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