nd millennium saw the emergence of class society and the state in Crete, and then in other countries of the Aegean basin. These were the first centers of slave-owning civilization in Europe, which had a great influence on the further development of Greece.
The oldest Aegean world
Natural conditions
Despite the fact that the Aegean region covers areas located on two continents and many islands - there are several hundred of them - geographically and historically it represents to a certain extent a single whole. The Aegean region in ancient times was divided into four regions: the southern part of the Balkan Peninsula (mainland Greece), the island world, Crete and the narrow coastal strip of Asia Minor. Mainland Greece, in turn, is divided into three parts: Northern, Central and Southern (Peloponnese). It is separated from the rest of the Balkan Peninsula by spurs of the Balkan Range, which also extend into the territory of Greece, where mountains occupy the largest part of the surface. The most important part of Northern Greece is the fertile Thessalian Valley, watered by the Peneus River. Through the narrow Thermopylae pass the path leads to Central Greece, which includes a number of more or less significant valleys surrounded by mountains and the Attica peninsula. The island of Euboea adjoins Central Greece to the east.
The Peloponnese is washed on all sides, with the exception of the Isthmus of Corinth (Isthmus), by the waters of the Aegean and Ionian seas and their bays. Here, as in Central Greece, the country consists of many, mostly isolated by mountains, regions.
The mountains in Greece - their height rarely exceeds 2 thousand meters - were not an insurmountable obstacle for humans, but in ancient times they still contributed greatly to the disunity of individual regions. In addition, in Greece there were neither large rivers nor the possibility of creating an extensive irrigation system, characteristic of many ancient Eastern countries. The western shores of mainland Greece are relatively little indented. They are mostly steep and mountainous. But on the east coast the sea has formed a winding coastline.
If the mountains separated the tribes of the Aegean basin, then the islands connected them with each other. Sailors in the Aegean Sea never lost sight of the land, even if their path lay from the shores of Europe to the coast of Asia Minor. In the usual clear and cloudless weather here, the islands, located, as a rule, no further than 50 km from each other, never disappeared from the sight of sailors. This contributed to the development of navigation and all trades related to the sea.
A special region of the Aegean was the coast of Asia Minor with convenient numerous shallow bays, bays and river mouths. Vast plains with fertile soil adjoined the coast.
The climate of the Aegean coasts, with the exception of numerous mountainous areas, can be defined as subtropical; only in the northern part of mainland Greece does it become moderate. Summers here are hot and dry. Snow rarely falls even in winter and usually melts immediately. In winter, when southern and southwestern winds blow from the warm Mediterranean Sea, most of the annual precipitation falls. Therefore, the growing season occurs in late autumn, winter and spring, when precipitation occurs; fast, unstable rivers, which usually dry up in summer, cannot supply fields and gardens with sufficient moisture.
There is little fertile land in Greece. The rain washes away the soil from the mountain slopes, and only the coastal plains and valleys inland are covered with red and yellow earth soils characteristic of the subtropical zone. In river floodplains, the soils are alluvial (alluvial), sometimes swampy. In ancient times, Greece was covered with vast forests and thickets of thorny bushes.
Due to the arid climate and lack of suitable land, agriculture, as the main branch of the economy, developed only in a few regions of the country. During the period of development of the slave society, bread in mainland Greece was usually in short supply, and even then it had to be imported from other countries. Conditions were more favorable for growing garden crops. Among them, oilseeds and grapes occupied the first place.
Fishing and cattle breeding played a major role in the economic life of the ancient Greeks - mainly the breeding of small ruminants (goats and sheep), especially in the central and mountainous regions of the country. Cattle, and later horses, were bred mainly in Thessaly.
The country is rich in a variety of natural resources: fine marble, excellent clay; From metals, silver, copper, lead, and later iron were mined here, and on the island of Thasos - gold. Gold was also mined in Thrace (on the territory of modern Bulgaria). But some metals were in short supply or in negligible quantities (tin), and had to be imported.
Periodization of the ancient history of the Aegean region.
In the Greek epic and myths, vague legends of the ancient Greeks have been preserved about their distant past, about the power of the Cretan king Minos, about Mycenae, rich in gold, about the ten-year Trojan War and other legendary events. The excavations of Troy, Tiryns and Mycenae, which began in the 70s of the last century, and later Knossos (Crete) and hundreds of other large and small settlements on the coast and islands of the Aegean Sea, convincingly proved that Greek legends, despite the fairy-tale shell, retained a grain of historical truth and are the legacy of what actually existed in the 2nd, and partly the 3rd, millennium BC. e. rich and vibrant Aegean culture.
The history of the Aegean basin in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. e. It is customary to divide it into three large periods: early, middle and late. Due to the fact that in different regions of the Aegean the nature of local cultures is not entirely the same, it became necessary to distinguish Minoan (i.e. Cretan), Helladic (i.e. mainland Greek) and other cultures; accordingly, periods such as Early Minoan, Early Helladic, etc. began to be designated. The chronological framework of the three periods, despite the differences in these local cultures, is approximately the same for the entire Aegean. The early period covers almost the entire third millennium (up to approximately 2200-2100), the middle period covers the first half of the second millennium (until 1600), and the late period covers the second half of the same millennium until the turn of the 12th and 11th centuries. BC e. The Late Helladic period is often also called Mycenaean, after the largest center in the area at that time - Mycenae.
The Early Minoan and Early Helladic periods are the time of the Chalcolithic and the appearance of bronze, the Middle Minoan and Middle Helladic periods refer to the beginning of the Bronze Age, and the Late Minoan and Late Helladic periods refer to the time of its heyday and the appearance of the first iron products.
Ancient Crete
Early Minoan period (XXX-XXII centuries BC)
Crete is a narrow island located almost equidistant from Europe, Asia and Africa. The island, 2.50 km long and 12 to 57 km wide, is divided by isthmuses into three parts: eastern, central and western. The latter part was sparsely populated until the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. Almost the entire island is covered with mountain ranges and their spurs, accessible only to pedestrians and pack animals. A small fertile plain exists only in the south of the central part of the island.
The settlement of Crete began in Neolithic times, but close ties between the inhabitants of different areas were established only at the end of the Early Minoan period. Until the middle of the 2nd millennium, Crete did not know the invasions of foreign tribes, and the Minoan culture, as far as can be judged from the available data, developed independently for about one and a half thousand years. But external connections undoubtedly existed and had a certain impact on the development of the culture of ancient Crete.
The main occupation of the residents was fishing, cattle breeding and partly farming. During the eight centuries spanning the Early Minoan period, the use of metals, mainly copper, gradually spread in Crete. Local residents at that time used copper daggers, axes, and knives. The use of metal tools led to an improvement in the technology of processing stone vessels and the development of other branches of craft. Pottery has undergone a significant evolution; The firing technique improved, painting on ceramics emerged and developed, although the vessels were still made by hand. Under Egyptian influence, the first stone-carved seals appear; on one of these seals there is an image of a rook. Of the external connections—apparently quite rare—we were able to trace only connections with Egypt.
