Download Early Aegean Civillizations

The Ancient Greeks
Early Aegean Civilizations
Early Greek Cultures
Between 3000 B.C. and 1000 B.C.,
four cultures flourished on the Greek
islands and the mainland shores
Cycladic the
known as the ____________,
Minoan the _______________,
Mycenaean and
___________,
Trojan
the ___________cultures.
The Cycladic Culture
Cyclades
The ___________
are a group of
about 200
islands east of
the Greek
mainland in the
southern
Aegean
Sea
_______________.
The Cycladic Culture
The Cycladic people made their living by
fishing or _____________.
trading Others were
____________
grapes ___________,
farmers who grew ___________,
olives
and other crops.
The Cycladic Culture
After about 2000 B.C. the Cycladic culture
weakened and people began to follow the
dominant
customs and traditions of the _______________,
or more powerful, neighboring cultures.
How do archeologists know about
the people of the Cycladic culture?
By studying Cycladic artifacts
The Minoan Culture
A powerful culture that began on the large
Crete in about 2700 B.C.E. was
island of _________
the Minoan culture.
Minos the
This culture was named for ________,
mythology
king of Crete in Greek ________________.
The Minoan Culture
mythology is a collection of myths,
A ________________
or traditional stories, handed down from
generation to generation.
myths
What do __________explain?
How things in nature or human events
came to be.
The Minoan Culture
The Minoans learned technology from Asian
civilizations, such as how to mix copper and tin
bronze They made weapons,
to form ______________.
tools and bowls from bronze and other metals.
The Minoan Culture
The Minoans had a counting and writing system
for keeping records. They used a
decimal system to count. Based on
__________________________
the number 10, this system helped people keep
records of their trades.
Their writing system used ________________
pictographs
written on clay tablets to stand for the sounds
in words
The Minoan Culture
As time passed, the Minoan culture also
disappeared, but archeologists know from the
wall paintings at Knossos, archeologists have
learned that the Minoans were expert
sailors
ship builders and _______________.
______________________
The Mycenaean Culture
The Mycenaean culture became the dominant
Aegean region
culture throughout the _______________________
by the 1500s B.C.E.
The Mycenaean Culture
trade
Through ______________,
the Mycenaeans
learned Minoan ways and adapted them to fit
their own culture. For example, they adopted
the Minoan _______________
art styles and _____________.
writing
warlike
The Mycenaeans were more ______________
than the Minoans.
The Mycenaean Culture
earthquake
About 1200 B.C.E., an ___________________
destroyed these Mycenaean settlements, and
the culture ended.
The Trojan Culture
The Trojan culture was centered in the ancient
Troy in Asia Minor.
city of __________,
The Trojan Location
Troy had a __________________,
strategic
meaning of great importance,
location. Troy was on a high
point on a strait that connects
the Aegean Sea with the Sea of
Marmara.
It allowed passage to the Black
Sea for warfare and trading.
Great works by Homer
Today, people learn about Troy from epic
stories that are a part of world literature
Iliad and the _____________,
Odyssey
including the _________
written by the Greek poet Homer.
The Life of a
Hero
epic is a
• An ___________
long poem that
tells about the
important events
in the life of a hero
or heroes
The Trojan Horse
To capture the city of Troy, Homer says that
Odysseus ordered workers to build a huge,
wooden horse and for the
hollow ________________________
soldiers to hide inside.
Troy’s End
• The civilization disappeared and the ruins of
found
the city have yet to be _____________.