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The Early Greeks
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Most of our study of ancient Greece is focused on what we call the Classical Age. The Classical Age of Greece is a two hundred year period that began about 500 years before the Common Era. During the Classical Age, the Greek poli combined to defeat the powerful Persian Empire. The Greeks of the Classical Age created art, architecture and literature that have influenced the way we live today. The Classical Age came centuries after two earlier civilizations, the Minoans and the Mycenaeans, flourished and then vanished, leaving the Greeks in a period later called the Dark Age of Ancient Greece.
The Minoan culture developed on Crete, an island southeast of the Greek mainland as early as 2700bce. The Minoans were a sea-faring culture that traded with other cultures that bordered the Mediterranean Sea. They developed a system of writing that modern scholars call Linear A. Although we have more than 100 examples of Linear A writing, scholars have not deciphered its meaning, so we know very little about the Minoans. We do know the Minoan civilization mysteriously disappeared about 1450bce. There is some evidence that the fall of the Minoans is related to a catastrophic volcanic eruption.
The Minoans traded with the Mycenaeans, another trading culture on the Greek mainland that was known for making bronze weapons and pottery. The Mycenaeanshad a syllabic script we now call Linear B because there is evidence that it developed from Minoan writing. About a millennium before the Common Era, the Mycenaean culture grew weak and was conquered by invaders from the north known as Dorians.
For the next several hundred years, Greece fell into a period called the Greek Dark Age. There have been several dark ages in history. A dark age occurs when a civilization regresses, or forgets some of the things they know. During the Greek Dark Age, few people could read and write.
The Greekswho lived in the Dark Age could not read the mysterious writings of the Minoans and the Mycenaeans, but they did have many legends handed down by word of mouth. These stories became the basis of what the Greeks later called their Heroic Era. The Heroic Era was period of great glory that the Dark Age Greeks believed preceded their own time.
During the Greek Dark Age, poets called bards traveledto different poli. The bards told stories of the Heroic Era in the form of long poems called epics. People would often pay to hear the bards describe stories of the distant past. The bards would sing many of the epic poems while accompanied by a stringed instrument called a lyre. The musical epics were called lyric poetry.
These stories from the Greek Dark Age formed the basis of many Greek myths. Two epic poems—the Iliad and the Odyssey—have had an enormous influence on the history of Greece and on western literature.
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Answer in complete sentences
*1. About when did the Classical Age of ancient Greece begin and end?
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*This is a higher order learning question. You must answer the question to the best of your ability, but any reasonable answer will be graded as correct.
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Fill in the Blanks
The C__a__s__c__l Age of Ancient Greece lasted from about ______bce to about ______bce. During this period the G__e__ks made great advances in p__i__o__o__hy, drama, and l__t__r__t__re. But two earlier Greek c__v__l__z__t__o__s flourished and then mysteriously d__s__p__e__r__d centuries before the Classical Age.
The M__n__a__s developed on the Greek-speaking i__l__nd of Crete. The Minoans developed a system of w__i__i__g and traded with other cultures for more than a *m__l__e__n__um. The Minoans *d__s__p__e__r__d from the historical record about 1450bce, but *archa__o__o__i__ts are not sure what happened to them. The M__c__n__e__n people lived on the Greek m__i__la__d. The Mycenaeans eventually grew weak and were c__n__u__r__d by D__ri__n invaders from the n__r__h.
Hundreds of years later, Greek p__e__s were unable to *d__c__ph__r the mysterious w__i__i__g of the M__n__a__s and the M__c__n__e__ns, but they did know of the many l__g__n__s that had been handed down by word of m__u__h. These stories developed into the e______poems of what the later Greeks described as the H__ro__c Era, a time of greatness for the Greek speaking people of the distant past. Many of the legends were recited by t__a__e__i__g poets called bards. The bards were often accompanied by a s__r__n__ed instrument called a l______, which is why their compositions were called lyric poetry.
Answer in complete sentences
*2. How did the Minoans differ from the Mycenaeans?
*3. Why are we not certain what happened to the Minoan civilization?
4. What is a “dark age?”
*5. What might happen to cause a “dark age?”
*6. Why do you think people were willing to pay the bards for their talents?
*This is a higher order learning question. You must answer the question to the best of your ability, but any reasonable answer will be graded as correct.