The earliest civilization in Europe was ancient Rome.

There have been human activities in the Aegean region of Greece for a long time. Early human skulls were found in Cassidis, northern Greece, and some scholars think they belong to the Nepalese type. Paleolithic cultural relics are scattered in the Greek peninsula. In the Frankti Cave in Argolis, southern Greece, there is a Mesolithic site about 7000 BC. Residents catch marine fish and use stone tools made of obsidian. Neolithic settlements are distributed in the Greek mainland and Aegean islands, and the earliest time can be pushed back to 6000 BC. Famous sites include Dionico Medea in Macedonia, Cesc in Thessaly and Knossos in Crete. In the Neolithic Age, the lifestyle of residents everywhere was roughly the same, planting barley, wheat and beans, domesticating domestic animals such as sheep, goats and pigs, and worshiping the goddess of clay sculpture symbolizing high yield. Agricultural technology probably came from West Asia by land and sea through Xiaoya Peninsula, and may be accompanied by agricultural immigrants. It is worth noting that there is a lack of hard flint in Greece. Most residents of Neolithic culture use obsidian to make sharp-edged stone tools, while obsidian is only produced in Milos Island, cyclades. This shows that as early as 6000-7000 BC, the Aegean Sea began to exchange needed goods.

At the beginning of 3000 BC, the Aegean region of Greece entered the early Bronze Age. In 2000 BC, it was the middle and late Bronze Age. The earliest civilization and country appeared in Crete, and then the Greek Peninsula, collectively known as Aegean civilization. Since then, the history of ancient Greece has been roughly divided into five stages: (1) Aegean civilization or Crete and Mycenae civilization era (20th century BC-12nd century); (2) Homer era (BC11-9th century); (3) Antique era (8th-6th century BC); (4) the classical era (5th-4th century BC); ⑤ Hellenistic era (late 4th century BC-34th BC).

The early bronze age in the Aegean region was actually the Bronze Stone Age at first, and there were not many bronzes. Metal smelting technology, like agricultural planting, is likely to come from the East. During the period of 2500-2200 BC, great changes have taken place in the social outlook of the Aegean region. The number of metal products is gradually increasing, the population is obviously increasing, the trade and traffic on the Aegean Sea are more frequent than before, and larger buildings and urban defense facilities appear on the seaside. All this reflects that material wealth is increasing, social division of labor and social structure are becoming more and more complicated, and there are signs of transition to civilization. Cyclades is the main road of Asia Minor from copper and other metal materials to the Greek peninsula, and its early bronze culture is in a leading position in the Aegean region. The marble statues of "Mother Earth" and the images of piano players and flute players unearthed there are simple and vivid, which set a precedent for the later Greek marble carving art.

The early inhabitants of the Greek Aegean region were not Greeks, but the ancient Greek writers called them pilar Ji, Le Jile and Calian. There are many places in the Aegean Sea that end with nth and ss, such as Corinth in the Greek Peninsula, Knossos in Crete, and Halicarnassus on the west coast of Asia Minor. Linguistically speaking, this suffix does not belong to Greek, indicating that the original inhabitants of the Aegean region are not Greeks. Scholars call them Mediterranean people, and they probably have more relations with the residents of Asia Minor Peninsula. After 2500 BC, a group of Greeks belonging to Indo-European languages came to Macedonia and other places from the Danube River basin. Some of them entered the central and southern parts of Greece in batches at the end of 3000 BC, mixed with local residents and became Greeks.

The rise of Crete city-state The earliest Neolithic cultural site in Crete began around 6000 BC, and then developed steadily, with many residents living in caves. After 2500 BC, bronzes and bronzes gradually increased, and daggers accounted for a large proportion. Metallurgy may come from Asia and cyclades. The production of stone bottles, seals and gold ornaments attracts attention. The development of handicraft production leads to further division of labor, commodity exchange and social differentiation. Judging from the large number of private seals, luxurious gold and silver jewelry and large L-shaped buildings found in East Crete, by the end of 3000 BC, private ownership and polarization between the rich and the poor had developed considerably.

Crete culture is deeply influenced by West Asia and Egypt. Around 2500 BC, immigrants from North Africa moved to the south of Crete and mixed with local residents. Blue glazed pottery beads, colored bottles, ivory and decorations are all imported from Egypt. However, Crete culture was not copied and imitated from foreign cultures from the beginning, but absorbed and transformed, and gradually formed its own style.

