This document provides background information on ancient Greece, including the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations that preceded classical Greece. It describes the Minoans' advanced palace complexes and writing system, as well as their influence on the later Mycenaean culture. The document also outlines Greece's transition out of the Dark Ages with the development of new military tactics like the phalanx and the rise of city-states like Athens and Sparta.

1. Do Now!
• Read through the document
on your desk
• Label the blank map with
appropriate Cities, Islands and
Seas

2. ANCIENT GREECE
• Region of isolated valleys,
hills, small plains,
peninsulas, and islands
– Sea formed its focal
point
• Nothing more than
barbarous fringe area to
older civilizations of the
Middle East
– Tiny, unimportant, and
poor in natural
resources

3. Greece also
benefited from its
position on the
edge of the
civilized world
Far enough away to
escape domination by
the various Middle
Eastern Empires but
close enough to absorb
the rich culture of its
eastern neighbors

4. FIRST GREEKS
• Either were Neolithic
farmers who migrated from
Asia Minor around 3000 BC
• Or were an Indo-European
tribe from southern Russia
who migrated into the
region around 2300 BC
• In either case, when people
did arrive in the peninsula,
they soon came into
contact with an already
civilized people who lived
on the nearby island of
Crete
– The Minoans

5. MINOAN CIVILIZATION
• Neolithic settlements
date back to 4000 BC
– Early farmers
probably came into
contact with Middle
Eastern civilization
around 3000 BC
• Had developed an
advanced civilization of
their own by 2000 BC
– Expressed in the
construction and
decoration of huge
palace complexes
• Largest one at
Knossos

6. MINOAN PALACE COMPLEXES
• Complicated structures consisting
of a honeycomb of various rooms
surrounding a large courtyard
• Huge
– Knossos covered three acres
• Well-built
– Strong foundations meant to
withstand earthquakes
• Many rooms decorated with
brightly colored frescoes that
depicted various aspects of
Minoan life
– Know from them that men were
clean shaven and generally
wore short kilts
– Women had elaborate hair-dos
and wore dresses with wide
sleeves and pinched-in waists

7. MINOAN WRITING
• Developed alphabet around 1700 BC
– Linear A
– Not yet deciphered
• Switched to alphabet called Linear B
around 1450 BC
– Mostly used perishable writing
materials
• None of which has survived
– But also sometimes wrote on clay
tablets using this alphabet
• Have been deciphered
• Tells us quite a bit about their
society and culture

8. MINOAN COMMERCE
• Palaces controlled the
commercial, agricultural, and
manufacturing activities of
surrounding regions
• Commerce was very important
– Acted as trade intermediary
between civilized and
barbarian worlds
• Exported wool, olive oil
and timber in exchange
for other raw materials
and luxury items
– Built large and
technologically advanced
merchant and military navy

9. MINOAN WOMEN
• Women played important role
in society
– Most of their gods were
female
• Headed by the so-called
“Snake Goddess”
– Women also portrayed at
the head of processions and
as participants in athletic
events
• Even bull-leaping
• May not have been a
matriarchy but women
nonetheless enjoyed a
prominent social position

10. BULL-LEAPING

11. Labyrinth

12. END OF MINOAN CIVILIZATION
• Civilization came to an end
between 1450 and 1350 BC
– All palaces destroyed and never
rebuilt
• Theory 1
– Invaded by Mycenaeans in 1400
BC
• Destroyed Crete to eliminate
Minoans as trade rivals
• Theory 2
– Massive volcanic eruption on
island of Thera showered Crete
with debris, ash, and poison gas
• Destroyed fleets with tidal
waves
• Mycenaeans arrived after
catastrophe and destroyed
what was left

13. MYCENEAN AGE
• 1600-1150 BC
• Had some contact with
Minoan civilization by at
least 1600 BC
• Typical of the very warlike,
semi-barbarian cultures
that extended over most of
Europe
– Only difference was that
contact with Minoans
gradually ameliorated
some of their barbarism
and allowed them to
develop a more
sophisticated culture

14. MYCENEAN CIVILIZATION
EMERGES
• Assimilation of Minoan
culture was complete by 1400
BC
– About the time that they
invade and destroyed
Crete
– Took the place of Minoans
as commercial middlemen
between civilized Middle
East and barbarian Europe
– Began to build huge
palaces at Mycenae,
Tiryns, Athens, Thebes,
and Pylos

15. MYCENEAN PALACES
• Palaces served as central
meeting places
– Home for the king and his
administrators
– Warehouse for agricultural
and manufactured
products
– Marketplace
– Communications center
• Also served as religious
centers
– Crowded with priests and
priestesses

