Ancient GreeceIntroduction: Minoans, Mycenaeans, Greek Colonization

Classical Time Period

• According to the AP curriculum:– Classical civilizations

• Major political developments in China, India, and the Mediterranean

• Social and gender structures • Major trading patterns within and among Classical

civilizations; contacts with adjacent regions • Arts, sciences, and technology

Geography of Region

• Greece: a.k.a “Hellas”• Greeks were sea traders• Mountains divided Greece—

kept it disunited--Polis

Geography

• According to the AP curriculum:

– Environment • Interaction of geography and climate with the

development of human society• The environment as historical actor• Demography: Major population changes resulting from

human and environmental factors

Pre-Greeks

• Minoans (2800 BCE – 1600 BCE)• Location: Aegean islands, Crete• Economy: Trade• Writing: linear A and linear B

• Knossos• Disappearance: Unknown• Natural Disaster

Pre-Greeks

• Mycenaeans– Overran Minoans– Sea traders

• Trojan War, 1250 BC– Mythical story– Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey

1100 BCE

• Everything stops?– Pottery

• Dark Ages• Sea Peoples?

• 1000 BCE – goat-herding, barley, and a few iron tools.

• Difficult terrain for farming

• A shift comes with Wine and Olive Oil

Ancient Greece

“The Olive Harvest” ~500BCE The Antimenes Painter

Olive OilOlive Oil Olives grow well in rocky soil and Olives grow well in rocky soil and

high elevationhigh elevation Fat and flavorFat and flavor Seasonal farming – lots of free timeSeasonal farming – lots of free time Lamp oilLamp oil SoapSoap High value exportHigh value export

Greek Expansion• Emphasis on wine and olives leads to…

– Heavily stratified economic status• Rich vs. poor

– Importation of grains– Greek colonization

Greek Settlements by 500 BCE

• Colonies in Italy, Sicily, France, Spain, Turkey, Egypt, the Black Sea coastline, and Africa.

• Colonists were criminals and outcasts, but still clung to the Greek way of life.

Greek Expansion

Greek Politics

• Ethne – tribes• Polis – a city state• By 600 BCE there were

over 300 city-states• Governments varied –

polis = politics

The Parthenon in Athens atop the Acropolis - 2500 years old