The population of Crete still lived in a primitive communal system. In any case, the property and social differences were not significant. This is evidenced by the uniformity of burials, the remains of collective houses and collective round tombs with a diameter of 4 to 13 m.
Middle Minoan period (XXI - XVII centuries BC) 
In the first half of the 2nd millennium, the economic and social development of Crete made great progress. A characteristic feature of this time is the spread of bronze. Bronze chisels, many large and small axes and axes, chisels, thin staples, daggers, spearheads, and long swords were found in various localities. The widespread use of bronze opened the WAY to a general increase in production. The construction of large buildings, sometimes several floors, is developing. The first palaces appeared in Knossos, Phaistos and Mallia;
The palace of Knossos was rebuilt three times at this time, and at the end of the period a palace was built in Agia Triada. The struggle for dominance between the individual centers of Crete, which lasted for about two centuries, ended in the victory of Knossos. The tangible result of this victory was the construction of a large road from Knossos to Phaistos and further to the harbor of Como, equipped with guard posts. The discovery of the oldest four-wheeled cart in Europe dates back to the beginning of the Middle Minoan period (in the village of Pale Kastro). The potter's wheel, introduced at the same time, underwent major improvements at least twice during this period. Cretan craftsmen also mastered the technique of making faience, the use of which quickly spread.
Fine arts are achieving great success. The abundance of beautiful palace frescoes made in a realistic manner testifies to the progress of original local art. Even in the painting of clay vessels, a transition from simple geometric patterns to bright images of first plants and then animals is noticeable. Already at the beginning of the Middle Minoan period, a type of multicolored vessel painting arose, called kamares, named after the settlement near which the first vessels with such an ornament were found in a cave. This unique painting has become widespread in Crete and beyond. Various seals and carved stones are becoming increasingly common.
The most important invention of this time is writing. It first appeared as a pictographic (picture) letter, but soon took on the form of hieroglyphs, much like the Egyptian ones. The oldest examples of Cretan writing are designs carved on seals and marks on stone blocks from which palaces were built. At the end of the Middle Minoan period, ink came into use. In connection with the spread of writing, hieroglyphs were gradually simplified. At the end of the period, Linear A appears, named so conventionally in contrast to the somewhat later, also Linear, Letter B. Unfortunately, Linear A has not yet been deciphered, and therefore we are deprived of the opportunity to determine the specific historical features of the development of ancient Crete.
A significant increase in the productive forces, along with increasing property inequality, gives reason to believe that it was during the Middle Minoan period that Cretan society, at least in the leading “palace” centers, became a class society. The palaces of Knossos and Phaistos, judging by the capital nature of the buildings, the abundance of luxury goods, the wealth of frescoes, and finally, the use of writing for recording products and for management needs, were undoubtedly the location of the rulers of the early slave states. The construction of a road connecting Knossos with Festus, apparently, indicates some kind of political unification of these centers. The absence of any significant number of imported items indicates that the first Cretan states undoubtedly arose as a result of the gradual internal socio-economic development of Cretan society, and not as a result of any external influence.
Late Minoan period (XVI - XII centuries BC)
The period from approximately 1600 to 1100 (the so-called Late Minoan) is characterized by the maximum development of Cretan culture; it also covers the time of its gradual decline until its final collapse. In the 16th century the population of Crete was probably more numerous than at any time during the subsequent period of antiquity. A network of roads with guard posts is being laid across the island. At the same time, the palaces were expanded, decorated with unprecedented luxury until then. The best monuments of Cretan architecture and art date back to this time, such as the “throne room”, the relief of the “king-priest”, frescoes depicting processions, figurines depicting fights with bulls, etc. A characteristic feature of this time is the growth of the wealth of the nobility. The excavated private house of the Knossos rich man, the so-called “South House”, was two-story. It was a building with a portico, columns, a sacred platform, a cellar and a storeroom in which various bronze tools were found. During this period, the family tombs of the nobility, made in the rocks, expanded and took on the appearance of luxurious tombs. The clothes of nobles and priests depicted on the frescoes are distinguished by their elegance.
All this was due primarily to a further increase in production, especially noticeable in shipbuilding. Judging by the images on the seals, the former longships are now turning into relatively large decked ships; one of the seals shows the transportation of a horse being loaded onto a ship. At this time, lively connections between Crete and Egypt, Syria and especially Mycenaean Greece were established. In a number of places in Crete, copper ingots were found in the shape of a bull's hide, which may have served as money. Their weight (29 kg) corresponds to the later Greek unit of weight - talent.
At this time, a new linear script appeared, the so-called Linear B. Apparently, in the first half of the 15th century. BC e. Crete was conquered by the Greek tribe of the Achaeans. The documents from Knossos, written in Linear B, are in Greek. However, in other areas of Crete, until the end of the Late Minoan period, the clearly non-Greek Linear A letter continued to be used. Obviously, the domed tomb in Agios Theodoros, built on the model of the domed tombs known to us from excavations in Asia Minor and Mycenae, dates back to the reign of the Achaeans.
In the XIV-XII centuries. BC e. noticeable is the gradual decline of Cretan culture, which existed until the new, Dorian conquest of Crete, which apparently occurred at the turn of the 12th and 11th centuries. By this time, external relations were almost completely interrupted, trade was dying out, and fewer and fewer handicrafts were found during excavations. In the ornamentation of clay vessels, instead of bright realistic images, highly stylized images of plants and sea animals now appear.
Knossos palace
The most outstanding monument of Cretan architecture is the Nnossa Palace; in Greek myths it was called a labyrinth (this word comes from the term labrys - “double ax” - a favorite image in Cretan art). According to these legends, in the depths of the palace lived a half-man, half-bull - the Minotaur, to which the city of Athens annually sent 7 young men and the same number of girls to be devoured. The Minotaur was killed, the legend says, by the Athenian hero Theseus, the son of the king Aegeus. Apparently, the myth of Theseus reflected the dependence of Attica on Knossos at the beginning of the Late Minoan period. Knossos Palace, with a total area of about 16 thousand square meters. m, representing a complex conglomeration of hundreds of different rooms, seemed to the Achaean Greeks to be a building from which it was possible to find a way out. The word “labyrinth” has since become synonymous with a room with a complex system of rooms and corridors.
Archaeological excavations have established that the palace was built at the beginning of the Middle Minoan period and then expanded many times. During the heyday of Minoan culture, the palace had two or three floors, not counting the basements, which contained cellars, workshops, food warehouses, weapons, and dungeons. The ceremonial premises of the palace consisted of large and small “throne” halls and rooms for religious purposes. Clay vessels from the late Minoan period. From Gournia, Palekastro and Knossos. Crete. XVI century BC e. The supposed women's section of the palace contained a reception room, bathrooms, a treasury and various other rooms. The palace had a wide sewer network made of clay pipes of large and small diameters, serving swimming pools, bathrooms and latrines. Over 2 thousand clay tablets with various records were found in the palace. The rich decoration of some rooms, a huge amount of items made of precious metals, highly artistic wall paintings, frescoes, spacious warehouses - all this indicates that the palace was the seat of the kings - the rulers of Knossos and all of Crete.
