Download Early periods in Greece.pps

On the Greek Mainland, the coast of Asia minor and the islands between
On the Greek Mainland, the coast of Asia minor and the islands between
The inhabitants (Pelasgians) shared a similar language and ethnicity originating from
the eastern Turkey and Mesopotamia where agriculture had replaced hunting
Farmers – cultivating grains, domesticating sheep and goats.
Religious goal was to keep destructive natural forces (male) happy, and worship
reproductive and fertility spirits (female)
Matriarchy – women ruled families (tribes) – emphasis on fertility, procreation,
nurturing crops, herds, children.
New Stone age (Neolithic) pre3000, giving way to the bronze age (3000 to 1100BC)
Less cultured, but more aggressive, they overran the
Pelasgians, and either slaughtered or absorbed them.
– Also from the east
– Spoke the language that would develop into classical
Greek
– Focused on hunting and warfare.
– worshipped male gods of hunting and war in their
mountain homes. The old Pelasgian mother goddesses
became mere consorts to these male gods.
– Patriarchy: family traced through the male line.
– Ancestors to the Greeks of the Homeric (heroic) period.
• Heroes like Jason and the Argonauts, Heracles,
Theseus, Perseus and the Medusa head, probably
from this time.
– The Achaeans didn’t invade here and a non-militaristic civilisation
thrived centred about the worship of the mother goddess (late
Pelasgian?).
– Centred on Knossos
• Ruled by King Minos
– Rich art, crafts, architecture
• Bull leaping
• Early writing (still not deciphered)
– Known through myths of their contact with the Achaeans (traders
in the eastern Mediterranean)
• Theseus and the minotaur
– Thera volcano blew in 1500BC
• The source of the legend of Atlantis.
– Knossos finally destroyed around 1380 BC at the hands of mainland
Achaean warriors (Mycenaean Civilisation)
Crete: Minoan Civilization
(Palace at Knossos)
Minoan Civilization
Knossos: Minoan
Civilization
– the Achaeans grew in strength to dominate not only the
mainland but after the destruction of Crete, the eastern
Mediterranean.
– Central government kept dominant by warrior class.
• plundered neighbouring regions, and grew rich and
powerful, but unstable.
– Archaeological evidence suggests they began to decline after
about 1300BC
– Troy defeated traditionally about 1250BC
• Schliemann excavated Troy and Mycenae in late 1800s
– Destroyed by internal warfare about 1100 BC
The Mycenaean dig
– Period of decline and chaos after the decline of Mycenae
– Not all declined
• Iron replaced bronze – a superior technology
• Oral poets (bards).
– Stories of the heroes of the Bronze age were worked up
and memorised 1000s of lines of poetry passed on from
bard to bard.
– Homer – the great collector of the Bardic tradition.
• Writing developed and poems finally written down. (Homer)
about 600 BC.
• Olympic games founded
– Lived in city/village states called polis (plural = poleis)
• Sense of themselves as one people with shared myths
religion and language
• Called their region HELLAS
Homer
Preserved the glories of
the “Heroic /Homeric
Age”
as Greece went through
its dark age
A Greek people, but not a
Greek Nation
Factors bringing
Greeks together
• Common Language,
Religion, and festivals
• Co-operative supervision of
certain temples
• Belief that the Greeks were
descended from the same
ancestors
Factors keeping
them apart
• Rugged Mountains separating
the valleys
• Rivalries between city-states
• separate legal systems
• independent calendars,
money, weights and measures
• Fierce spirit of independence