Around 2000 BC, the first country appeared in Crete. The greatest feature of Crete civilization is palace architecture. Every city-state is formed around the palace, which is the economic, political and cultural center of the country. Crete is prone to earthquakes. Due to natural and man-made disasters, palaces all over the country have been destroyed and rebuilt. According to this feature, scholars divide the development of Crete culture into pre-palace period (about 3000 BC), ancient palace period (about 2000- 1700 BC) and new palace period (about BC 1700-BC 1450 BC or BC1BC)

The ancient palace period was the period of the formation and initial development of Crete civilization. Judging from the sites found, primitive countries mainly rose in the central and eastern parts of Crete, including Knossos, Fayest, Maria, Gul nihat, Ferracastro and Zakro. Among them, Knossos on the northern shore of central Crete and feaster on the southern shore of central Crete are the most powerful cities, and each city has a seaport. There is a road between them that runs through Crete. At the end of the ancient palace, probably Knossos has unified the whole island. According to legend, there was a king of Minos in Crete. Scholars called Knossos Dynasty Minoan Dynasty, and Crete culture was also called Minoan civilization. At this time, the earliest characters in Europe appeared in Crete, initially graphics, and later fonts gradually simplified to linear and evolved into syllable symbols. It is called linear writing a, which has not been explained, and may not be Greek.

Crete is densely forested, and the eastern plain is suitable for farming. Agriculture mainly grows cereals, olives and grapes. Besides food, olive oil and wine are also produced in large quantities. The palace has specially set up a storage room to store oil and wine in giant urns. The warehouses are often connected in rows and there are hundreds of urns, which shows the importance of oil and wine in agricultural production and daily life. The main achievements of Crete's economic development include industry and commerce and maritime trade. Its handmade products are famous for their exquisite appearance, and the daily necessities and handicrafts made of bronze and gold and silver are quite exquisite. Pottery is particularly prominent. There is a kind of painted pottery called Kamalesi, which was produced in the ancient court period. It is beautiful, lovely and elegant, and it is recognized as the most exquisite painted pottery in the ancient world. Its shipbuilding industry is also very developed. Merchant ships travel around the Mediterranean, and there are a considerable number of naval vessels, which have become the main defense forces of the city. Therefore, the cities and palaces in Crete are not equipped with thick walls and high bases, which is completely different from the Yugoslav capital buildings valued by other ancient civilizations. Crete is widely traded in the Mediterranean with its agricultural and industrial products, especially in Egypt. Most of the gold, ivory, soapstone seals and luxury goods used are from Egypt. During the ancient palace period, the cultural relics of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt 12 dynasty were spread in Crete, and Egypt's influence also existed in all aspects of Aegean civilization. The development of industry, commerce and shipping further promoted the prosperity of the city, which was a feature of Greek civilization in the future. However, from the beginning, Crete took the palace as its political center. After reunification, the royal power was strengthened, and the palace buildings became more and more luxurious, indicating that its city was the center of dynasty rule, which was one of the biggest differences between it and the Greek city-state that pursued politics in the future.

The prosperity of Crete civilization The new palace period is the prosperity period of Crete civilization. At this time, the Minoan dynasty of Knossos ruled not only Crete, but also cyclades. Minos' commercial settlements and colonies spread all over the Aegean region, from Rhodes and Miletus in Asia to the east, Mycenae, Athens and Thebes in Greece to the northwest, and Libara Islands in Italy to the west. In addition, Crete has closer ties with Egypt. There are murals in the tomb of Milla, the prime minister of the Egyptian 18 dynasty, which shows the dedication of Crete envoys. The inscription reads "the island in the sea and the great king Kefu Tiwu arrived peacefully", which shows that Crete has established friendly relations with Egypt and has more frequent business exchanges. The development of overseas commerce and the strength of the navy made the Minoan dynasty establish maritime hegemony, which was later passed down as a beautiful talk by the Greeks. Herodotus, an ancient Greek historian, called Minos the ruler of the sea in history and called him "the king who conquered many lands and often won wars". Theseus pointed out in the History of the Peloponnesian War: "According to legend, Minos was the first person to organize the navy, and he controlled most of the Greek waters now." The significance of Minos' maritime hegemony lies in controlling the maritime trade network in the eastern Mediterranean, and its sphere of influence has formed an annular belt centered on Crete, east of DalRhodes and west of Peloponnesus. These areas and the further inland of Europe, as areas to be developed, urgently need to communicate with the ancient civilizations on the east coast of the Mediterranean, especially the richest Egypt at that time, and the circular belt controlled by Crete is just between them, and all maritime traffic is controlled by it, so as to capture Europe and Asia.