Socio-economic relations
In the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. the leading Cretan societies had undoubtedly already disintegrated into classes. “Giant buildings such as the Knossos palace during its heyday and similar, albeit smaller, palaces in Phaistos, Mallia and Agia Triada, convincingly prove the existence of a state apparatus, an organ of violence of the ruling class. This is evidenced by the presence of dungeons in Knossos, Cretan a hieroglyph indicating hand chains, images of armed blacks, apparently palace guards, and finally, the presence of a large centralized palace economy with a developed accounting system. All this could not have arisen under the conditions of a primitive communal system. Given the level of development of productive forces that existed at that time, Cretan society did not could be nothing other than slave-owning.
Such huge structures as the Palace of Knossos could hardly have been erected at that time without the significant use of slave labor. The mention in the Greek myth of Theseus of the annual supply of boys and girls to Crete may have been a distant memory of the slave tribute paid to Crete by subject tribes. The Knossos documents contain clear indications of the existence of quite significant groups of slaves at that time. The name of one of the groups of Cretan slaves, the Mnoites, which came down to us in the writings of later ancient authors, is put by some researchers in connection with the name of the legendary Cretan boy Minos.
All available evidence suggests that slavery already existed on Crete in Minoan times. However, the level of development of slavery at that time was apparently not very high. There were no large irrigation systems here, as in many ancient Eastern despotisms. The land plots apparently were not large in size. The craft has reached such a high level that in many cases it suggests a deep personal interest of the manufacturer in the quality of the product of his labor; This kind of direct producers had to be personally free people.
We have very little data about the forms of ownership in ancient Crete. The abundance of seals, which were sometimes branded with pithos (large clay vessels for storing food), probably indicates a significant development of private property relations, but the seals could also belong to official lindens serving this huge royal household. In the Late Minoan period, a serious stratification of property was already noticeable; the houses of the rich, their grandiose tombs, the wide foreign relations of Crete, and finally, the use of precious metals in trade - all this points to the development of private property. The huge palace economy was apparently served by many hundreds of slaves, free artisans and farmers in the form of duties.
Cretan culture 
One of the most important achievements of Minoan culture was writing, which consistently went through the entire development path from pictographic through hieroglyphic to linear writing. While hieroglyphic Cretan writing may have depended to some extent on Egyptian writing, Linear writing was as distinctive as the rest of Minoan culture. As already indicated, the original Linear A then developed in Knossos and mainland Greece into Linear B (XV-XII centuries). In Cyprus, on the basis of this linear script, the Cypriot-Minoan letter (XV-XI centuries) and, finally, the Cypriot syllabary (VII-IV centuries BC) were created. Familiarity with the Cypriot syllabary greatly facilitated the deciphering of Linear B.
The spread of writing in Crete, as far as one can judge, was closely related to the needs of large palace households. The writings were found mainly on long, narrow clay tablets, their outlines reminiscent of palm leaves. A lot of such tablets have been found; a considerable number of inscriptions have come down to us on seals, vessels and some other objects. Undoubtedly, an even greater number of inscriptions were made on less permanent materials, such as palm leaves, perhaps papyrus, etc. The use of ink noted above also indicates a relatively widespread use of writing.
As a result of many years of efforts by a number of scientists, Linear B has now been largely deciphered, which makes it possible to read over 2 thousand Knossos, about 1 thousand Pylos (found during excavations of Pylos in the southwestern part of the Peloponnese) and about a hundred other tablets with signs this letter. Linear B consists of 88 characters representing vowels and syllables; In addition, this letter contained many symbols for concepts. The counting system was decimal. The language of the inscriptions read turned out to be Greek, only slightly different from the language of the ancient epic of the Greeks. It follows that the Greek language is much more ancient than previously thought, since the Knossos tablets were compiled in the middle of the 2nd millennium, 600 years before the estimated time of the composition of the epic. The decipherment of Linear B irrefutably proves that already at that time Knossos was ruled by Greek-speaking Achaeans, who adapted Linear A to the Greek language.
Minoan art was also unique. From the simplest dotted and linear ornaments through bright multicolored complex geometric figures, Cretan artists gradually moved to realistic depictions of the flora and fauna. The frescoes on the walls of palaces, especially at Knossos, can easily be ranked with the best works of art of the ancient world. Minoan artists of the mid-2nd millennium BC. e. they skillfully reproduced even the appearance and details of the clothing of participants in magnificent processions, noble women, etc. It is thanks to the realistic manner of Cretan masters that works of fine art of that time acquire for us the significance of the most important historical source. Despite the presence of religious themes in Cretan art, it was more secular in nature than Egyptian or Babylonian.
The historical significance of Minoan culture as a whole is determined by the fact that a class society and state arose in Crete five centuries earlier than in other areas of the Aegean. In the first half and middle of the 2nd millennium, both the material and spiritual culture of Crete influenced the tribes of mainland Greece and contributed to their faster development. The achievements of Cretan culture were adopted and further developed by the Achaeans.
Mycenaean Greece
Early Helladic period (XXX - XXII centuries BC)
III millennium BC e. in the history of mainland Greece is characterized by an increasingly widespread use of metals. The early Helladic tribes were already familiar with their processing: in Ziguri (south of Corinth) the tip of a bronze dagger was found, in Herea (Arcadia) - a golden object; silver was sometimes used for pins. Burials of that time were usually collective; they were housed in narrow well-shaped and rock-cut graves. Settlements are usually located on hills. There are no traces of the property and social stratification of these tribes. Only in the area of Tiryns, in the oldest layers, the foundation of a large round building was discovered, which may have been the hut of a tribal leader. Obviously, the early Helladic tribes lived in a primitive communal system.
Around 2500, the so-called Dimini culture arose in Thessaly, related to the cultures of the Danube tribes, and in particular Trypillian. It is characterized by defensive walls that were erected around settlements, and a rectangular house with a megaron (megaron was the name given to the central room in Greek houses in the later “Homeric” time. It was a rectangular room on pillars with a hole in the roof).
The bearers of this culture, apparently, were the ancestors of some of the Greek tribes. This culture, which coexisted with the Early Helladic one, gradually spread south all the way to Crete.
