Transcript Chapter 2: The Minoans, The Mycenaeans, and the Greeks of

Chapter 2: The Minoans,
The Mycenaeans, and the
Greeks of the Arcahic Age
The tradition of Greece is often the first in
which Westerners feel they can recognize
themselves. Greeks were the “first” to
place human beings at the center of the
universe.
However, preceding the Greeks in the
Aegean Basin were the Minoan and
Mycenaean civilizations.
Aegean Basin
• Minoans lived on the island of Crete.
• British archaeologist, Arthur Evans,
discovered the ruins of the ancient
kingdom. He called it the Minoan
civilization in honor of the legendary
king of Crete called Minos.
• Minoans built huge palaces that may have
been the center for governing and for
religion.
• As with Egyptians, the Minoans were
organized into a complex caste system:
Nobles, Merchants, Artisans, Bureaucrats,
and Laborers
• Life for Minoans was unusually
peaceful…very few weapons found at
archeological sites
• The palaces were like mazes.
• Many houses were built around them.
• Beyond the palaces were small towns,
villages, and farmland.
• The remains of four palaces have been found.
• The largest is called Knossos and probably
stood at least 3 stories high.
• It probably covered an area as large as 20
football fields.
• As many as 12,000 people may have lived
there.
Palace at Knossos
• Known for its sophisticated
architecture
• A complete plumbing and
drainage system
• Multi-level structure with
complex layout of rooms and
passageways
• Below ground storage of
grains, oils, and wines
• Beautiful friezes and frescoes
• No walls protecting this palace
• Evans began a massive
reconstruction project
Beautiful friezes and frescoes
Minoans depended on trade
Bull leaping
Bull Leaping
Minoan Bull and god?
• Minoans developed a system of writing.
• The only remaining records are written on
clay tablets.
•
Written Langauge
• Pictorial forms gave way to:
• 1. Linear A script from 1800
BC to about 1400 BC.
Undecipherable even to this
day. Found on Phaistos Disc
which has writing on both
sides
• 2. Linear B from 1400 to
decline in 1100. Was an early
form of Greek and not used for
political, social, and
philosophical aspects of life;
only commercial transactions
Religion
• Most Minoan life revealed through its
religious practices and art.
• 1. Matriarchal society
• 2. Center of worship was a mother
goddess
• 3. Earth goddesses portrayed in various
forms.
Mother Goddesses
Decline of Civilization
• Minoan trade dominated eastern
Mediterranean until about 1380 BC
• Something happened, maybe a volcanic
eruption or other natural disaster
• Culture was further weakened by
Mycenaean attacks and influences
between 1400 and 1100 BC
Beginnings: Mycenaean Civilization
1900—1100 BC
Mycenae
Mycenaeans
• The civilization named by archeologists
after the fortress city, Mycenae, in the
lower rugged region of the Greek
peninsula, Peloponnesus
• Discovered in late 1800s by a German,
Heinrich Schliemann.
• He named the people The Myceneans
•They were a war like people.
• They traded with the Minoans and learned
much of their culture. (cultural borrowing)
• They changed Minoan art styles to make them
more warlike.
• They changed the Minoan written language to
match their own.
Some believe they invaded and overtook
the Minoans
Mycenae
• Ruins of Mycenaean palaces
reveals them to be mole like
structures with massive
double walls and narrow
escape passages
• Most well known Mycenaean
monument is the massive Lion
Gate constructed from four
massive hewn stones
(ashlars)
• Bronze lion’s heads now gone,
maybe stolen. Design likely to
remind citizens who ruled and
to intimidate visitors.
Lion’s Gate
• It was Mycenaeans who tried to topple
Troy. The long siege weakened the
civilization and inspired Homer’s later Iliad
and Odyssey
• It was the Mycenaeans who gave the
Greeks many of their ideals and inspired
the age of heroes established by Homer
Arcaheological Dig
• The weapons and armor
found in Mycenaean
graves greatly impressed
later Greeks
• Homer called Mycenaean
warriors”the strongest
generation of earthborn
mortals.”
Dark Ages:
1100—800 BC
• After collapse of Mycenaean civilization, a
300 year period called Dark Ages
– Life becomes more agrarian
– Transitional time—changes happening behind
the scenes
– Power shifting from kings to families
– Bronze gives way to iron
– Mycenaeans flee to Asia Minor. Early Greeks
establish life around Aegean and
Mediterranean Seas
The Archaic Greek Age:
800—479 BC
• After the Dark Ages, the Greeks emerged
with a common language, heroic stories,
myths, religious practices and trading
interests.
• They claimed a common mythical parent,
Hellen, who fathered three sons, the
ancestors of the three major Greek tribes:
Ionians, Aeolians, and Dorians.
• The development of Greek culture lasted
three centuries, and by the end of it they
had laid the foundation of a new
world…ours!!!