Name: ______Pd. _____Date: ______
The Earliest Greeks:
- The Minoans (2000 BCE - 1450 BCE)
- Settled on Crete, their largest city was Knossos
- Famous for the Minotaur, the monster with a bull's head, and human body who ate people
-Minotaur lived under King Minos' palace
- Peaceful people who used their plentiful farmland to grow olives, grapes and grains.
-Used the calm waters of the Mediterranean to trade for other resources & fish
- Famous for their jewelry and pottery
- Enjoyed boxing and bull jumping/fighting
- Women treated almost as equals
- Wrote in Linear A
- Volcano on Thera (nearby island), followed by an earthquake, then followed by invasion of the Mycenaeans brought about end of the Minoans
The Mycenaeans are on the next page!
- The Mycenaeans (1450 BCE - 1150 BCE)
- Conquered Minoans, took over Crete but most lived on Peloponnesus.
- Appreciated Minoan legacy. Language, architecture, trade over the Mediterranean were all adopted.
- Named after their town, Mycenae, right outside of Argos
-This location had far fewer resources than Crete, relied more on trade than farming
-Also became far more war-like
- Famous for their jewelers and weapons-makers. Fantastic bronze weapons and tools!
- The constant fighting left them weak, and vulnerable to the “sea peoples” and the Doriansin the north with Iron weapons.
-All Mycenaean cities fell EXCEPT Athens which had a hidden water supply
- Dorians were a simple farming people with
little culture, and no written language.
- Greece entered the Greek Dark Ages from 1100
BCE - 800 BCE when written language completely vanished
*Stories were passed down verbally, until written language returned from the Ionian
region and could be written down (Homer)
Name ______Pd. ____Date: ______
Do I understand the Minoans and Mycaeanans (Big Ideas)?
1. What were some contributions of the Minoans & Mycenaeans to Greek culture?
2. How were the Mycenaeans different from the Minoans? How were they similar?
Minoan – Both - Mycenaean
3. What happened to the Mycenaean civilization?
4. What was the Dark Age?
5. How did culture and trade return to Greece?
Name: ______Pd. ___Date: ______
The Earliest Settlers of Greece
- The Minoans (2000 BCE - 1450 BCE)
- Settled on Crete, their largest city was Knossos
- Famous for the Minotaur, the monster with a bull's head, and human body who ate people
-Minotaur lived under King Minos' palace
- Peaceful people who used their plentiful farmland to grow olives, grapes and grains.
-Used the calm waters of the Mediterranean to trade for other resources
- Famous for their jewelry and pottery
- Enjoyed boxing and bull jumping/fighting
- Women treated almost as equals
- Wrote in Linear A
- Volcanic eruption on Thera (a nearby island), followed by an earthquake, then an invasion of the Mycenaeans brought about end of the Minoans
The Mycenaeans are on the next page!
- The Mycenaeans (1450 BCE - 1150 BCE)
- Conquered the Minoans, took over Crete but most lived on the Peloponnesus.
- Appreciated the Minoan legacy. Language, architecture, trade over the Mediterranean were all adopted.
- Named after their town, Mycenae, right outside of Argos
-This location had far fewer resources than Crete, relied more on trade than farming
-Also became far more war-like
- Famous for their jewelers and weapons-makers. Fantastic bronze weapons and tools!
- The constant fighting left them weak, and vulnerable to the “sea peoples” and the Dorians in the north with Iron weapons.
-All Mycenaean cities fell EXCEPT Athens which had a hidden water supply
- Dorians were a simple farming people with
little culture, and no written language.
- Greece entered the Greek Dark Ages from 1100
BCE - 800 BCE when written language completely vanished
*Stories were passed down verbally, until written language returned from the Ionian
region and could be written down (Homer)
Do I understand the big ideas?
1. What were some contributions of the Mycenaeans to Greek culture?
- Distributed goods across Agean world, fine jewelry, pottery, bronze tools, architecture writing, and tech advances like plumbing
2. How were the Mycenaeans different from the Minoans? How were they similar?
- Both groups traded, farmed, were ruled by a king and were taken over by another people.
-The Minoans were peaceful farmers and fishermen from Crete
-Mycenaeans were more warlike peasant farmers from the mainland.
3. What happened to the Mycenaean civilization?
- It was conquered by the “sea peoples” and the Dorians from the North.
4. What was the Dark Age?
- The Greek Dark Ages were when the Dorians were in control of most of Greece, and lacked any written language and much culture.
5. How did culture and trade return to Greece?
- Culture and trade returned when the Ionians swept across the Peloponnesus and took control away from the Dorians.