Year 9
Unit 2 - Classical Greece
Lesson 1 - The Archaic Period
The period known as the Dark Ages came to an end around 800BC. From then until about 500BC, Greece was in a period known as the Archaic Period. This was the period immediately before the Classical period. It was during these three hundred years or so that what is called "the ancient Greek civilisation" began really to develop. It was a time of progress and increased wealth, during which art and poetry developed. The poet Homer, for example, lived during this period.
The period known as the Dark Ages came to an end around 800BC. From then until about 500BC, Greece was in a period known as the Archaic Period. This was the period immediately before the Classical period. It was during these three hundred years or so that what is called "the ancient Greek civilisation" began really to develop. It was a time of progress and increased wealth, during which art and poetry developed. The poet Homer, for example, lived during this period.
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The rediscovery of writing
During the Dark Ages, the Greeks had seemingly forgotten the art of writing. But at that time, along the coast of North Africa, there lived a great trading people known as the Phoenicians. The Phoenicians had developed a written language of their own. It must have been a difficult language to pronounce, because its alphabet consisted entirely of consonants. During the Archaic Period, the Greeks traded more and more frequently with the Phoenicians. Eventually they began to adapt and use the Phoenician alphabet as their own. They added extra signs for vowels, which made the language much easier to write and to pronounce. This is how the Greek alphabet was first developed. The birth of the Greek alphabet was very important. It was used to produce great Classical Greek poetry, drama and other literature. It also became the basis of the Latin alphabet, which formed the written language of ancient Rome. The Latin language, in turn, became the basis of most modern European languages. The spread of Greek colonies During the Archaic Period, many Greeks sailed away from Greece to set up new city states called "colonies" in foreign lands. There were several reasons for these emigrations from Greece: |
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- Sometimes people were asked to leave when the population of their home city became so great that food shortages became a problem. In such cases, a respected local man called a ‘founder’ would be appointed to lead a group of emigrants abroad to set up (or found) a new colony.
- Wars between Greek states caused some people to abandon their homes and sail away to what they hoped would be the safety of a new colony.
Even before the Archaic Period, Greek colonies had been established in Ionia, a coastal area of modern Turkey which is close to Greece.
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Throughout the Archaic Period, hundreds of more Greek colonies were set up along the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. They were usually set up in places where there were good harbours for trading, good land for farming and where there was not too much opposition from local people. The map opposite shows the areas of the Mediterranean basin colonised by the Greeks by about 550 B.C. Most Greek colonies were copies of Greek city states. For many centuries, many of them remained centres of Greek learning and civilisation. |
Activities
- How was the Greek language first developed from its Phoenician origins?
- What is the origin of the world alphabet? Write your name using letters from the Greek alphabet.
- What is a colony? Why were so many new colonies established during the Archaic period?
- Using the map above, identify at least five modern countries that were colonised by the Greeks during the Archaic period.