Transcript Crete: Minoan Civilization

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.
A less cultured, more aggressive, they overran the Pelasgians, &
either slauhtered 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.
Centred on city of 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)
Legend of Theseus and the minotaur
Volcanic island of Thera blew up around 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.
Harsh geography meant that agriculture couldn’t support
population, and hunting, trading, and raiding grew.
plundered neighbouring regions, and grew rich and
powerful, but unstable.
Archaeological evidence suggests they began to decline
after about 1300BC (Period of the trojan war)
Troy defeated traditionally about 1250BC
Their culture was finally destroyed by internal warfare
about 1100 BC.
Schliemann excavated Troy and Mycenae in late 1800s
The Mycenaean dig
Period of decline and chaos after the decline of Mycenae
But not only decline!
Iron replaced bronze – a superior technology.
Oral poets (bards) retold & kept alive the old sories of the gods &
heroes and of the Bronze age.
These were worked up and memorised 1000s of lines of poetry
passed on from bard to bard. .
Writing developed and poems finally written down about 700 BC.
Homer of the heroes of the trojan war
Hesiod made sense of the many myths about the gods.
Lived in city/village states called polis (plural = Poleis)
Sense of themselves as one people with shared myths religion and
language
Olympic games begin 776BC
Called their region HELLAS (After the mythological patriarch Hellen,
son of Deucalion (Noah) – Grandson of Prometheus)
Factors bringing
them 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 citystates
• separate legal systems
• independent calendars,
money, weights and
measures
• Fierce spirit of
independence
Monarchies getting replaced by oligarchies (aristocracy)
Colonies to Italy and Asia Minor (Ionia - modern coastal turkey)
Law givers Lycergus (Sparta), Draco (Athens), Solon (Athens)first inclings of limited democracy
Coinage
Persians invade Greeks colonies in Asia minor (Ionia) about
550 BC
The Persian Wars: Till the defeat of the Persians at Marathon,
Theromopylae (the 300), Salamis
Rise of Athenian empire (Pericles)
Athens Golden age 460-404BC:
Herodotus (History), Sophocles (Drama), Socrates
(philosophy) Parthenon, Athen’s Democracy.
421-404 War against Sparta – ends Athens golden age
400-350 Warfare between Greek City-states (polis)
Philip of Macedon (Alexander’s father) unites the city-states
Alexander the Great– conquerors the Persian empire 336323BC)
Alexander’s conquests ruled by various greek aristocrats fighting each
other In kingdoms from Egypt to Afghanistan
the “world” is Hellenised :Science, learning, Classical civilation spread
Meanwhile…
City state of Rome risen from 600BC to dominate the region
Caesar dies 44BC- the Roman city republic had grown to a world empire –
civil war
31BC defeat of Antony & Cleopatra by Octavian (later Augustus Caesar, 1st
Emperor of Rome)
Roman Empire
30BC till 410 AD (West centred on Rome)
and till 1443AD (East - Byzantium)