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Stirrup Jar Mycenaean c.1200-1100 BC
Timeline of Ancient Greece*
c.6000 BC First hand-made pottery in Greece
C.3200-2000 BC: Early Bronze Age
Idols in large numbers in the Cyclades.
C.2000-1600 BC: Middle Bronze Age
c.2000-1700 BC First Palace Period on Crete: Crete is controlled by a number of palaces which govern the religious and economic life of the people living in nearby towns and farms. (Today these people are called "Minoans").
c.2000 BC Development of writing on Crete.
c.2000 BC First wheel-made pottery in Greece.
c.1900 BC Scribes at the Cretan palaces start to use a form of writing which uses symbols to represent syllables. Today this form of writing is called Linear A.
C.1600-1100 BC: Late Bronze Age
c.1600 BC The Mycenaeans start to build fortified hill-top citadels on the Greek mainland. These settlements grow wealthy from trade. In the city of Mycenae, rulers are buried with precious objects in deep shaft graves.
c.1550 BC The Cretans establish a colony at Avaris in the Nile Delta.
c. 1530 BC Volcanic explosion on the island of Thera.
c.1450 BC First Mycenaean pictorial pottery.
c.1450 BC The Mycenaeans develop a form of writing based on the writing used in the Cretan palaces. Today this form of writing is called Linear B.
c.1400-1200 BC Mycenaean pottery is traded across the whole of the eastern Mediterranean.
c.1200-1100 BC The Mycenaean settlements begin to decline in power.
c.1180 BC Traditional date for the Trojan War between the city of Troy in Anatolia and the Greeks led by Agamemnon, king of Mycenae.
C.1100-800 BC: Dark Age
During this period, the skills of reading and writing are thought to be lost. Many villages and towns decline in population.
c.1050 BC First Protogeometric pottery.
c.950 BC Beginnings of widespread use of iron in Greece.
C.900-700 BC: Geometric Period
Greece enters a period of social, economic and cultural change. New towns are built, iron is widely used, and Greece becomes prosperous from trading.
c.900 BC Geometric pottery develops. It is highly decorated with geometric patterns.
c.800 BC The skill of writing is reintroduced to Greece. The Greeks adopt the Phoenician alphabet and introduce additional letters to represent the vowel sounds.
800-480 BC Greek colonies are founded on the Ionian coast and around the Black Sea.
776 BC The traditional date for the first Olympic Games, held at Olympus in honor of Zeus.
C.700-480 BC: Archaic Period
c.700 BC Greece is composed of many independent city states such as Athens, Corinth and Sparta. Sparta is famous for its bronze-working.
c.700 BC Traditional date for Greek poet Homer. Homer composed the Iliad and the Odyssey. Both poems are based on events from the end and aftermath of the Trojan War.
620-621 BC The earliest Athenian law code is issued by Drakon.
c.620-580 BC Sappho the poetess writes nine books of lyrical poetry.
c.550 BC The Greek playwright Thespis invents the speaking actor. His plays are performed during religious festivals.
From c.530 BC Red-figure technique used to decorate pots.
512 BC the Persians invade Thrace to the north of Greece.
c.508 BC Democracy is introduced in Athens by Kleisthenes.
c.490-479 BC The Persian Wars. During this period, the Persian king Darius and later, his son Xerxes, try to make Greece part of the Persian empire. The Wars include the Battle of Marathon (490 BC) and the sea Battle of Salamis (480 BC).
C.480-323 BC: Classical Period
c.470-399 BC Life of Socrates.
447-432 BC The Parthenon is build on the Acropolis in the city of Athens. It is dedicated to the city's patron goddess Athena.
431-404 BC Peloponnesian Wars between the cities of Athens and Sparta. c.404 BC Athens is defeated.
334-328 BC The Persian Empire, including Mesopotamia, is conquered by the Macedonian king Alexander III, who dies in Babylon in 323 BC.
338 BC Greece is unified under the rule of the Macedonian king Philip II.
336-323 BC Reign of Alexander the Great. He extends the Macedonian empire across western Asia and into India. After his death, his half brother tries to hold the empire together, but fails.
c.335 BC Aristotle founds the Lyceum in Athens as a centre of learning.
C.323-31 BC: Hellenistic Period
287-212 BC Life of philosopher and mathematician Archimedes.
280 BC The Colossus of Rhodes is built.
279 BC Celtic tribes from the north invade Greece and reach as far as Delphi.
c.270 BC The Greek astronomer Aristarchus announces that the Earth revolves on its own axis each day and rotates around the sun each year.
146 BC The Romans conquer the city of Corinth and make the Greek mainland a Roman province.
31 BC The Hellenistic Period ends as the Romans take control of the last Greek territories and make them part of the Roman empire.
*Timeline based on:
The British Museum Timeline of the Ancient World
Palgrave Macmillan, 2004
(also see the Gallery of images)