The early Helladic tribes obviously spoke a language that was not Indo-European. The ancient Greek language included a large number of words with stems ending in -nt (-nf) and -se, which are absent in other Indo-European languages. These words, along with such geographical names as Corinth, Tiryns, Olynthos, include the names of many plants: hyacinth, narcissus, cypress and many others. Apparently, all this is a heritage in the Greek language, received from the early Helladic, pre-Greek tribes that inhabited mainland Greece in the 3rd millennium BC. e. The Early Helladic tribes were related to the ancient population of Asia Minor, since similar geographical names are found here too. Samples of ceramics characteristic of this period were discovered in the oldest layers of Troy, as well as in Crete.
The ancient Greeks called the pre-Greek population of the country Pelasgians, Carians or Leleges. These tribes have inhabited the Aegean since the Neolithic period. They apparently did not belong to the peoples of the Indo-European family of languages.
Between 2200 and 2000 BC e. the southern part of the Balkan Middle Helladic Peninsula was subjected to a devastating invasion. (XXI - XXII BC). A wave of Greek tribes (the Greeks themselves later called themselves Hellenes) poured into the Aegean from the north. During excavations in many settlements, the Early Helladic layer is separated from subsequent ones by a layer of ash; other early Helladic settlements were completely abandoned by their inhabitants. The conquerors are usually called the Minii, since the objects characteristic of them (gray dishes) were first found in Orkhomenes in Boeotia, where, according to Greek legends, the legendary Minii lived. Gray Minya dishes were made from well-kneaded clay, which after firing acquired a dark or light gray color. Mini gray pottery, contemporary with the above-mentioned Cretan pottery of the Kamares type, dates back to the first centuries of the 2nd millennium.
The beginning of the Middle Helladic period coincides in time with the appearance of the Hittite tribes in the central and eastern part of Asia Minor, who spoke a language belonging to the Indo-European family. The Minii apparently brought the Greek language with them.
Ancient sources generally quite accurately indicate the boundaries of settlement of individual Hellenic tribes throughout almost the entire 2nd millennium BC. e. until the start of the next invasion - the resettlement of the Dorians. The data of ancient writers is confirmed by the study of the areas of distribution of various Greek dialects. Three main groups of Greek tribes - Ionians, Achaeans and Aeolians - settled on the territory of mainland Greece: the Ionians lived in Attica and in the northeastern part of the Peloponnese, the Achaeans occupied almost the entire Peloponnese, the Aeolians settled in Thessaly and Central Greece, with the exception of Attica. During almost the entire 2nd millennium, the Achaean tribes, who lived in the most fertile areas and were closer to the most ancient - pre-Greek centers of culture (primarily Crete), developed much faster than other Greek tribes; they were the first to create a class society and a state and spread throughout the Aegean territory. The Achaeans, in particular, created the Mycenaean kingdom, which played an important role in the history of ancient Greece.
The tribes of the Middle Helladic culture were mainly engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding. Wheat, barley, millet, leeks, peas, beans, lentils and pots of acorns, probably used for food, were found in their villages. In many Minya houses there are lamps in which olive oil served as a combustible material. Bones of bulls, sheep, goats and donkeys were also discovered, indicating the development of cattle breeding. The Minias also engaged in fishing. A vase from the 18th or 17th century was found at Phylakopi, on the island of Melos. BC e., which depicts a line of people walking along a stream, holding a fish in each hand.
Minin ceramics, unlike Early Helladic vessels, were made on a potter's wheel. Over the course of five centuries of the Middle Helladic period, ceramics went through a significant development. Later Minya ceramics, which coexisted, however, with sulfur, are distinguished by their yellow color, which was probably due to the improvement of pottery kilns and an increase in firing temperature. For the first time, some Cretan influence is noticeable on the ornaments of the yellow Minin ware. There are a lot of clay vessels in Minya houses; Along with rough-finished kitchen utensils, thin-walled vessels, huge pithoi - vessels for storing food, and elegant goblets are found during excavations; Special vessels for water, wine, olive oil, etc. were also discovered. The ornamentation of yellow Minya ceramics of the Middle Helladic period almost imperceptibly passes into the Late Helladic period.
Frequent finds of bronze battle axes, jewelry made of precious metals and, less frequently, metal utensils indicate significant progress in metal processing technology compared to the Early Helladic culture.
The Minyan tribes still lived under the conditions of a primitive communal system. Their burials, known to number several hundred, were made in so-called box graves. The body of the deceased was usually placed in a crouched position, as if in a stone box made of limestone slabs; Few grave goods were placed in the graves. Still, judging by household items, some differences in the financial status of individual families are already emerging.
Late Helladic period (XVI - XII centuries BC)
The Late Helladic period lasted from approximately 1600 to 1100 BC. e. In the history of mainland Greece, this time is also called Mycenaean, named after the main cultural center of that period - Mycenae. The number of archaeological sites is very large. The most outstanding monuments come from the Peloponnesian centers of this culture: Mycenae, Tiryns and Pylos. However, Late Helladic objects are found in large quantities throughout the Eastern Mediterranean, as far as Egypt and Ugarit (Phenicia). Large centers of Mycenaean culture are characterized by monumental architectural structures (palaces, fortress walls, huge tombs), a large amount of precious metals, highly artistic handicrafts, and many things brought from the countries of the East and even the Baltic states (amber). But the bulk of the settlements - and at least a hundred of them have been excavated - in terms of their inventory and, consequently, the way of life of the inhabitants, do not differ much from the same settlements of the previous period. But in the main centers of Mycenaean culture, in particular in Mycenae itself, a constant, sometimes amazingly rapid evolution of material culture is noticeable.
The most indicative of this time is the change in the forms of burials; throughout the 3rd and 2nd millennia, there were 5 main groups of burials: pit, box, shaft, chamber and dome. Pit graves are oval or rectangular depressions in the ground, usually rocky; Clay bowls were placed on the body of the deceased; these burials are typical for the early and middle Helladic times, but are also found in the late period.
Contemporaneous with the pit burials are the box graves described above. The inventory of both of these groups of graves is extremely poor, which may be explained by the low level of development of productive forces in the early periods, and for subsequent times also by the fact that ordinary people were buried in such graves.
The next most important monument of Mycenae are the shaft tombs. These rectangular, somewhat elongated tombs were carved into soft rock to a depth of 0.5 to 3-4 m; they represent a further development of pit and box burials. The inventory of these tombs amazes with the abundance of gold items. They also found many bronze and silver items. Amber, ostrich yaipas and other obviously imported items were found in the graves. The artwork in these tombs shows the influence of Cretan art, although the subject matter of the images differs significantly from Cretan. Minyan pottery was also found in the tombs. The tombs are located among Middle Helladic graves. Obviously, these were the burial places of rulers.
The fourth type of burials are chamber tombs, built inside the hills. The entrance to the burial chamber led through an open corridor—dromos. The chambers are family crypts. Their inventory consists of weapons, production tools, jewelry, household items, etc. Such tombs were discovered not only in Mycenae, but throughout the entire territory of Mycenaean culture. These tombs are considered to be the tombs of aristocratic families.
