Ancient Greece

The Parthenon, a temple dedicated to Athena, located on the Acropolis in Athens, is one of the most representative symbols of the culture and sophistication of the ancient Greeks. Ancient Greece was a Greek civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity (ca. 600 AD). Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era.[1] Included in ancient Greece is the period of Classical Greece, which flourished during the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Classical Greek culture, especially philosophy, had a powerful influence on the Roman Empire, which carried a version of it to many parts of the Mediterranean Basin and Europe, for which reason Classical Greece is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the foundation of modern Western culture.[2][3][4][5] Chronology Ancient Periods Astronomical year numbering Historiography History Archaic period

History of the world World population[1] from 10,000 BCE to 2,000 CE. The vertical (population) scale is logarithmic. The history of the world is the history of humanity, beginning with the Paleolithic Era. Distinct from the history of the Earth (which includes early geologic history and prehuman biological eras), world history comprises the study of archaeological and written records, from ancient times on. Outside the Old World, including ancient China[27] and ancient India, historical timelines unfolded differently. Prehistory[edit] Early humans[edit] Genetic measurements indicate that the ape lineage which would lead to Homo sapiens diverged from the lineage that would lead to chimpanzees (the closest living relative of modern humans) around five million years ago.[30] It is thought that the Australopithecine genus, which were likely the first apes to walk upright, eventually gave rise to genus Homo. Rise of civilization[edit] Ancient history[edit] Timeline[edit] Cradles of civilization[edit]

History of the alphabet The history of alphabetic writing goes back to the consonantal writing system used for Semitic languages in the Levant in the 2nd millennium B.C. Most or nearly all alphabetic scripts used throughout the world today ultimately go back to this Semitic proto-alphabet.[1] Its first origins can be traced back to a Proto-Sinaitic script developed in Ancient Egypt to represent the language of Semitic-speaking workers in Egypt. This script was partly influenced by the older Egyptian hieratic, a cursive script related to Egyptian hieroglyphs.[2][3] Mainly through Phoenician and Aramaic, two closely related members of the Semitic family of scripts that were in use during the early first millennium BC, the Semitic alphabet became the ancestor of multiple writing systems across the Middle East, Europe, northern Africa and South Asia. Pre-history[edit] Two scripts are well attested from before the end of the fourth millennium BCE: Mesopotamian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs. Predecessors[edit]

Alphabet The letters in the Greek alphabet presented below are used for printed Ancient Greek texts. The earliest Greek texts that have survived were written with a radically different script called Linear B. For a detailed and wonderfully well argued discussion of the origins of the Greek alphabet, see Roger D. You can find fonts for displaying or writing Greek text as well as utilities for converting older fonts to the new Unicode standarde on our fonts page. Three sets of pronunciation suggestions are given in the table below: first the pronunciation of each letter in Modern Greek, then the reconstructed Hellenistic Koine pronunciation, and finally the reconstructed pronunciation for the Classical period (before about 350 BCE). The Erasmian pronunciation used in many schools to teach Biblical Greek and sometimes even Classical Greek is not given on this page. To hear online examples of both Classical and Modern Greek pronunciation, see the discussion at the end of the alphabet below. Roger D.

Big Bang According to the Big Bang model, the universe expanded from an extremely dense and hot state and continues to expand today. The graphic scheme above is an artist's concept illustrating the expansion of a portion of a flat universe. The Big Bang is the scientific theory that is most consistent with observations of the past and present states of the universe, and it is widely accepted within the scientific community. It offers a comprehensive explanation for a broad range of observed phenomena, including the abundance of light elements, the cosmic microwave background, large scale structure, and the Hubble diagram.[3] The core ideas of the Big Bang—the expansion, the early hot state, the formation of light elements, and the formation of galaxies—are derived from these and other observations. As the distance between galaxies increases today, in the past galaxies were closer together. Overview Timeline of the Big Bang The earliest phases of the Big Bang are subject to much speculation.

Family tree of the Greek gods Family tree of gods, goddesses and other divine figures from Ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion The following is a family tree of gods, goddesses and many other divine and semi-divine figures from Ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion. (The tree does not include creatures; for these, see List of Greek mythological creatures.) Key: The essential Olympians' names are given in bold font. Key: The original 12 Titans' names have a greenish background. See also List of Greek mythological figures Notes References