1. Early People of the Aegean
Ancient Greece
Early People of the Aegean

2. Objectives
Identify the influences on Minoan culture and explain how the civilization prospered.
Summarize how Mycenaeans ruled the sea trade and started the Trojan War.
Describe the works of Homer and their influence on Greek culture.

3. Greece Mountainous Rocky soil
What are the results of the geography of the country…
On political unity?
On trade?
On agriculture?

4. Greece’s Ancestors Nomadic peoples—warlike, non-literate
Blended with the peoples they conquered
Their language heavily influenced Greek and Latin
Government:
A king elected by warriors
Council of elders
Assembly of warriors
Greece’s Ancestors
Indo-Europeans
Dorians
Mycenaeans: Indo-Europeans who invaded Greece, c B.C.
Greece
Crete (Minoans)
Egypt

5. Greece’s Minoan Ancestors
Traded with both Egypt and Greece
Built a huge palace at Knossos—1500 rooms, with a labyrinth
Only palaces, not cities
Unknown until the 19th C. A.D.
Thera
Crete (Minoan civilization)

6. Artist’s Image of the Palace at Knossos
Unfortified! What does that tell us?

7. How did the Minoans and Mycenaeans shape early Greek civilizations?
Ideas moved from cultures in the east to Crete and were absorbed by the early civilization there.
Minoans and Mycenaeans both flourished on Crete and later influenced Greeks living on the European mainland.

8. Minoan civilization reached its height between 1600 B.C. and 1500 B.C.
a sudden volcanic eruption
Minoan civilization vanished by 1400 B.C. Archaeologists are not sure why. Possible reasons include:
an earthquake and huge wave
invaders called the Mycenaeans, who were the first Greek-speaking people

9. The Mycenaeans were sea traders who lived in separate city-states.
The Mycenaean civilization dominated the Aegean region from 1400 B.C. to 1200 B.C.
The Mycenaeans were sea traders who lived in separate city-states.
They fought in the Trojan War against Troy, a trading city that controlled vital straits connecting the Mediterranean and Black seas.

10. Scholars had long thought of the Trojan War as pure legend.
In the 1870s, however, evidence of fire and war was found in the region and dated to 1250 B.C.
Now, modern scholars think the war was a real event. 10

11. The Iliad tells about the Trojan War and the adventures of Achilles, the mightiest Greek warrior.
The Odyssey tells about the struggle of the Greek hero Odysseus as he tries to return home after the war.
Two epic poems, attributed to Homer, enhance our understanding of this era.

12. The poems of Homer reveal much about Greek culture.
Honor
Faithfulness
Courage
Eloquence
The two poems show that the Greeks valued qualities such as:

13. People lived in small, isolated villages and had little contact with the outside world.
Eventually, a new Greek civilization would emerge to dominate the region and influence the rest of the world.
After the Mycenaean civilization faded, Greece passed several centuries in obscurity. 13

14. Terms & People
Knossos – the location of a vast palace of the Minoan rulers
shrine – an area dedicated to the honor of a god or goddess
fresco – a watercolor painting done on wet plaster
Trojan War – a war that took place around B.C.; it probably originated in the economic rivalry between Mycenae and Troy
strait – a narrow water passage
Homer – a Greek poet who probably lived around 750 B.C. and traveled from village to village repeating tales of heroic deeds