What was the origin of the Classical Antiquity culture?

Question

I many times heard a version that the advances of the Ancient Greek culture were in fact borrowed from Egypt or the Middle East. I will not buy this. Classical Antiquity civilization had a lot of features which put it apart from any Asian or African civilization and which thus could not be borrowed. Such features include - extensive and realistic fine arts, especially sculpture - narrative literature of non-religious character - philosophical research based on logic, experiment and cross-references between authors - extensive deductive legal system and idea of the people as the source of power, idea of counter-balances and checks on the supreme power and others. Another idea, that these features were inherited from Proto-Indo-Europeans does not explain why other IE peoples did not exhibit similar culture. It seems that proto-Classic civilization originated in the Balkans and encompassed several diverse peoples of IE origin (Proto-Greeks, Thracians (including Dacians), Illirians, Macedonians, Liburgians, Messapians, Paeonians, Bryges (later known as Phrygians), possibly also proto-Italians). So my question is - What are the arguments pro and contra of proto-Classical civilization in the Balkans? - Are there any remains that point that such civilization existed? - Whether there are other theories of the origins of the Classical culture? - If proto-Classical culture existed, whether it played any prominent role in Europe such as playing a role of a cultural center?

Answer 1

Wow, there are a lot of threads to pick apart here.

First of all, as Ilona has said, Classical Antiquity is not really one unified thing. It's more of an idea reconstructed by scholars in the nineteenth century. One can find a lot of distinctions between, for example, Greek and Roman sculpture, but early art historians didn't know that. They were trying to create a linear history from scattered archaeological specimens, and they lumped them together as "Greco-Roman." It's true that Roman culture was influenced by the Greeks (and the Etruscans, the Egyptians, the Persians, etc.), but the two are still distinct from each other.

Now, on to foreign influences on the Classical Greeks (roughly defined as Greeks of the 6th-4th centuries BCE). It's not precisely true that the Greeks "stole" everything from Asian and African societies, but there were influences there. Societies all around the Mediterranean were in frequent contact with each other during the Bronze Age (ca. 3000-1200 BCE), but at the end of the Bronze Age, the regional trade network collapsed, and there was less cross-cultural contact. People moved away from cities and produced less art and fewer written records. The original Greek written language died out entirely. It's not a coincidence that all of this happened around the same time, but scholars are not sure of the exact sequence of events or what caused the end of the Bronze Age.

The centuries after the end of the Bronze Age are known as the Greek Dark Age. People were still living in Greece, but we know relatively little about them, because they produced fewer artifacts than the people living in periods before or after--at least, they produced less that has survived to the present day. When they started producing art and writing again, around 700 BCE, it was clearly influenced by Near Eastern cultures--so much so that historians in the 19th century named this time the "Orientalizing Period." More politically-correct scholars call this the Archaic Period.

Look at this sculpture from Ancient Egypt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranefer_(High_Priest_of_Ptah)#/media/File:Statue_Ranefer_Petrie.jpg

Now, look at this one from Greece in the 6th century BCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kouros#/media/File:Kouros_anavissos.jpg

Now, this one from the 5th century BCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrapposto#/media/File:Doryphoros_MAN_Napoli_Inv6011-2.jpg

See the progression? The Classical Greeks put their own spin on the ideas that they got from other cultures, but that exchange of ideas happened.

And, by the way, the Greeks were not unique in terms of the cultural changes in the Classical Period. The period from the 8th through 3rd centuries BCE is sometimes called the Axial Age--all over the world, new systems of belief developed very suddenly during this time. (https://www.britannica.com/list/the-axial-age-5-fast-facts)

Classical Greek civilization, like all civilization, developed over a long time from lots of different influences. Some were European, some weren't, and the Greeks reinterpreted foreign ideas to fit with their own view of the world.

Answer 2

Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilisations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world. It is the period in which Greek and Roman society flourished and wielded great influence throughout Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. It is conventionally taken to begin with the earliest-recorded Greek poetry of Homer, and continues through the emergence of Christianity and the decline of the Roman Empire. It ends with the dissolution of classical culture at the close of Late Antiquity, blending into the Early Middle Ages. Such a wide sampling of history and territory covers many disparate cultures and periods. "Classical antiquity" may refer also to an idealised vision among later people of what was, in Edgar Allan Poe's words, "the glory that was Greece, the grandeur that was Rome!" The culture of the ancient Greeks, together with some influences from the ancient Orient, prevailed throughout classical antiquity as the basis of art, philosophy, society, and educational ideals. These ideals were preserved and imitated by the Romans. This Greco-Roman cultural foundation has been immensely influential on the language, politics, educational systems, philosophy, science, art, and architecture of the modern world: From the surviving fragments of classical antiquity, a revival movement was gradually formed from the 14th century onwards which came to be known later in Europe as the Renaissance, and again resurgent during various neo-classical revivals in the 18th and 19th centuries.