3. Mountains & the Sea
• Greece is nearly ¾ covered with mountains
▫ Early farmers grew olives, grapes, & grain foods in
the thin, rocky, & dry climate
▫ Raised sheep, goats, pigs, & cattle to get skins for
clothing
▫ Rugged land made travel hard & impossible in
some areas
Mountain people survived on the food they raised
Each village formed their own governments &
became independent of each other
4. • Greeks living near the sea became fishers,
sailors, & merchants
▫ Little natural resources led Greek to look outside
Greece for trade
• Greece’s location made it a great trading center
• Traders on the Mediterranean were eager to
exchange their goods for olive oil, wool, & wine
• 3000 & 1550 B.C. the Mediterranean’s 1st great
trading center grew on the island of Crete
5. The Minoans
• 1990 B.C. people of Crete built huge palaces
▫ Palaces were like small cities
▫ Were centers of government & religion
Largest was Knossos (stood 3 stories high)
Other buildings for storing food & decorative paintings
• Minoans built Knossos & other cities of Crete
▫ Were seafaring traders
▫ Traded with people in Africa, Asia, & Europe
Egypt & Syria were main trading partners
▫ Trading ships carried olive oil, wine, wool, pottery, & other goods
to oversea ports
Returned with copper, tin, & gold
Mixed copper & tin to form bronze
▫ Developed a writing system to keep track of their trade
• Minoan kingdom destroyed by fire or earthquake in 1450 B.C.
6.
7. The Mycenaeans
• Seemed to be warlike people
• Measured wealth by number of weapons they owned
• Learned many Minoan customs through trade with
them
▫ Adapted Minoan art & pottery styles
▫ Changed writing system to fit their language &
borrowed some religious beliefs
• 1450 B.C. Mycenaeans invaded Crete
▫ Controlled Crete & Peloponnesus from 1450 to 1100
B.C.
8. Ancient Stories & Legends
• Stories of Homer tell us history of Mycenaeans
▫ Long stories were called epics
▫ Storytellers retold these epics
Iliad: epic which tells about people’s actions during a
great war
Odyssey: describes the adventure of the hero
Odysseus on his journey home from the war
▫ War described by Homer was fought between the
Greeks & the people of Troy
Trojan War
