Download The Rise And Fall Of Ancient Heroes: Greece 2500

The Rise And Fall Of Ancient
Heroes: Greece 2500-500 B.C.
The Geography
The Minoans
The Mycenae
The Downfall Of Mycenae
The Greek Peninsula
 The Greek Peninsula was made
of mountain ranges which lacked
rivers and floodplains
 Greeks lived in scattered
communities among mountains
and numerous bodies of water
like the Aegean Sea and Ionian
 Turned to the sea because of
their location and accessibility to
it
 Climate average 50’s in winter
and 80’s in summer
The Minoans: 2000-1450 B.C.
 High point of Minoan
history associated with
King Minos
 Island of Crete had a
population of 250,000 and
40,000 lived in capital
called Kronos
 Economy was based on
trade of bronze tools and
weapons
 Owned sea bearing ships
unlike Phoenician ships
Minoan Art And Architecture
 Built huge multi-roomed
palaces that contained
rooms of shapes and sizes
 No sense of design for
these palaces led them to
them being called
labyrinths
 Produced colorful bright
frescoes influenced by the
Egyptians
 Created statuettes of
female goddesses
Minoan Religion
 Religion seems to have
centered around a fertility
goddess
 Had a religious rituals that
required males and females
to vault over a charging
bull
 Feast followed ritual where
bull was then sacrificed
 King then wore head of
bull (The Minotaur )
The Minoan Mystery
 Disappearance a
mystery
 Believed that a volcano
caused a tidal wave
that destroyed Minoans
 Greeks possibly
invaded and ravaged
Minoan civilization
Mycenaean's: The First Greeks
2000-1100 B.C.
 Adopted cultural high
points of Minoans like

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Artwork
Language
Trade networks
 Increased wealth holdings
by continuing Minoan
trade routes and links
 Lacked arable farm land
and were forced to trade
extensively for wheat and
barley
The Mycenaean's: Social
Structure
 A war like civilization with
a class system that
reinforced culture
 Kings, nobles, soldiers and
slaves formed social class
 Burials were accompanied
with vast number of arms
 Cities were built with great
protective walls and
palaces were small forts
The Mycenaean's: An Economy
Of Trade
 Mycenaean’s could not support themselves
had to purchase copper and tin to make
bronze unlike Egypt, Indus and Mesopotamia
 Relied on trade routes established by
Minoans for food and resources
 The Greek Mycenaean's traded pottery, olive
oil as far as Egypt, Syria and Palestine
(outskirts of Mesopotamian region)
The Mycenaean's: Invasion And
Violence 1250-1200 B.C.
 Economic conditions (trade
competition) and expansion created a
time of war
 Mycenaeans embark on war in the
Mediterranean region believed they
laid siege and eventually destroyed
the mythical city of Troy
 Iliad, written by blind poet Homer,
considered father of Greek literature,
created myth of Trojan War
 Iliad, defined heroic behavior and
human weakness
The Mycenaean's: Invasion And
Violence 1250-1200 B.C.
 1200 B.C. saw the
downfall of Mycenaean
civilization
 Devastating droughts
 Invasion from Northern
Greeks called Dorians
 Absence from Trojan
War caused internal
problems
 All Mycenae writing was
lost with its downfall this
causes a lost period