The last group of funerary structures is the domed tombs of the Late Helladic period, which are large (up to 14 m in diameter) masonry structures; their height is approximately equal to the diameter of the base. Architecturally, these tombs are a further development of chamber tombs; they are also equipped with a dromos. Several dozen such tombs have been discovered, including 9 in the Mycenae region. Most of these tombs were plundered in ancient times, but the complexity of their construction and the inventory preserved in some tombs give the right to consider them the burial places of kings, who are conventionally called the kings of the “dynasty of domed tombs.”
Mycenae
Mycenae is located in the Peloponnese, halfway between Corinth and Argos. Mycenaean Hill has been inhabited since the beginning of the 3rd millennium. Thanks to its convenient location in the center of a small but fertile plain, the presence of a water source - Perseus, and, finally, the inaccessibility of the hill to the enemy, the settlement gradually expanded. During the Middle Helladic period, a defensive wall was built around the top of the hill and houses were built on the adjacent hills. Near the western slope of the hilltop was a cemetery containing shaft tombs.
During the period when the shaft tombs were being built, Mycenaean society was experiencing an upsurge. The richness of the inventory of the shaft tombs indicates a significant development of productive forces during the transition to the Late Helladic period. The widespread use of bronze, the abundance of precious metals and their generous use are a clear indicator of the separation of crafts from agriculture and the long-term accumulation of labor skills among Mycenaean artisans. The presence of things of foreign origin indicates connections, possibly trade, with distant countries. The totality of finds in the shaft tombs gives reason to consider the Mycenaean society of that time to be a class society. Slave society arose in Mycenae as a result of internal development. All archaeological evidence indicates the local roots of the Mycenaean culture.
At the beginning of the 15th century. BC e. in Mycenae, the above-mentioned “dynasty of domed tombs” apparently came to power, lasting at least until 1300 BC. e. At this time the influence of Cretan art was most noticeable. As stated earlier, it inevitably follows from deciphering Linear B that it was at this time that the Achaeans conquered Knossos. The winners undoubtedly took home not only many objects of Cretan art, but perhaps also Cretan artisans. At the same time, Mykon’s connections with other countries were significantly expanding. In El Amarna (Egypt), for example, 19 Mycenaean vases were found - apparently a gift to Pharaoh Akhenaten. Large quantities of Mikean pottery have been found in Tros and Miletus (west coast of Asia Minor), on the island of Cyprus and even in Ugarit (Phenicia).
In the XIV century. BC e. Mycenae is seeing significant construction. The Mycenaean Acropolis (Kremlin) is expanded and strengthened, and Cyclopean walls with the so-called Lion Gate are built. A new palace with a megaron, throne room, and sanctuary is being built on the top of the hill. The walls of the palace are painted with highly artistic frescoes. At this time, the shaft tombs were also surrounded by a stone fence. Many of the new houses currently being excavated were built on the adjacent hills. The struggle against Cretan influence is noticeable in art; Cretan floral and marine motifs become more and more conventional and finally give way to a linear ornament with many ribbons and spirals.
By this time, the creation of a network of roads connecting Mycenae with the Argolid and Corinthian gulfs dates back to this time. The remains of bridges, cobblestone embankments, etc. that have survived to this day show that all these road structures were built according to a single plan. The presence of a developed road network indicates that Mycenae at that time was the capital of some small, centralized state. Findings of Mycenaean ceramics outside mainland Greece are becoming, one might say, a mass phenomenon. Especially many finds of this kind have been made on the islands of the Aegean Sea and in the southern part of Asia Minor. A Mycenaean-type domed tomb was found in Colophon (Asia Minor coast). This was the time of greatest flourishing and spread of Mycenaean culture.
In the middle of the Late Helladic period, Mycenae began to weaken. Residents apparently expected attacks. Excavations show that all water sources were brought to the northern gate of the acropolis, and in its northeastern corner a deep underground cistern was built into which the waters of the Perseus spring flowed. At the same time, the defensive structures of Tiryns were also being rebuilt. In the 13th century. BC e. Ties with Egypt are cut off.
Based on the calculations of ancient authors, the war of the Achaeans, led by the king of Mycenae Agamemnon, against Troy, described in the Greek epic “Iliad,” should be dated to the beginning of the 12th century. (1194-1184 BC). Archaeological evidence suggests that during these years the Achaeans were in contact with the northwestern coast of Asia Minor and that Troy was destroyed around this time. The Iliad in poetic form reflected, apparently, a military clash between the Achaeans and Trojans that actually took place.
Other centers of Mycenaean culture
Structures similar to Mycenaean ones were found in Tiryns, Pylos, Thebes and some other places. The Tiryns Palace, excavated in the last century, was located at a distance of about 15 km from Mycenae. It was also built on a steep hill and surrounded by almost impenetrable walls. The internal layout of this palace is similar to the Mycenaean one. And here there is a megaron, and the walls are covered with frescoes in the Mycenaean style.
Somewhat later, a palace was built in Pylos (Messenia). Not far from Pylos there is a domed tomb. In the upper layers of the Pylos Palace, even at the beginning of the excavations, many economic documents were found - clay tablets with Linear B signs. The Pylos Palace burned down or was burned at the beginning of the 12th century. BC e.
Traces of Mycenaean culture were also found in Lakonica (south-eastern part of the Peloponnese). Its main center in the Late Helladic period was Amycles; the cemetery of local rulers was located near the modern village of Vafio. A large amount of art was found in the tombs, including two beautiful gold goblets. In Central Greece, larger settlements were opened at Thebes, Athens and several other places. Traces of irrigation structures on Lake Copaida in Boeotia date back to the end of the Late Helladic period.
The palaces with their large complexes of monumental buildings were only islands in a sea of villages, so to speak, of the village type, the inhabitants of which lived in conditions little different from previous times. Several such settlements have been excavated in mainland Greece alone. dozens. In Koraku, Eutresis and many other villages, no monumental buildings have been found, there are no imported things, and very few handicrafts, with the exception of clay vessels.
The state of productive forces in Late Helladic times.
Mycenaean time is the heyday of the Bronze Age. A wide variety of tools, weapons, vessels, jewelry, etc. were made from bronze. Bronze ingots, axes, knives, rings, nails, door hinges, etc. were found in the Mycenae region. Other metals were used to a somewhat lesser extent. Kitchen utensils were made from tin; even clay vessels were made in imitation of metal samples. In Nemea, north of Mycenae, the remains of a copper mine were found. Some scientists suggest that the source of Mycenae's wealth is the development of copper deposits. Gold and silver were relatively widely used for making all kinds of jewelry. However, such jewelry was expensive and was worn only by the rich.
Contrary to long-held belief, Mycenaean Greece was also familiar with iron, which, however, was used only for luxury goods. Several iron rings, pendants, and buttons were found in the layers of that time; An iron harp was discovered in Tiryns. Only at the end of the Late Helladic period was the technique of smelting iron mastered, following the example of copper smelting, but still at fairly low temperatures: the slags of Mycenaean times have a very high percentage of iron content.
