Post on 20-Jan-2016
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Chapter 4The Early Greeks
Section 1
ByDeborah Thompson
Main Idea: The Geography of Greece influenced where
people settled and what they did.
TheGeography
OfGreece
Greece is a Mountainous land
Framed by sparkling Blue water.
The Greek mainland makes up a peninsulaor a body of land withwater on three sides
Greece is made up of many rocky islands
which stretch across the Mediterranean Sea
to Asia
It is surrounded by theIonian Sea to the west,the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the
Aegean Sea to the east
Many ancient Greeks
made a living fromthe sea and becamefishers, sailors, and
traders.
Others settled in farming communities
Although Greece’s rocky soil was not ideal for growing crops, in some places people
could grow wheat, barley, olives, and grapes. They also raised sheep and goats.
The Greek islands were divided by mountains and seas
and the early Greek communities grew fiercely
independent of one another.
• Main Idea: The Minoans
earned their living
by building ships and trading.
The Minoans were not Greeks, but
their civilization was the firstto arise in the region that
later became Greece.
The Minoans lived on the island of Crete which lies southeast of the Greek mainland.
In 1990, Arthur Evans uncovered the ruins of thepalace at Knossos which had been the center of
Minoan civilization.
The palace at Knossos revealed the richesof an ancient society.
It contained
3.Twisting
passageways
5.Workshops
formaking jewelry,
vases, andsmall ivory
statues
4.Bathrooms
1.Storerooms packedwith oil, wine, and
grain
2.Private quarters
for the royalfamily
Minoan Fresco at the Palace of Knossos
http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~tjmoore/myth.html.
The bull was a symbol of power, strength, and virility for the ancient Minoans.
Minoans made their wealth from trade.
Built ships fromOak and
Cedar trees
Carried goods asFar away as Egypt and
Syria
Traded pottery and
Stone vases for Ivory and
metals
Kept the sea freeOf
pirates
Controlled the eastern
MediterraneanSea by
2000 B.C.
Minoans created and traded pottery, leather, bronze armor, and metal jewelry. They also enjoyed sports such as boxing
and bull leaping.
http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~tjmoore/Myth3web/05atheseusmincan.jpg
About 1450 B.C., the Minoan civilization
suddenly collapsed!!Why! Why! Why!
Possible reasons
Underseaearthquakes
Tsunami waves
Mycenaean invadersfrom mainland
Greece
RUN FOR
YOUR LIFE!!
The fall of Minoan civilization is described in the legendary fight of Theseus, a young Greek prince
and the Minotaur.
Relief Sculpture of Theseus and defeated Minotaurhttp://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~tjmoore/Myth3web/05atheseusmincan.jpg
Main Idea: Mycenaeans built the first Greek kingdoms and spread their power across the Mediterranean region.
Originally from central Asia, the Mycenaeans invaded the Greek mainland around 1900 B.C. and conquered the people living there.
Mycenaean leaders became the first Greek kings.
The ruins of a walled palace in Mycenae were found in the 1800’s by Heinrich Schliemann who named their civilization the Mycenaeans.
Slaves and farmerslived on the
estates
Large farms, or estates,
outside the palacewalls that belonged
to the nobles
Everyone took shelterinside the fortressIn times of danger
Palace was surrounded
by giant stone walls
Contained a fortifiedpalace on a hill at the center which was the
home of the ruler
1. Kept track of the wealth of every person
2. Collected wheat,livestock, and honeyas taxes and storedthem in the palace
1. Tanned leather2. Sewed clothes
3. Made jars for wine and olive oil
4. Made bronze swordsand ox-hide shields
Minoan traders visited the Mycenaean kingdoms and set up trade.
Mycenaeans learned much about Minoan culture and copied many Minoan ways such as:
1.Bronzemaking
2.Ship
Building
3.Using the sunand stars to
find theirway at sea
4.Worship ofthe Earthmothergoddess
By 1400 B.C., Minoan civilization declined and theMycenaeans replaced them as the major military
and trading power on the Mediterranean Sea.
The Mycenaeans conquered Crete and many other Greek island kingdoms.
Their most famous victory was the Trojan War led by their legendary king, Agamemnon.
• Civil wars broke out following Trojan War
• Dorians conquered Mycenaeans
• Aegean world began era of “wandering and killing”
• Independent communities developed
http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~tjmoore/myth4web/05troygold.jpg
Layered view of nine major settlements of Troy by Christopher Haussner based on archaeological excavation.
By 1200 B.C., the Mycenaean civilizationCollapsed.
Why? 1200 B.C.THE GREEK DAILY NEWS
____________________________BAD NEWS FOR MYCENAECollapse to take place
Due to:1. Earthquakes
2. Fighting among theGreek kingdoms
Between the years of 1100 B.C. and 750 B.C., there was a period of instability and very little progress called a “dark age”.
WHATHappened
1.Overseas trade
slowed and poverty took
hold.
2. Farmers grew
very littleFood.
3.People stopped teaching others
how to writeor do
craftwork.
4.Many forgottheir writtenlanguage.
