Aim: How much did geography affect ancient Mediterranean civilizations? Period 1: Technological and Environmental Transformations, to 600 B.C.E. Key Concept 1.3. The Development and Interactions of Early Agricultural, Pastoral, and Urban Societies

The Phoenicians The Phoenicians were a Semitic people (possibly even the Canaanites from the Bible!) They were seafarers who founded colonies all across the Mediterranean. Each colony was its own city-state. Famous for their purple dyed textiles, made from the murex snail. Created the alphabet. “From the ninth to sixth centuries B.C. they dominated the Mediterranean Sea, establishing colonies from Cyprus in the east to the Aegean Sea, Italy, North Africa, and Spain in the west. They grew rich trading precious metals from abroad and products such as wine, olive oil, and most notably the timber from the famous cedars of Lebanon… The armies and peoples that eventually conquered the Phoenicians either destroyed or built over their cities. Their writings, mostly on fragile papyrus, disintegrated—so that we now know the Phoenicians mainly by the biased reports of their enemies...

Although the Phoenicians themselves reportedly had a rich literature, it was totally lost in antiquity. That's ironic, because the Phoenicians actually developed the modern alphabet and spread it through trade to their ports of call. Acting as cultural middlemen, the Phoenicians disseminated ideas, myths, and knowledge from the powerful Assyrian and Babylonian worlds in what is now Syria and Iraq to their contacts in the Aegean. Those ideas helped spark a cultural revival in Greece, one which led to the Greeks' Golden Age and hence the birth of Western civilization.” http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature2/

According to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, Pharaoh Necho II of Egypt may have hired the Phoenicians to circumnavigate (sail around) Africa in 600 BCE. They completed the mission in 3 years. In August 2009 the Phoenician Ship Expedition Project launched a replica Phoenician ship from Syria, with the goal to sail completely around Africa by way of the Red Sea. In Oct 2010, the ship had made it!

Phoenician Alphabet Before the alphabet was invented, early writing systems had been based on pictographic symbols (hieroglyphics), or on cuneiform. Because these methods required a plethora of symbols to identify each word, writing was complex and limited to a small group of scribes. Between 1850 and 1700 BCE, Phoenician traders adapted Egyptian hieroglyphics to represent the sounds of their language. This Proto-Sinaitic script is considered the first alphabetic writing system, where unique symbols stood for single consonants; only 22 symbols total! By the 8th century BCE the Phoenician alphabet had spread to Greece, where it was refined and enhanced to record the Greek language.

What did the Phoenicians look like? This is the reconstruction of a 19-24 year old man’s skeleton from Carthage. He was 5ft6” tall. Modern day Semitic people include Jewish and Muslim Arabs.

II Geography of Greece A) Part of the Balkan Peninsula B) Mountains divide the peninsula into isolated valleys C) The southernmost part of mainland Greece is called the Peloponnesus

How do you think Greece’s rugged mountains affected their civilization?

Greece Geography Continued… D) There are many archipelagos in the Mediterranean Sea Crete is the largest island in Greece Only 20% of land in ancient Greece was suitable for farming. Ancient farmers grew olives (for eating and oil), grapes (for eating and wine) and figs. They also herded sheep (for meat and wool). Fish was and is a main natural resource.

III Minoan Civilization 1750 – 1500 BCE Minoans created a civilization on the island of Crete. Its name is derived from “Minos”, from the myth of the minotaur. The wife of King Minos of Crete fell in love with a bull and gave birth to the minotaur, a monster that ate children. King Minos had Daedalus build a labyrinth to house the monster, which was fed on child slaves from Athens. Theseus, a young Athenian, was sent to Crete to be the Minotaur’s lunch. However, the daughter of King Minos fell in love with him, and gave him string so he could find his way out of the labrynth, after killing the minotaur. Theseus did kill the minotaur, and became a hero. Bones of 4 children from 1450 BCE have cut and scrape marks on them. Is this evidence of child sacrifice that may have inspired the myth of the minotaur?