The main branch of production was undoubtedly agriculture and associated cattle breeding. During this period, they continued to sow wheat and barley, planted peas, beans, and lentils. In many houses, storerooms with pithoi filled with grain were found. A special granary was discovered in Mycenae. The significant development of oilseed crops and winemaking is evidenced by materials from excavations of houses near the Mycenaean Acropolis, conventionally called by archaeologists the houses of the “olive oil merchant” and the “wine merchant.” In the first of them, 39 tablets were found with inscriptions in Linear B, which took into account the arrival and consumption of olive oil.
Cattle were bred at this time; there is data on the breeding of sheep and pigs. In one of the mine graves, an image of a horse was found, which was then harnessed only to war chariots. Donkeys and mules were used to transport goods. A number of indirect data - significant population growth, the use of a large number of people on large buildings, the development of crafts - leads to the conclusion that labor productivity in agriculture should have increased significantly by this time.
Great changes have taken place in the craft. Construction of palaces, defensive walls, tombs, roads, etc. urgently demanded new tools of production. Mycenaean builders used several types of chisels, drills, various hammers and saws; Axes and knives were used to process wood. Whorls and loom weights were discovered in Mycenae.
The large size of Mycenaean buildings indicates the rather high knowledge of the builders, the long-term working skills of the masons, the great skill of the stone carvers and a number of other workers. Huge stone blocks weighing sometimes tens of tons, from which the defensive walls of the Tiryns Palace were built, were delivered from a quarry located a good ten kilometers from Tiryns. Stones for buildings were first processed with heavy hammers, then they were cut with a bronze saw. The use of a system of counterweights and brackets and the installation of drainpipes required quite complex calculations. Characteristic is the uniformity of precisely developed techniques for laying walls throughout the entire territory of the Mycenaean culture.
Late Helladic potters made dishes of various sizes - from small goblets to huge vessels. The clay was well cleaned, the walls of the vessels were made thin, the surface of the vases was often polished, and the firing was of high quality. A large warehouse of ceramics was found in Ziguri, in which there were several hundred bowls, dishes, jugs, etc. The presence of such large stocks of dishes in a small settlement located far from large centers indicates a significant development of pottery.
The totality of all this data shows that crafts have already separated from agriculture and become an independent branch of production. Most of the artisans worked at the palaces of local rulers and were busy producing weapons, construction, and creating luxury goods. Others, such as potters, produced consumer goods.
Domestic trade was less developed than foreign trade. In addition to tin, only luxury goods were imported into Mycenaean Greece. For comparison, let us recall that at this time in Crete, copper ingots were already found, shaped like a bull’s hide and probably playing the role of money.
Public relations
After the key to reading over 3 thousand Knossos and Pylos tablets with Linear B characters was found, which for half a century presented a mystery to researchers, it becomes possible to give a general picture of the social relations of Mycenaean and late Minoan society.
The tablets represent an archive of mainly royal and temple households. Apparently, a significant proportion of the people mentioned in the texts are slaves. In many cases the place of origin of the slaves is indicated, usually these are some Greek settlements, but in Pylos there were slaves from Knossos. Children of slaves are also taken into account in the tablets. On special occasions, quite a large number of boys and girls are listed and donated to the temples of various Greek gods. In general, judging by the data on the tablets, most of the slaves belonged to the temples. Slaves engaged in cattle breeding and crafts are mentioned in the inscriptions; many were planted on the land and were obliged to supply the temples with a certain amount of food. The Pylos tablets contain a lot of information about the past. This term probably corresponds to the Greek douloi, which referred to slaves. The group of persons called by this term numbers many hundreds of people. Thus, the Pylos tablets fully confirm the slave-owning nature of Greek societies of the Mycenaean period.
Agrarian relations, judging on the basis of the same texts, were approximately as follows. Some farmers owned plots of land; others are spoken of as tenants. Land tenants paid payment in kind for their plots. It was stated above that many temple slaves were also planted on land that apparently belonged to the temples. Along with this, the tablets also speak of royal plots, designated by the term temenos, which is also found in the Homeric epic. Obviously, the stratification of the free agricultural population was already significant.
Quite a lot is said about artisans in both the Pylos and Knossos tablets. Most often blacksmiths are listed, to whom metal is issued, probably in ingots, and who hand over finished products; blacksmiths receive food for this; slaves are also given to them. The tablets sometimes refer to significant quantities of metal products; one inscription mentions 217 axes, another 50 swords, and a third 462 pairs of wheels. Blacksmiths, like farmers, received certain tasks, but were exempt from food supplies. Fabrics, white and colored, and clothing were produced by slaves, who also handed over a certain amount of finished products.
The tablets say relatively little about the ruling slave-owning class; the basilei are mentioned, a term used to designate tribal leaders (“kings”) in Homer’s poems. However, they still played a relatively modest role. The texts mention priests and some other categories of nobility.
Land ownership relations, the presence of significant temple holdings, and the composition of the dominant slave-holding class, in which priests seem to have played a large role, make Mycenaean society more similar to the societies of some of the early eastern slave states than to the later slave societies of Greece.
Fall of the Mycenaean culture
In the 13th century. BC e. signs of weakening of Mycenaean society appear more and more clearly; external connections are gradually decreasing; in Mycenae itself only defensive construction is carried out. Soon comes the final fall of the Mycenaean culture. Archaeological excavations show that construction ceased completely at this time; there is no data on external relations; Even local ceramics are becoming incomparably smaller. The same picture of decline is observed in Tiryns. Only in Athens, as was revealed by relatively recent excavations, in the 13th and 12th centuries. BC e. Intensive defensive construction is underway. In Athens, the walls of the acropolis were strengthened, the system of defensive structures was expanded, and a passage was dug to a source of water to a depth of 30 m below the level of the acropolis.
These events were carried out in the face of a common threat to the entire Mycenaean world. Such a threat, apparently, was the invasion of the Dorian tribes. Along with the Ionians, Achaeans and Aeolians, the Dorians were one of the main groups of ancient Greek tribes. According to ancient authors, the migration of the Dorians began 80 years after the fall of Troy, therefore, at the very end of the 12th century. Don. e. Archaeological evidence confirms that the fall of Mycenae occurred in the last third of the 12th century BC. e. It seems certain that Mycenaean society fell under the blows of the Dorian tribes.
