Bronze Age in the Aegean

Pre-requisites: None

Course objectives: The introduction to the highly developed Bronze Age cultures of the Aegean is necessary for student’s general education. Some of the more important questions necessary for studying the Bronze Age in the Balkans (Chronological framework, Mycenaean influence) cannot be a answered without being familiar with this topic.

Course description: During the course the students will be introduced to basic characteristics of the, Trojan, Minoan, Cycladic and Helladic Bronze Age cultures (3000-1100 B.C.). First part of the lecture plan deals with the birth of the Aegean civilization, with an emphasis on the Trojan and Cycladic cultures belonging to the early bronze age (3 Millennium B.C.). Second part of the lecture plan covers “palatial civilization” (Cretan- Mycenaean culture), and with the review of the most important finds on Crete and the Greek mainland. In the third section attention will be given to smaller thematic units, like: wall painting on Thera, the emergence of Aegean writing, human victims in the Minoan culture, archaeological evidence of the so called Aegean migration, the first ceramic finds that were manufactured using a wheel, and the first iron objects in the Aegean.

Learning Outcomes: Midterm examination and oral examination

Bronze Age in the Aegean

Pre-requisites: None

Course objectives: The introduction to the highly developed Bronze Age cultures of the Aegean is necessary for student’s general education. Some of the more important questions necessary for studying the Bronze Age in the Balkans (Chronological framework, Mycenaean influence) cannot be a answered without being familiar with this topic.

Course description: During the course the students will be introduced to basic characteristics of the, Trojan, Minoan, Cycladic and Helladic Bronze Age cultures (3000-1100 B.C.). First part of the lecture plan deals with the birth of the Aegean civilization, with an emphasis on the Trojan and Cycladic cultures belonging to the early bronze age (3 Millennium B.C.). Second part of the lecture plan covers “palatial civilization” (Cretan- Mycenaean culture), and with the review of the most important finds on Crete and the Greek mainland. In the third section attention will be given to smaller thematic units, like: wall painting on Thera, the emergence of Aegean writing, human victims in the Minoan culture, archaeological evidence of the so called Aegean migration, the first ceramic finds that were manufactured using a wheel, and the first iron objects in the Aegean.

Learning Outcomes: Midterm examination and oral examination

Literature/Reading:

• Arheoloski leksikon (ed. D. Srejovic), Savremena administracija Beograd, 1997. Odrednice o bronzanom dobu Egeje M. Jevtica prema popisu na p. 1264. R
• Blegen, C. W. Troy and Trojans, London 1963.
• Cedvik, Dz. Mikenski svet, Beograd 1980.
• Marinatos, S., Hirmer, M. Crete and Mycenae, Thames and Hudson, London 1960.
• Wardle, K. A. The Palace Civilization of Minoan Crete and Nycenaean Greece, 2000-1200 BC. In: Prehistoric Europe(ed. B. Cunliffe), Oxford Univesity Press, 1998, p. 202/243. R
• - DICKINSON O., The Aegean Bronze Age, Cambridge University Press, 1994.
• - HOOD S., The arts in prehistoric Greece, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth 1978.