Knossos, the capital of Crete, has a population of 80,000 at this time. Together with the seaport, it can be called the largest city in the Mediterranean when it exceeds 65,438+million. Its palace is the greatest creation of Crete civilization. It is not only the political, religious and cultural center of Minoan dynasty, but also the economic center, because there are many warehouses, workshops, offices for storing economic files and tax collection agencies in the palace. In fact, more than half of the archaeological materials about Crete civilization come from this palace. During the new palace period, the palace was destroyed many times (possibly related to the earthquake), but it was built more brilliantly after each destruction. The final palace is a group of multi-storey buildings around the central courtyard, covering an area of 22,000 square meters, and there are more than 1500 rooms in the palace. The floors are closely connected, the stairs and corridors are tortuous and complicated, the halls are scattered and there are many patios, which are surprisingly ingenious. Now the ruins of the palace have been completely excavated and partially restored, and its buildings are generally rectangular. According to the general practice of Minos Palace, there is no fence around the palace. The whole palace is built on a hill with a rectangular central courtyard (60 meters long and 30 meters wide) as the center. The terrain is high in the west and low in the east. So there are two or three floors in the west and four or five floors in the east. You can see the palace from the east foot, but the floors are towering and the doors and windows are staggered. The buildings in the west of the courtyard are mainly used for office meetings, sacrifices and property counting, while the buildings in the east are bedrooms, living rooms, schools and workshops. Every floor is connected by stairs everywhere, especially the central staircase in the east of the courtyard, which is the most magnificent. It has a daylighting patio, colonnades on three sides, a wide staircase and colorful paintings, which is called the most outstanding memorial of palace architecture. The double axe hall next to it is divided into two rooms, inside and outside, separated by folding doors, which are warm in winter and cool in summer, showing the dexterity of Minos architecture. The queen's bedroom next to the hall is a typical luxury residence in Minos. The inner wall is painted with murals of dolphins playing in the water, which is beautiful and generous. There is a bathroom and a toilet in the adjacent room. This kind of sanitary equipment was unique in ancient times. Similar to the height of architecture, the murals in various parts of the palace are also excellent works of ancient art, which shows that Crete civilization pays attention to dexterity and elegance, which is different from the majesty and massiness of eastern countries.

Because the linear character A in Crete has not been successfully interpreted, we don't know much about its political history and social structure, but what is certain is that the creator of Crete civilization and the future Greeks are not of the same race; In addition, the Minoan dynasty undoubtedly enslaved a large number of slaves and farmers, similar to the ancient eastern countries. In recent years, it has also been found that Crete retains the custom of offering sacrifices to the gods, which reflects the nature of its social slavery. Around 1450 BC, Greek speakers occupied the palace of Knossos, marking the decline of Crete civilization. Since then, the center of Aegean civilization has moved to Mycenae, Greece.

With the rise and prosperity of Mycenae civilization, Mycenae and Minos in Crete are not the same people, and their languages belong to Indo-European language family, which entered Greece from the inland of Europe from north to south. Around 2000 BC, the Mycenae were the first Greeks to arrive and settle in the Peloponnesus. At this time, Minoan civilization had been established in Crete, while Mycenae in Greece was relatively backward. Although it has entered the bronze age, it has not yet established a country. Therefore, under the direct influence of Crete, they gradually transitioned to civilization, and it was not until 1600 BC that they were called Wang Jianguo. According to archaeological data, the dynasty at this time was called the vertical tomb dynasty, which lasted for more than 100 years and was replaced by the dome tomb dynasty after 1500 BC.

The main cultural relics of the vertical tomb dynasty are two cemeteries found inside and outside Mycenae Castle. There are many royal tombs in the park, which are rich in gold and silver funerary objects, and the number is rare in the world (there are 870 tombs alone). The technical level is also very high, most of them are Crete products, but also from Egypt, Asia, Syria and other places. This indicates that Mycenae royalty and nobles may have served Crete and Egypt as mercenary leaders. With the close contact with overseas advanced civilized areas, Mycenae's economy and culture developed rapidly and its national strength increased day by day. By the time of the dome tomb dynasty, it had changed from following Crete to a powerful country that could compete with it. Different from the shaft tomb, the dome tomb is not just a simple vertical cave tomb built underground, but a circular tomb built by drilling holes in the ground, with a pyramid-shaped mound in front and a high mound above it. The indoor roof is built into a conical roof by folding method, which looks like a honeycomb, so it is also called a honeycomb tomb. The construction of this kind of mausoleum requires high stone engineering technology. Although its shape originated in Crete, it became more and more magnificent in Mycenae. The largest existing dome tomb is13.2m high and10m at the entrance. The tunnel inside the entrance is covered with a boulder weighing 120 tons, which shows that the project is arduous.

