Ancient Greece

The Greek civilization marks the beginning of western ideas and culture. They value the worth of the individual and democracy. They were masters of philosophy, science, fine arts, geography, medicine, legal systems, and astronomy. The region is mountainous and surrounded by three seas: Aegean, Mediterranean, and Ionian. Because of the region's geography there was competition among communities which had independent governments. Sources of conflict could be because of trade, size of community, and advances in architecture. When looking at climate, they had hot summers, bitter winters, and produced tons of marble. Agriculturally they produced grain, grapes, olives, and salt. There were two groups of people in ancient Greece, the Minoans, who lived on Crete in 2,000 BC and the Mycenaeans, who lived on Mainland Greece in 1,400 BC. In Crete the palace was the center of town, housing 40,000 inhabitants. The most important structure is the Palace of Knossos. Here, columns are inverted and distinctive to this civilization. During the Golden Age of 480-400 BC, the Parthenon was created. It is an ancient temple on the Athenian Acropolis and is dedicated to the goddess Athena. It is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece, and is generally considered the culmination of the development of the Doric order. When looking at classic orders of architecture it is important to understand the systems of columns and the details. The order is made up of the base, shaft, capital, and entablature, which further includes the architrave, frieze, and cornice.
Greek domestic buildings were far less impressive than public buildings. They were built of mud-brick on a stone foundation with wooden frameworks and terra-cotta roof tiles. They had an inner courtyard with few windows on the outside for security, and to limit heat from the sun and from hot air. Rooms were given specific purposes as in modern houses. Some rooms may have been reserved for use by different sexes. The homes utilized plan sequence, meaning they were inwardly oriented. These homes had compluviums, where were opening in the roofs, an cistern or impluviums, which collect rain water. If you were wealthy you had plastered and painted floors. They used mosaic techniques with pebbles, glass, and stone to make geometric designs, mythological figures, animals, and flowers in their flooring. The walls were typically un-plastered mud brick walls but if you were wealthy you had plastering and painting on your walls. Floral or marine, egg and dart, and Greek Fret or Key were a few of the many motifs used throughout this time period.
When painting walls the walls were split into divisions, dado, main field, and cornice. the entire was was red, there was a white dado (lower section of the wall), a yellow line between the two sections, they used trompe l'oeil techniques, and the main colors used were black, red, yellow, and white.
Windows were placed high on the wall, doors were framed with wood, stone, or marble, and sometimes bronze or fabric. and there were always coffers in the dining room.
Furniture was typically constructed of leather and cords with gold, ivory, and gem inlays. They were also made of copper, bronze, iron, marble, and wood. Oak, maple, cedar, boxwood, olive, beech woods were the most common used. Popular furniture included pieces like thronos, klismos, kline, and diphros. These pieces of furniture had round-shape legs.
Klismos is the most graceful and influential piece of Greek furniture. Its beauty comes from its form. It is crafted out of wood and has splayed legs and a curved back. A diphros is a stool without arms or back. It is made of wood, the most expensive version was made of ebony and legs were tipped with silver. A kline is a bed that functioned as a modern day sofa and was used for dining. They typically had sweeping curved headboards. Mattresses were stuffed with wool or feathers. The tables were small, portable, and lightweight and regulated by the height of the couch. Storage pieces held clothing, jewelry, and household items.

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Extra Credit:
This is a video about the Parthenon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZG_vP8fT8I
This is a brief history of ancient Greece:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-Mgb1mav_U

Peer Review:
Emma: I like the way that you reworded the information in your own words that were easy for the reader to understand. I also like how you integrated your pictures into your text.
Erin: I like how you gave a lot of information on the orders. I also like how you gave examples of the orders in the United States.