Geography• Greece is a peninsula,
a body of land with water on three sides
• Covered mostly by mountains, the Ancient Greeks lived mostly along the coasts and were fisherman and traders
• Some Greeks settled in deep valleys between the mountains.
The First Civilizations in Greece
Minoans
• Lived on the Island of Crete
• Peaceful People more concerned with art and creativity
• Greek Myth about the Minotaur and the Labyrinth
Mycenaeans
• Lived on the mainland of Greece
• Warlike People. Constantly battling other small cities
• Greek Epic “The Iliad” was about their victory during the Trojan War
The Minoans
• Worshipped Bulls and used them in many of their ceremonies.
• The Minotaur was half man and half Bull.
• Minoans believed that Earthquakes were caused by the Minotaur trying to escape the Labyrinth.
• Minoans were destroyed by earthquakes and eventually conquered by the Myceneaens.
The Minotaur
• Half-man and Half-Bull who lived in a maze underneath the ground on the island of Crete
• King Minos ordered that 14 Athenians be thrown to the Minotaur for the death of his son
• Theseus, an Athenian volunteered to kill the beast.
The Myceneaens
• Discovered by the German historian Heinrich Schliemann.
• Built heavily fortified cities
• Would cover the faces of their dead kings with golden masks
• Suffered destruction from Earthquakes and conquered by the Dorians
The Dark Ages of Greece
• Once the Dorians had conquered Greece, all written records stopped.
• For 300 years little is known about what happened in Greece, because the Dorians had no written language.
• The Dorians were travelling warriors who destroyed cities rather than build them.
• This is known as the Dark Age of Greece
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