Timeline
3200–2000 BCE
- Metallurgy development of seafaring proto-urban centres
- The mainland, the Cyclades, Crete and the islands of the north-eastern Aegean develop different cultural characteristics
2000–1600 BCE
- Flourishing of the Minoan civilization in Crete; construction of the first Palaces, including Knossos
- Emergence in mainland rural settlements of a powerful class of warriors
- The Cycladic culture is increasingly influenced by Minoan Crete
Clay jug with a bird on either side painted in typical cycladic ‘Black and Red’ style, from Phylakopi on Melos, ca 1600 BCE, NAM Π 5762
Please note this clay jug is not featured in the Open Horizons exhibition
1600–1070 BCE
- Grave Circles at Mycenae; construction of the Mycenaean palaces
- Mycenaean civilizations expand in the Aegean and Crete
- Contacts with the East and West
- The Palaces—centres of political and economic power—are destroyed circa 1200 BCE
Proto Geometric Period
1070–900 BCE
Geometric Period
900–700 BCE
- First Olympic Games 776 BCE
- After the middle of the 8th century BCE the political system of the ‘city-states’ emerges
- Greek colonies established in Southern Italy and Sicily 750 BCE
- Invention of Greek alphabet
- Homeric poems recorded in writing 750–700 BCE
740–650 BCE
- The cultural phenomenon known as the ‘Orientalising Revolution’, culminates in 7th century BCE
700–480 BCE
- Kouros and Kore: important types of archaic monumental sculpture 7th–6th centuries BCE
- Persian Wars 492–479 BCE
480–323 BCE
- Transitional Period 480–450 BCE
- Perikles leads Athens through its ‘Golden Era’ 460–429 BCE
323–31 BCE
- Alexander the Great’s military campaign in East 334–323 BCE
- Death of Alexander the Great 323 BCE
- Sack of Corinth
- Roman rule of Greece commences 146 BC
- Battle of Aktion 31 BCE
146 BCE–330 CE
- Senate awards Octavian the name Augustus 27 BCE
- Publius Aelius Hadrianus is Roman Emperor 117–138 CE
- New building program in Athens completed by the Emperor Hadrian 131/132 CE
- The foundation of Constantinople 330 CE
