Note: different scholars and different instructors give some different dates; if you are a student trying to study for an exam or write a research paper, please check this timeline against other sources!
| ca. 7000-3000 BCE | Neolithic Period | (So-called "Stone Age": simple pottery, wooden huts and structures, first evidence of shrines, sailing) |
| ca. 3000-2000 BCE | Early Helladic Period | (Early Bronze Age; includes Cycladic culture on Cyclades islands 3200-1050 BCE, early pre-palace Minoan culture ca. 2600-2000 BCE) |
| ca. 2000-1600 BCE | Middle Helladic Period | (Middle Bronze Age: Seafaring Minoan civilization dominates eastern Mediterranean and builds large-scale palaces, invents writing system.) |
| ca. 1650 BCE | Eruption of Thera Volcano | (Akrotiri buried in ash. Scholars still disputing timing and impact of eruption on Minoan/Mycenaean cultures.) |
| ca. 1600-1200 BCE | Late Helladic Period | (Late Bronze Age. Minoans last until about 1400 BCE. Mycenaean civilization ca. 1700-1000 BCE.) |
| ca. 1250 BCE | Trojan War | (Mycenaean period later remembered as a golden or heroic age.) |
| ca. 1200 BCE | Mycenaean collapse | (So-called "Sea Peoples" ravage Mycenaean palaces on Crete and mainland. Dorian invasion at this time?) |
| ca. 1100-900 BCE | Dark Ages | (Palaces and overseas trade disappears, metalworking rare, writing system lost, large-scale building and artwork vanishes, Ionian Greeks scatter to islands and across the sea to Turkey.) |
| ca. 900-700 BCE | Geometric Period | (Large-sized pottery absolutely covered in rows of geometric designs; occasional stick-figure humans later in period) |
| 776 BCE | First Olympic Games | (Start of classical Greek calendar) |
| ca. 750-700 BCE | Writing re-invented | (Greek alphabet based on that of Phoenicians. Homeric poems written down about this time.) |
| ca. 700-480 BCE | Archaic Period | (Kouros/Kouroi statues) |
| 6th century BCE | Athenian democracy established | (Solon reforms: 594; Peisistratos tyrant: 546; democracy instituted: 510; Kleisthenes reforms: 508) |
| 497-479 BCE | Persian Wars | (Battle of Marathon 490.) |
| 480-450 | Early Classical Period | (Sculpture becomes much more realistic, formal-looking) |
| 480-479 BCE | Second war with Persians | (Against Xerxes: Battle of Thermopylae, Acropolis burned, Battle of Salamis) |
| 480-323 BCE | Classical Period | (Famous Greek tragedies written/performed; Athens and Sparta vie for dominance and fight two wars: 461-445 and 431-404) |
| 449-432 BCE | Athenian Acropolis rebuilt | (Parthenon, Erechtheion, Prolylaia) |
| 335-323 BCE | Alexander the Great | (Conquers/unifies Greece and large area to east: Persia, Egypt.) |
| 326-146 BCE | Hellenistic Period | (Alexander's empire fractures but survives in several smaller kingdoms: Greece, Egypt, Pergamon. Library of Alexandria built. Greek culture permeates Near East.) |
| 146 BCE | Roman takeover | (Rome had been growing for a while. In 146 the legions invade, conquer, and bring Greece under Roman jurisdiction.) |
Timeline courtesy of:
Ancient Greece Odyssey: A Traveller's Journal
http://www.squidoo.com/odyssey