When analyzing the reasons for the fall of the slave-owning Mycenaean culture, it is usually pointed out that the Dorians had weapons made of iron and that the power of Mycenaean society was undermined by the long Trojan War. This explanation is far from sufficient. The decline of Mycenaean culture begins at least a century before the migration of the Dorians. Data from the Pylos inscriptions prove that in Pylos there were masses of brutally exploited slaves and landless people. It was this reason that was supposed to decisively weaken the resistance of the slave-holding Mycenaean society in the face of the Dorian tribes, who did not yet know acute class contradictions. Moreover, early slave-holding Mycenaean societies developed only in a few centers of the Peloponnese and, possibly, Central Greece; the bulk of the surrounding population still lived in conditions close to those of the previous period and, probably, were also exploited by Mycenaean and other slave owners. All these circumstances predetermined the collapse of the Mycenaean culture.
Despite the rapid decline of the early slave societies of Mycenaean Greece, they played a fairly large role in the further development of Greek culture, which inherited much from the societies of the Late Helladic period. The local population was not destroyed by the Dorians; culture of the Greek tribes of the 1st millennium BC. e. many of its roots go back to the Mycenaean period.
Over the centuries, people have compiled a variety of lists of wonders of the world in order to highlight from the total number the most outstanding creations of human architectural genius or the most amazing manifestations of natural perfection. Most often, such lists were limited to seven laureates, following the ancient Greek seven wonders of the world, but more expanded or narrow lists are also found.
The Seven Wonders of the World (or the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) is a list of the most famous sights of the Oecumene culture. Compiling a list of the most famous poets, philosophers, generals, great kings, as well as monuments of architecture and art is a traditional “minor” genre of Greek Hellenistic poetry and a kind of exercise in rhetoric. The very choice of number is sanctified by the most ancient ideas about its completeness, completeness and perfection; the number 7 was considered the sacred number of the god Apollo (Seven against Thebes, Seven Wise Men, etc.). Like collections of sayings of famous sages, collections of anecdotes and stories of wonders, writings on the Seven Wonders of the World were popular in ancient times and included descriptions of the grandest, most magnificent, or technically most amazing buildings and monuments of art. That is why they were called miracles, while the list does not include many genuine masterpieces of ancient architecture and art - the Acropolis in Athens with the creation of Phidias - the Parthenon statue of Athena, the famous statue of Aphrodite of Knidos by Praxiteles, etc.
Mentions of the Seven Wonders appear in the writings of Greek authors starting from the Hellenistic era. You had to know them already at school; scientists and poets wrote about them. The text of one Egyptian papyrus, which was a kind of educational manual, mentions the names of famous legislators, painters, sculptors, architects, inventors, which must be memorized, then the largest islands, mountains and rivers and, finally, the seven wonders of the world. The “selection” of miracles occurred gradually, and some miracles replaced others.
Herodotus
The walls of Babylon were included in the list of the Seven Wonders of the World, but were later replaced by the Lighthouse of Alexandria
The first list of wonders of the world is attributed to Herodotus. The list appeared in Ancient Greece in the 5th century BC. e.. All the miracles were on the island of Samos. This listing consisted of three wonders of the world: an Aqueduct in the form of a tunnel, a dam in the port on the island, and the Temple of the goddess Hera.
Samos Island today
Aqueduct
Later the list expanded to seven wonders. In the 3rd century BC. e. a new list of miracles has appeared. Historians consider its source to be a small poem by Antipater of Sidon (there is also a version that it was written by Antipater of Thessalonica:
"I have seen your walls, Babylon, on which there is spacious
And chariots; I saw Zeus at Olympia,
Miracle of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Colossus of Helios
And the pyramids are the work of many and hard labors;
I know Mausolus, a huge tomb. But I just saw
I am the palace of Artemis, the roof raised to the clouds,
Everything else faded before him; outside Olympus
The sun does not see beauty equal to it anywhere."
The description of Antipater follows the work of Philo of Alexandria (orator of the 4th century AD or the famous mechanic of the 3rd century BC) “On the Seven Wonders.” Probably, after the construction of the Alexandria Lighthouse, this miracle of engineering replaces the walls of Babylon on the list (as a wonder of the world it is mentioned by Pliny the Elder in Natural History). In a number of works, instead of the hanging gardens, the walls of Babylon appeared again, and the lighthouse on the island. The Pharos was replaced by the Library of Alexandria; The list was also supplemented by the Pergamon altar of Zeus, the palace of Cyrus in Persepolis, the “singing” statues of Memnon near Egyptian Thebes and Thebes itself, the temple of Zeus in Cyzicus, the statue of Asclepius in Epidaurus, the Athena Parthenos by Phidias on the Athenian Acropolis, and in the Roman period - the Colosseum and the Capitol. Subsequently, the list in various combinations was also supplemented by the Temple of Solomon, Noah’s Ark, the Tower of Babel, the Temple of Sophia in Constantinople, etc.
Classic list
Around the 3rd century BC. a classic list of seven wonders of the world has been formed:
Pyramid of Cheops (Giza, 2550 BC),
Hanging Gardens of Babylon (Babylon, 600 BC),
Statue of Zeus at Olympia (Olympia, 435 BC),
Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (Ephesus, 550 BC),
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (Halicarnassus, 351 BC),
Colossus of Rhodes (Rhodes, between 292 and 280 BC),
Lighthouse of Alexandria (Alexandria, 3rd century BC).
The Pyramid of Cheops
The Pyramid of Cheops (Khufu) is the largest of the Egyptian pyramids, the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World that has survived to this day. An Eastern proverb says: “Everything in the world is afraid of time, but time is afraid of the Pyramids.” It is assumed that construction, which lasted twenty years, ended around 2540 BC. e. The architect of the Great Pyramid is considered to be Hemiun, the vizier and nephew of Cheops. He also bore the title "Manager of all Pharaoh's construction projects." For more than three thousand years (until the construction of the cathedral in Lincoln, England, around 1300), the pyramid was the tallest building on Earth.
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are one of the Seven Wonders of the World. A more correct name for this structure is the Hanging Gardens Amitis (according to other sources - Amanis): this was the name of the wife of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II, for whose sake the gardens were created. Presumably they were located in the ancient city-state of Babylon, near the modern city of Hill. The Hanging Gardens existed for about two centuries. After Amytis's death, they stopped caring for the garden, then powerful floods destroyed the foundation of the columns, and the entire structure collapsed. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are the most mysterious structure of all the Wonders of the World. Scientists even doubt whether they actually existed or are just a figment of someone’s imagination, carefully copied from chronicle to chronicle.