Minoan Bull Art

Palace at Knossos

Minoan civilization continued… 2. Developed bronze tools and weapons 3. The palace at Knossos was excavated by Sir Arthur Evans. It had plumbing and toilets! 4. The Minoans, as a sea-faring culture, were in contact with foreign peoples throughout the Aegean, as is evidenced by the Near East and Egyptian influences in their early art.

5. Minoans were polytheistic 5. Minoans were polytheistic. They worshipped a snake goddess, as well as bulls.

6. The Minoans developed a written language known as Linear A 6. The Minoans developed a written language known as Linear A. It has not yet been deciphered.

What happened to the Minoans? In 1450 BCE the Minoan civilization was mostly destroyed, possibly due to a tsunami caused by a volcanic eruption on the nearby island of Thira. Some historians believe that the Minoans were the basis for the mythical story of Atlantis, an advanced civilization that sunk under the ocean.

IV Mycenaean Civilization 1600 – 1200 BCE The Mycenaeans conquered the Minoans and mainland Greece, with their capital at Mycenae. Developed Linear B, the first form of the Greek language. Most of what we know about the Mycenaeans comes from Homer’s epic The Iliad and Odyssey. These great works were about the Trojan War, between the Mycenaeans and Troy, a city in Asia Minor.

Linear B

The Lion’s Gate was the entrance to the great city of Mycenae!

The Real City of Troy? “In the Greek poem The Iliad, Prince Paris of Troy steals the gorgeous Helen, of Greece, from her husband, King Menelaus. The act brings the two nations to war, and eventually Greeks led by the warrior Achilles lay siege to Troy. The poet Homer probably wrote the epic in the eighth or ninth century BCE, several hundred years after the war is supposed to have taken place. Much of it is no doubt fantasy... But most scholars agree that Troy itself was a real city, and that the Trojan War indeed happened… In northwestern Turkey, Heinrich Schliemann excavated the site of Hisarlik, believed to be Troy in 1870... The site contains nine cities built on top of each other… Eager to find the legendary treasures of Troy, Schliemann blasted his way down to the second city, where he found what he believed were the jewels that once belonged to Helen. As it turns out, the jewels were a thousand years older than the time described in Homer's epic...” Stefan Lovgren National Geographic 2004

Troy Continued… Heinrich Schliemann

Mycenaean Death Masks These masks were made of gold and were placed on the faces of deceased royals.

V Dark Age of Greece “During the Dark Ages of Greece the old major settlements were abandoned (with the notable exception of Athens), and the population dropped dramatically. Within these 300 years, the people of Greece lived in small groups that moved constantly in accordance with their new pastoral lifestyle and livestock needs, while they left no written record behind leading to the conclusion that they were illiterate. Later in the Dark Ages (950 BCE - 750 BCE), Greeks relearned how to write once again, but this time instead of using the Linear B script used by the Mycenaeans, they adopted the alphabet used by the Phoenicians “innovating in a fundamental way by introducing vowels as letters. The Greek version of the alphabet eventually formed the base of the alphabet used for English today.” (Martin, 43) Life was undoubtedly harsh for the Greeks of the Dark ages. However, notable events from this period include the occurrence of the first Olympics in 776 BCE, and the writing of the Homeric epics the Iliad and the Odyssey.” http://www.ancient-greece.org/history/dark-ages.html

HW: Fill in your chart! Key Vocabulary Acropolis Archipelago Asia Minor Balkan Peninsula Crete Dorians Greek Dark Age Homer Iliad and the Odyssey King Minos Linear A Linear B Mediterranean Sea Minoans Minotaur Murex snails Mycenaean Mycenaean Death Mask Palace at Knossos Peloponnesus Phoenician alphabet Phoenicians Heinrich Schliemann Sea Peoples Semitic Troy