A crucible is something that you use when you try to combine things and come up with a completely different topic.

1776 when the United States started their own government and broke free from England they established a Roman type of government.

Ancient Greece: Introduction

Greece is a peninsula; it has a lot of mountains in places. Peloponnesia is a place in Greece at the end of the map that is kind of hooked on to Greece in a way.  Athens is right near Peloponnesia. Sparta is located in Peloponnesia.

Geography of Greece                            

·         Mountainous peninsula

-          Mountains conver ¾ of Greece this is why it is so hard to move around and the people of Greece are in a way separate from each other because the mountains separate each other.

·         Approximately 1,400 islands in the Aegean and Ionian Seas.

-          They went around in a boat most of the time.

·         Location shaped its culture

·         Skilled sailors

·         Poor natural resources – they didn’t have a lot of places to grow stuff. It is very rocky and mountains and because of that it was difficult to unite them.

·         Approximately 20% suitable for farming

·         Fertile valleys cover ¼ of peninsula

·         Because of geography the Greek diet consists of grains, grapes, olive. – If they grow this stuff their selves. Than that is the biggest part of their diet. They also were great wine makers. Grapes aren’t available everywhere in the world so they were a popular camaraderie that they could trade. Olives were an important part of their civilization. They would make soap, olive oil and other stuff out of olives. They have a small number of things that they grow in Greece that are really good for their health and their economy.

·         Lack of resources most likely led to Greek colonization. Colonizing means moving a colony. A colony is a group of people who leave their native country to form in a new land a settlement subject to, or connected with, the parent nation.

·         Temperatures range from 48 in the winter to 80 in the summer. That means that they don’t have to adjust to the temperature change that much. It is moderate and temperate. It is beautiful weather. These people invented the Olympics. They got out and were very active, they ate grapes and gains and olives and were healthy people. They had a moderate climate that they were able to go outside and play sports and exercise. People were athletic and active. They had reasons for doing this. They had to get in shape to fight battles and they felt it was a responsibility to be fit and healthy.

Mycenaean’s

·         Began around 2000 B.C.; only 500 years after the pyramids were built.

·         Mycenae is located on a rocky ridge and protected by a 20 foot thick wall called the Lions Gate. They could see their enemies coming.

·         The Mycenaean kings dominated Greece from 1600 – 1200 B.C.

-          Controlled trade in the region

·         1400 B.C. Mycenaean’s invaded Crete and absorbed Minoan culture and language

·         They protected themselves and very well fortified.

Culture in Decline

·         Around 1200 B.C. sea people began to invade Mycenae and burnt palace after palace.

·         The Dorian’s moved in the war-torn region

-          Far less advanced

-          Economy collapsed

-          Writing disappeared for 400 years.

·         They weren’t really good at anything but fighting. They didn’t know how to trade, read, write, and interact with other people. They just came in and kicked butt and burn palaces. Their economy just collapsed.

·         This was called the Dark Ages. Usually things progress in other civilizations but Greece went backwards during this time. We tend to progress but they didn’t. Recorded history is about writing things down and what happened. They didn’t do this all they did was tell stories.

Homer and Myths

·         Only stories were kept and passed on by word of mouth.

·         Homer lived at the end of the “Greek Dark Ages”

·         Recorded stories of the Trojan War in The Iliad and The Odyssey

(Written 750-700 B.C.)

-          Trojan War was probably one of the last conquests of the Mycenaean’s.

www.amazon.com/Odyssey-Robert-Fagles/dp/0140268863

Greek Concepts

·         Arete

-          Virtue and excellence

·         Epics

-          Narrative poems celebrating heroic deeds

·         Myths were created to explain creation

-          Zeus: leader of the gods

-          Hera: Zeus’ wife

-          Athena: goddess of wisdom