Why go
This history helps distinguish what you are seeing: Bronze Age cultures left different traces from classical Athens, while Byzantine churches and the modern state belong to much later chapters. It is useful before visiting the Acropolis, Thessaloniki or the monasteries at Meteora, where several eras can sit close together.
The full story
The earliest chapters are spread across the mainland and islands. Cycladic communities developed in the Aegean, Minoan culture flourished on Crete, and Mycenaean centres rose on the mainland. Mycenaean writing used Linear B, an early form of Greek. After the upheavals around the end of the Bronze Age, city-states emerged across the Greek world. Athens became one centre of political experiment, drama and philosophy; Greek communities also extended to southern Italy, Asia Minor and the Black Sea. The classical period is only part of the story. Greece later belonged to the Roman and Byzantine worlds, leaving a different religious and artistic landscape. Coastal cities and islands remained important through periods of invasion and political change. Under Ottoman rule, local histories continued to diverge. The independence struggle of the 1820s and international intervention at Navarino preceded recognition of a Greek state in 1830. Keep these layers in mind when moving from an ancient sanctuary to a Byzantine church or a modern town: the monuments do not all speak for the same Greece.