Mycenae civilization, while fully absorbing Crete civilization, also has its own characteristics, such as strong castles, strong land power, love of horse-drawn chariots, outstanding martial spirit and so on. As an integral part of Aegean civilization, it is thriving and has the potential to replace Crete and catch up later. By BC 1450, Mycenae may enter Knossos Palace by peaceful means such as marriage and inheritance, which is a key step in the development of Mycenae civilization. After Mycenae ruled Crete, he not only inherited the control right of Aegean commercial and trade network held by Crete, but also fully absorbed the heritage of Crete civilization. The original linear characters in Crete are now used to write Mycenaean, forming Mycenaean linear characters (the former is generally called linear character A and the latter is linear character B in academic circles). From 1400 BC to 1200 BC, Mycenae reached the peak of its civilization.

Mycenae is the center of Mycenae civilization, located in the northeast of Peloponnesian Peninsula. Nearby, there is the city of Tillings, a military fortress directly under Mycenae. They formed the kingdom of Mycenae, the most powerful of the Greek countries. Other famous kingdoms include Sparta in the central Peloponnesus and Pailos in the west, as well as Athens and Thebes in central Greece. They sometimes form a military alliance, taking Mycenae as an ally and fighting together. The archaeological site of Mycenae is mainly the castle where the king lived. Its walls are made of boulders surrounded by mountains, with a thickness of 5 meters and a height of 8 meters, which is quite different from the royal palace in Crete. The castle has a magnificent "Lion Gate" (named after a row of double lions carved in relief), and a luxurious palace is built in the city. Under the castle is a vast urban area, where wealthy businessman Darga and craftsmen live, and its prosperity is no less than that of Knossos in Crete. Mycenae is even better than Crete in overseas trade. Mycenae pottery has been unearthed in Egypt, Syria, Phoenicia, Cyprus, southern Italy, Libara Islands and other places, with more than Crete pottery ever found in other places. In the Aegean region and Greece, the distribution of Mycenae civilization is more extensive and numerous than that of Crete civilization, and more than 1000 Mycenae civilization sites have been discovered.

Mycenae's linear b was successfully interpreted from 1952, which proved that Mycenae was a branch of ancient Greek. The existing linear B materials are mostly royal economic documents, which reveal little about political history, but provide valuable economic information. These materials fully show that Mycenae society is a slave society. The word "male slave and female slave" has been used exclusively in linear article B, and its pronunciation is similar to that of slave in Greek in the future. In Pyros' document, female is 63 1, female is 376, and male is 26 1. In another category, there are 370 female slaves, including 65,438+049 males and 65,438+090 female child slaves. The total of the two counts is 1268 and 709 respectively. Although there is no mention of male slaves here, from other materials, there are many male slaves. According to the size of the small country in Pailos and the cases reflected in the literature, we can see that the number of slaves at that time was amazing. In addition, the document also reflects that kings and nobles occupy a large amount of land, farmers occupy a small amount of land, and farmers are brutally exploited by rulers. These conditions show that Mycenae society, like Crete, is similar to the slavery kingdom in the East.

The migration of Dorians and the demise of Mycenae civilization. After 1200 BC, Mycenae civilization gradually declined. Ancient Greek myths and legends vaguely mentioned that dynasties changed frequently and wars followed; Archaeological materials also reflect the decline in the quality and output of pottery, and the harassment of "Hai clan" has greatly hit international trade. The economic decline may force the rulers to plunder by force, so the wars between cities in various countries have intensified, the most famous of which is the war between the Greek Union and the wealthy Asian city of Troije. The war lasted for ten years, but in the end, although the Greek Coalition forces captured troy, they actually lost both sides. The victorious Greek countries (led by Mycenae) were all exhausted and weakened, and finally they could not get rid of the bad luck of "the yellowbird came last": the Greek countries were unable to recover their vitality, thus providing opportunities for the Dorians in the north. They went south one after another, attacked the city and plundered the land, gradually conquered the Peloponnesian countries outside central Greece and Athens, and declared the demise of Mycenae civilization.