The history of Greece encompasses the history of the territory of the modern nation-state of Greece as well as that of the Greek people and the areas they inhabited and ruled historically. The scope of Greek habitation and rule has varied throughout the ages and as a result, the history of Greece is similarly elastic in what it includes.
Timeline Generally, the history of Greece is divided into the following periods: Prehistoric Greece: Paleolithic Greece, starting circa 2 million years ago and ending in 13,000 BC. Significant geomorphological and climatic changes occurred in the modern Greek area which were definitive for the development of fauna and flora and the survival of Homo sapiens in the region. Mesolithic Greece, starting in 13,000 BC and ending around 7,000 BC, was a period of long and slow development of primitive human "proto-communities". Neolithic Greece, beginning with the establishment of agricultural societies around 7,000 BC and ending BC, was a vital part of the early history of Greece because it was the base for early Bronze Age civilizations in the area. The first organized communities developed and basic art became more advanced in Neolithic Greece. Bronze Age Greece () began with the transition to a metal-based economy during the Early Helladic period of mainland Greece (). Meanwhile, Cycladic culture prospered in the Cyclades () and Minoan civilization around Crete (). The Bronze Age ended with the rise and fall of the Mycenaean Greek palace culture (), sealed by the Late Bronze Age collapse. Ancient Greece usually encompasses Greek antiquity, as well as part of the region's late prehistory (Late Bronze Age). It lasted from and can be subdivided into the following periods: Greek Dark Ages (or Iron Age, Homeric Age), 1,100–800 BC Archaic period, 800–490 BC Classical period, 490–323 BC Hellenistic period, 323–146 BC Roman Greece, covering the period of the Roman conquest of Greece from 146 BC – AD 324 Byzantine Greece covers the period of Greece under the Byzantine Empire, lasting from the establishment of Constantinople as the capital city of Byzantium in AD 324 until the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Frankish/Latin Greece (including the Venetian possessions) lasted from the Fourth Crusade in 1204 to 1797, the year of the disestablishment of the Venetian Republic. Ottoman Greece covers the period of Ottoman occupation of Greece from 1453 until the Greek Revolution of 1821. Modern Greece covers the period from 1821 to the present.
At its cultural and geographical peak, Greek civilization spread from Egypt all the way to the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan. Since then, Greek minorities have continued to inhabit former Greek territories (e.g. Turkey, Albania, Italy, Libya, Levant, Armenia, Georgia), and Greek emigrants have assimilated into differing societies across the globe (e.g., North America, Australia, Northern Europe, South Africa). At present, most Greeks live in the modern states of Greece (independent since 1821) and Cyprus.
Prehistoric Greece
Pre-Paleolithic Period Fossils of one of the earliest pre-humans (Ouranopithecus macedoniensis, 10.6–8.7 million years ago), and of quite possibly the oldest direct ancestor of all humans (Graecopithecus, 7.2 million years ago) were found in Greece. In addition, 5.7 million year old footprints were found on the Greek island of Crete, which may suggest hominin evolution outside of Africa, contrary to current hypotheses.
Paleolithic Period ( 2M – 13000 BC)
The Paleolithic period is generally understudied in Greece because research has traditionally focused on the later parts of prehistory (Neolithic, Bronze Age) and the Classical times. Nevertheless, significant advances have been achieved over recent years, and the archaeological record has been enriched with new material, collected mostly in the framework of regional surveys but also through systematic or rescue excavations. New caves and rock shelters, as well as recently discovered and important open-air sites are now being excavated. Scholars believe Greece was first occupied between 2.5 and 1.5 million years ago when early members of the genus Homo began to spread across Eurasia. However, no definitive evidence of habitation this primitive has been discovered yet. The earliest undisputed traces of hominin habitation in the country so far were unearthed in Arcadia, Peloponnesus and date back 700,000 years. The Apidima Cave in Mani, southern Greece, contains the oldest known remains of anatomically modern humans outside of Africa, dated to 210,000 years ago. Currently known anthropological and archaeological finds allow the division of the Paleolithic in the Greek area into Lower (700,000–100,000 BP), Middle (100,000–35,000 BP) and Upper Palaeolithic (35,000–11,000 BP). There are, to date, few sites of the Lower Paleolithic, whereas there are more of the Middle and Upper. This is partly due to the intense tectonic activity in the Greek area and the rise and fall of the Aegean Sea which destroyed every trace of habitation from some geographical regions.
Paleolithic finds from Greece were first reported in 1867, but the first organized research on the sites was conducted many years later, between 1927 and 1931, by the Austrian archaeologist Adalbert Markovits. The first excavation of a Paleolithic site took place in 1942 at Seidi Cave in Boeotia by the German archaeologist Rudolf Stampfuss. More systematic research, however, was conducted during the 1960s in Epirus, Macedonia, Thessaly and the Peloponnese by English, American and German research groups.