One positive result of the Dark Age was a population shift
Many Greeks left the mainland and settled onIslands in the Aegean Sea or moved to the
Western shores of Asia Minor in what Is called Turkey today.
DoriansEventually, a group of
Greek speaking people fromthe north known as the
Dorians, moved south andsettled in the Peloponnesus
The Dorians brought iron weapons and
farm tools that werestronger and cheaper than the
bronze used by otherGreeks
With this new technology, people began to farm again and produce surplus food which helped revive trade.
Phoenicians
Increased trade led the Greeksto pick up a new way of
writing from the Phoenicians,who lived on the eastern
Mediterranean
The new Greek alphabet had 24 letters that made reading and
writing much simpler and led topeople writing down tales that
had been passed down by storytellers for generations.
Colonies and trade spread GreekCulture and spurred industry
After the Dark Age, the population of Greece rose quickly and farmers couldn’t grow enough food for the people. Cities
sent people to create new colonies.
700 B.C.
By550B.C.
Between 750 B.C. and 550 B.C., Greeks created a huge trading network that included
the coasts of Italy, France, Spain, North Africa,and western Asia. Greek culture spread.
Colonists traded with their “parent” citiesexchanging:
Colonists sent
grains,metals, fish,timber, and
enslavedpeople toGreece
MainlandGreece sent
pottery, wine,and
olive oil to thecolonies
In the 600’s B.C., theGreeks began to mint
coins andmerchants beganexchanging goods
for money rather than other goods
The growth of trade led to the growthof industry as thedemand for goodsgrew and people
beganspecializing inmaking certain
products
The idea of citizenship developed in Greek City-states.
By the end of the Dark Age, many nobles hadOverthrown the Greek kings and created
City-states which included the town or cityAnd the surrounded countryside.
A Greek city-state known as a polis was like a tiny independent country.
The main gathering place in the polis was the top of a hill or fortified area called an acropolis.
The Acropolis was:
1. A safe refuge in case of attacks
2. A religious center with temples and altars to honor The many Greek gods and goddesses
Below the acropolis was an open space called an Agora which served as:
1. A market
2. A place where people
could meet anddebate issues
City-states varied in size and population
Athens had nearly 300,000 people by 500 B.C.
Each city-state was run by it’s citizens or membersof a political community who treated each other
as equals and who had rights and responsibilities.
They believedthat the city-statewas made up oftheir lands and it
was theirresponsibility
to run it
In most Greekcity-states, onlyfree native-bornmen who owned
land couldbe citizens
Greeks were the first people to develop the idea of citizenship
Some city-states, like Athens, eventuallydropped the land-owning requirement
for citizenship
Women and children might qualify forcitizenship but had none of the rights
that went with it
Developed idea of Democracy
Next Slide
Athens developed the first
democracy
Greek word meaning “power of
the people”
A government where the people have the right to make decisions about
leaders and laws
The U.S. government is based on Athenian
democracy.
2. CouldHold office
1. Had theRight to
vote
3. Could gather in the
agora to choose their officials and pass laws
4. Could own
property
1. To Servein
government
2. To attendassembly
meetings andvote onissues
3. To fight for theirpolis ascitizensoldiers
Democracy in AthensDemocracy in Athens Athens had the first
democratic constitution (a set of rules for how the government should run)
All men over 20 years old could participate in the Assembly (the lawmaking group)
Each year 500 names of citizens were drawn to be on the Council of Five Hundred who ran the daily business of Athens
1.Could not afford
horses and fought on foot
4.Used their shields to
create aprotective wall
3. marched forwardinto battle in rows
shoulder toshoulder
2. Went into battle heavily armed
with a round shield, ashort sword, and
a 9 foot spear
As the idea of citizenshipdeveloped, the city-states had begun to
to depend on armies of ordinarycitizens called hoplites
HOPLITES
A Greek foot soldier was called a hoplite. He wore a linen shirt with metal armour plates on the shoulders. A bronze breastplate covered his chest and stomach, and greaves (shin guards) covered his legs. He wore a bronze helmet with a tall crest on his head. The hoplite carried a shield and a spear. Around his waist was a belt with a short sword. Hoplites fought in close formation. Greek soldiers had to pay for their own armour and weapons. If you could not afford to buy armour and weapons you could still serve in the army as a stone-thrower or archer.
http://www.gridclub.comhttp://www.educate.org.uk/
The soldiers wore breastplates, helmets, and greaves to protect their legs. Their shields were carefully packed away until needed. This vase painting shows a boy bringing a shield in ready for use while another helps a soldier with his greaves.http://www.gridclub.com
• New form of warfare– Units of armed infantry working
together as a block– Replaced old dependence on the
military chieftain– Security of community no longer
depended on power and skill of a chieftain but on the massed strength of the hoplites
• What counted now was the willingness of citizens to cooperate together in battle for the greater good of their city
– Numbers and community spirit became more important than individual bravado
Why were the hoplites good
soldiers?
Becausethey took pride infighting for their
city-states
How did thehoplites loyalty
to their city-stateaffect Greece?
“Hometown” loyalties divided the Greeks and caused them to distrust one another,
which led to a lack of unity