Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Greek pottery was a popular export product for the sea-trading Greeks. Their earliest
pots featured geometric patterns (8th century
B.C.
), then evolved into painted black sil-
houettes on the natural orange clay, before switching to red figures on black backgrounds.
On this jar, see the names of the two enemies/lovers (“AXILEV” and “PENOESIIEA”) as
well as the signature of the craftsman, Exekias.
• Continue to Room 15, then relax on a bench and read, surrounded by statues and vases
in glass cases. On the entrance wall, find a...
Map of the Greek World, 520-430
B.C.
After Greece drove out Persian invaders in 480
B.C.,
the city of Athens became the most
powerful of the city-states and the center of the Greek world. Golden Age Greece was nev-
er really a full-fledged empire, but more a common feeling of unity among Greek-speaking
people.
A century after the Golden Age, Greek culture was spread still farther by Alexander
the Great, who conquered the Mediterranean world and beyond (including Persia). By 300
B.C.
, the “Greek” world stretched from Italy and Egypt to India (including most of what