Zeus statue in Olympia
The statue of Zeus at Olympia is the work of Phidias. An outstanding work of ancient sculpture, one of the seven wonders of the world. It was located in the temple of Zeus, in Olympia - a city in the region of Elis, in the north-west of the Peloponnese peninsula, where from 776 BC. e. to 394 AD e. Every four years the Olympic Games were held - competitions between Greek and then Roman athletes. The Greeks considered those who did not see the statue of Zeus in the temple unfortunate. The Olympic Games, held for 300 years in honor of the god Zeus, were extremely popular among the people. Despite this, there was no main temple of Zeus in Greece and only in 470 BC. began collecting donations for its construction. According to legend, the temple was magnificent. The entire temple, including the roof, was built of marble. It was surrounded by 34 massive columns made of shell rock. Each was 10.5 meters high and more than 2 meters thick. The area of the temple was 64x27 m. On the outer walls of the temple there were slabs with bas-reliefs depicting the 12 labors of Hercules. Bronze doors, 10 meters high, opened the entrance to the cult room of the temple. In the 5th century BC. e. The citizens of Olympia decided to build a temple of Zeus. The majestic building was erected between 466 and 456 BC. e. It was built from huge stone blocks and was surrounded by massive columns. For several years after construction was completed, the temple did not have a worthy statue of Zeus, although it was soon decided that one was necessary. The famous Athenian sculptor Phidias was chosen as the creator of the statue. Around 40 AD e. The Roman Emperor Caligula wanted to move the statue of Zeus to his home in Rome. Workers were sent for her. But, according to legend, the statue laughed, and the workers fled in horror. The statue was damaged after an earthquake in the 2nd century BC. e., then it was restored by the sculptor Dimophon. In 391 AD e. The Romans closed the Greek temples after adopting Christianity. Emperor Theodosius I, who affirmed Christianity, banned the Olympic Games as part of a pagan cult. Finally, only the base, some columns and sculptures remained from the Temple of Olympian Zeus. The last mention of it dates back to 363 AD. e. At the beginning of the 5th century AD. e. The statue of Zeus was transported to Constantinople. The statue burned down in a temple fire in 425 AD. e. or in the fire in Constantinople in 476 AD. e.
Ancient ruins in Olympia
The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was located in the Greek city of Ephesus on the coast of Asia Minor (currently the city of Selcuk in the southern province of Izmir, Turkey). The first large temple was built in the middle of the 6th century BC. e., burned by Herostratus in 356 BC. e., soon restored in a rebuilt form, in the 3rd century it was plundered by the Goths. In the 4th century it was closed by Christians due to the ban on pagan cults and destroyed. The church built in its place was also destroyed.
Artemis of Ephesus
Model of a temple in Turkey in Miniaturk Park
View of the temple ruins
This is what the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus looked like
Halicarnassus Mausoleum
Halicarnassus Mausoleum is a tombstone of the Carian ruler Mausolus (Greek: Μαύσωλος), built in the middle of the 4th century BC. e. by order of his wife Artemisia III in Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum, Turkey), one of the ancient wonders of the world. The mausoleum stood for 19 centuries. In the 13th century it collapsed from a strong earthquake, and in 1522 the remains of the Mausoleum were dismantled by the Knights of St. John for the construction of the fortress of St. Petra. In 1846, the ruins were explored by an expedition from the British Museum led by Charles Thomas Newton. Based on the results of the research, several options for reconstructing the original appearance were compiled, one of which was used as the basis for the Grant Mausoleum in Manhattan.
Carian king Mausolus
Perhaps this is what the Colossus of Rhodes looked like
The Colossus of Rhodes
The Colossus of Rhodes (Greek Κολοσσός της Ρόδου, lat. Colossus Rhodi) is a giant statue of the ancient Greek sun god Helios, which stood in the port city of Rhodes, located on the island of the same name in the Aegean Sea, in Greece. One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The sculptor Hares, a student of Lysippos, worked for twelve years to create an almost 36-meter bronze giant. When the work on the statue was completed, a tall and slender young god with a radiant crown on his head appeared before the eyes of the amazed Rhodians. He stood on a white marble pedestal, leaning slightly back, and intensely peered into the distance. The statue of the god stood right at the entrance to the harbor of Rhodes and was visible from the nearby islands. The statue was made of clay, had a metal frame at its base, and was covered with bronze sheets on top. The production of the grandiose monument required 500 talents of bronze and 300 talents of iron (about 13 and about 8 tons, respectively). The colossus also gave rise to a kind of fashion for giant statues in Rhodes already in the 2nd century. BC e. About a hundred colossal sculptures were installed. The colossus stood for sixty-five years. In 222 BC. e. The statue was destroyed by an earthquake. As Strabo writes, “the statue lay on the ground, overthrown by an earthquake and broken at the knees.” But even then the Colossus caused surprise with its size. Pliny the Elder mentions that only a few could wrap both hands around the thumb of the statue's hand (assuming the natural proportions of the human body are observed, this indicates the height of the statue at 200 feet or 60 m). The remains of the Colossus lay on the ground for more than a thousand years, until they were finally sold by the Arabs, who captured Rhodes in 977, to a merchant who, as one chronicle says, loaded 900 camels with them.
The Alexandria (Faros) lighthouse is one of the 7 wonders of the world, built in the 3rd century BC. e. in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, so that ships could safely pass the reefs on their way to the Alexandria Bay. At night they were helped in this by the reflection of flames, and during the day by a column of smoke. It was the world's first lighthouse, and it stood for almost a thousand years. The lighthouse was built on the small island of Pharos in the Mediterranean Sea near the coast of Alexandria. This busy port was founded by Alexander the Great during his visit to Egypt in 332 BC. e. The building was named after the island. Its construction was supposed to take 20 years, and it was completed around 283 BC. e., during the reign of Ptolemy II, king of Egypt. The construction of this gigantic structure lasted only 5 years. Architect - Sostratus of Cnidus. The Faros lighthouse consisted of three marble towers standing on a base of massive stone blocks. The first tower was rectangular and contained rooms in which workers and soldiers lived. Above this tower was a smaller, octagonal tower with a spiral ramp leading to the upper tower. The upper tower was shaped like a cylinder in which a fire burned. By the 12th century AD. e. Alexandria Bay became so silted that ships could no longer use it. The lighthouse fell into disrepair. The bronze plates that served as mirrors were probably melted down into coins. In the 14th century, the lighthouse was completely destroyed by an earthquake. A few years later, its ruins were used to build a fortress. The fortress was subsequently rebuilt several times. Interestingly, before the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the seventh wonder of the world was the walls of Babylon. Before its construction, the walls of Babylon were considered the second wonder of the world. When a 130-meter lighthouse was built at the mouth of the Nile, contemporaries were so amazed by this outstanding technical achievement that they simply crossed out the walls of Babylon from the list of the Seven Wonders of the World and added the lighthouse to it as the latest, newest miracle.
The Colosseum was also added to the list of wonders of the Ancient World
Subsequently, there were repeated attempts to create various lists of attractions based on this list. At the end of the 1st century, the Roman poet Martial added the newly built Colosseum to the list. Later, in the 6th century, Christian theologian Gregory of Tours added Noah's Ark and Solomon's Temple to the list.
The first mention of the Seven Wonders in Rus' is found in Simeon of Polotsk, who was familiar with their description from some Byzantine source. In modern Europe, they became widely known after the publication of Fischer von Erlach’s (1656–1723) book “Sketches on the History of Architecture,” which also contained the first known reconstructions of famous monuments of ancient architecture.