Mesolithic Period (13000–7000 BC)
The Mesolithic in Greece occurred between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. Mesolithic sites in Greece were limited, and the majority are located near the coast. Franchthi Cave, the Kalamakia Cave in Mani (Peloponnese), the Asprochaliko Cave in Epirus (where the first excavation took place in 1960) and the Theopetra Cave are among the most important Mesolithic sites in Greece and Southeast Europe, and were inhabited almost continuously throughout the Paleolithic and the Mesolithic Period.
Neolithic Period to Bronze Age (7000–1100 BC)
The Neolithic Revolution reached Europe beginning in 7000–6500 BC when agriculturalists from the Near East entered the Greek peninsula from Anatolia by island-hopping through the Aegean Sea. The earliest known Neolithic sites with developed agricultural economies in Europe, dated 8500–9000 BP, were found in Greece. The first Greek-speaking tribes, speaking the predecessor of the Mycenaean language, arrived in the Greek mainland sometime in the Neolithic period or the Early Bronze Age ( 3200 BC).A comprehensive overview in J.T. Hooker's Mycenaean Greece (); for a different hypothesis excluding massive migrations and favoring an autochthonous scenario, see Colin Renfrew's "Problems in the General Correlation of Archaeological and Linguistic Strata in Prehistoric Greece: The Model of Autochthonous Origin" () in Bronze Age Migrations by R.A. Crossland and A. Birchall, eds. (1973)..
Cycladic and Minoan civilization
The Cycladic culture is a significant Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age material culture from the Cyclades, best known for its schematic flat female idols carved out of the islands' pure white marble.
The Middle Bronze Age Minoan civilization in Crete lasted from .. Little specific information is known about the Minoans, including their written system, which was recorded with the undeciphered Linear A script and Cretan hieroglyphs. Even the name Minoans is a modern appellation, derived from Minos, the legendary king of Crete. They were primarily a mercantile people engaged in extensive overseas trade throughout the Mediterranean region.
Minoan civilization was affected by a number of natural cataclysms, such as the volcanic eruption at Thera () and earthquakes (). In 1425 BC, all the Minoan palaces except Knossos were devastated by fire, which allowed the Mycenaean Greeks, influenced by the Minoans' culture, to expand into Crete. Remains of the Minoan civilization which preceded the Mycenaean civilization on Crete were first discovered in the modern era by Sir Arthur Evans in 1900, when he purchased and began excavating the site at Knossos.; .
Pre-Mycenean Helladic period
Following the end of the Neolithic, the last Stone Age period, the Early and Middle Helladic periods were established on the Greek mainland. The slow transition from the Final Neolithic period took place with the Eutresis culture (). Over hundreds of years, agricultural communities transitioned from stone tools to metal ones. Following such materialistic developments, more powerful micro-states and the base of the future Mycenean civilization were developed. Early Bronze Age settlements saw further development during Helladic III, exemplified by the Tiryns culture (), and the Middle Helladic period before the Mycenean period discussed below.
Mycenaean civilization
Mycenaean civilization originated and evolved from the society and culture of the Early and Middle Helladic periods in mainland Greece.; . It emerged , when Helladic culture was transformed under influences from Minoan Crete, and it lasted until the collapse of the Mycenaean palaces . Mycenaean Greece is the Late Helladic Bronze Age civilization of Ancient Greece, and it formed the historical setting of the epics of Homer and most of Greek mythology and religion. The Mycenaean period takes its name from the archaeological site Mycenae in the northeastern Argolid, in the Peloponnesos of southern Greece. Athens, Pylos, Thebes, and Tiryns also have important Mycenaean sites.
Mycenaean civilization was dominated by a warrior aristocracy. Around 1400 BC, the Mycenaeans extended their control to Crete, the center of the Minoan civilization, and adopted a form of the Minoan script Linear A to write an early form of Greek. The Mycenaean-era script is called Linear B, which was deciphered in 1952 by Michael Ventris. The Mycenaeans buried their nobles in beehive tombs (tholoi), large circular burial chambers with a high-vaulted roof and straight entry passage lined with stone. They often buried daggers or some other form of military equipment with the deceased. Nobility was also often buried with gold masks, tiaras, armor, and jeweled weapons. Mycenaeans were buried in a sitting position, and some of the nobility underwent mummification.
Around 1100–1050 BC, the Mycenaean civilization collapsed. Numerous cities were sacked, and the region entered what historians see as a "dark age". During this period, Greece experienced a decline in population and literacy. The Greeks themselves have traditionally blamed this decline on an invasion by another wave of Greek people, the Dorians, although there is scant archaeological evidence for this view.
Ancient Greece (1100–146 BC)
Ancient Greece refers to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Greek Dark Ages () to the end of antiquity (). In common usage, it can refer to all Greek history beforeor includingthe Roman Empire, but historians tend to use the term more precisely. Some include the periods of the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations, while others argue that these civilizations were so different from later Greek cultures that they should be classed separately. Traditionally, the Ancient Greek period was taken to begin with the date of the first Olympic Games in 776 BC, but most historians now extend the term back to about 1000 BC, toward the beginning of the Greek Dark Ages.