16. RELIGION AND CULTURE
• Great Mother goddess was major
god
– Derived from Minoan Snake
Goddess
– But Myceneans also began to
emphasize male gods
• Zeus, Poseidon, Hermes, and
Apollo
• Borrowed heavily from Minoans
– Wrote in Linear B on clay tablets
– Painted frescoes on palace walls
– Carved in ivory and stone
– Made elaborate seals

17. DAWN OF THE “DARK AGE”
• All Mycenean palaces destroyed
around 1250 BC
– Except one at Athens
– Survivors moved to Attica or
moved overseas
• Greece only contained
10% of its former
population by 1200 BC
– Trade network collapsed
– Art and culture lost
• Greece entered a period of
severe economic, social, and
technological backwardness
– Dark Age (1200-800 BC)

18. CAUSES
• Period in which Mycenean kingdoms
fell was one of general unrest
– Lybians and Sea Peoples attacked
Egypt
– Sea Peoples destroyed Hittite
Empire
– Pirates roamed the eastern
Mediterranean
– Mycenean palaces came under
tremendous pressure
• Palaces destroyed over a long period
– Perhaps victims of different groups
of invaders arriving at different
times
– Small, vicious groups of raiding
parties brought about downfall of
Mycenean civilization
• Not a single, massive migration
of new people

19. THE DARK AGE
Although generally
isolated and backward,
Iron, for example, came
the Dark Age use see
into general did for
someweapons and and
technological
cultural innovations People who fled Greece
agricultural implements settled on Aegean
that would create
foundation for future Islands, coast of Asia
Greek civilization Minor, and elsewhere,
forming base for
prosperous city-states
that would develop there

20. ORAL LITERARY TRADITION
• Dark Age was the firm
establishment of an oral
tradition that recounted a
glorious and heroic past
– Thanks to wandering
minstrels
– Tradition would
culminate with the
magnificent epic poems
of Homer
• Iliad and Odyssey
• Composed at the end
of the Dark Age

21. EPIC POEMS
• All epic poems have common
theme
– Recounting the deeds of
superhuman heroes of earlier
times
– Served function of providing a
legendary history which
explained how people got where
they were and why
• Greek epic poems had developed
the plots of the siege of Troy and
various Heracles legends in
centuries before Homer
– Wandering poets used these
basic plots but embellished
Heracles them in order to appeal to their
particular audience

22. WORLD OF THE ILIAD AND
ODYSSEY
• In terms of values and attitudes,
Homer was describing the late Dark
Age
– Imposed values, attitudes, and
motivations of his own age on
historical characters
• World he described was made up of
tiny, autonomous political units
– Each self-sufficient and inward-
looking
– Each ruled by a chieftain
• Main job was to protect his Mask of Agamemnon,
people from constant outside king of Argos
aggression

24. VALUES
• Chieftains were military men
par excellence
– The values they prized most
highly were military virtues
• Physical strength,
endurance, bravery,
selflessness
• Any sign of weakness
opened the door to his
neighbors to take
advantage of him
– Explains almost childish
sensitivity of Homer’s
heroes to insults and their
continual bellicosity

25. EXPLANATION
• Obsessive concern with
“face” supplied motive
power to Homer’s plots
– Later Greeks amazed at
juvenile behavior of
Homer’s heroes
• Given the precarious nature
of life in Greece during the
Dark Age
– And given the fact that a
community’s survival
depended on the
unblemished reputation of
their chieftain
• The actions of the
Greeks against the
Trojans becomes
understandable

26. END OF THE DARK AGE
• Greece broke out of its
narrow isolation due to
influence of Phoenician
merchants around 800 BC
– Related to Canaanites
– Renewed Greek
contacts with Middle
East through trade
• Evidence is extensive
– Greeks adopted
Phoenician/Canaanite
alphabet
– Established trade
contacts with
Phoenician city-states
in Syria

27. HOPLITES
• Dark Age military chieftain and
his cronies based their power
on their military prowess and
ownership of land
• With rise of wealth based on
commerce new men from
outside the landowning clique
began to demand military
participation
– Began to arm themselves
and found that when they
worked together as a team,
nothing could stand in their
way

28. PHALANX
• 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 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

29. ATHENS AND SPARTA
• Influence of trade-generated
wealth, stimulation provided
by renewal of contacts with
outside world, and the
challenge of hoplites to
aristocratic dominance acted
together to dissolve Dark Age
society
– Ultimately resulted in a
new kind of society in
Greece
• Athens and Sparta illustrate
process
– Both their solutions to
changes and challenges
associated with end of the
Dark Age were radical but
also very different

30. Closure
• In a group of 3-4, create a short 5
question quiz.
• Include the answers and be prepared to
stump your classmates.
• Make #1 the easiest and #5 the toughest!