1. Early Greek Civilizations

2. Geography
Greece is a peninsula extending from the Balkan Mountains into the Aegean, Ionian, and Mediterranean Sea

3. Minoan Civilization Flourished from 2700 to 1450 B.C.
Found on the island of Crete
Minoans traded often by sea
Traded pottery, gold and silver.
Minoan’s built an elaborate palace at Knossos.

4. End of the Minoan Civilization
famous legend of King Minos who fed young Greeks to a Minotaur (half man half bull) trapped in a labyrinth
civilization devastated volcanic eruption of nearby island

5. Mycenae extended control to Crete, conquered/ borrowed Minoan culture
Mycenaeans (1600–1100B.C.) civilization dominated by warrior culture
Famous King: Agamemnon
extended control to Crete, conquered/ borrowed Minoan culture
In 1250B.C. the Mycenaeans siege(Surrounding a fortified City) the city of Troy
-Trojan Horse Story

6. Dark Age After the fall Mycenaeans greeks spread out across the Aegean
little is known of this time due to lack of recorded history

7. Homer Greek Poet Emerged at the end of the dark age. Wrote epic poems
Illiad: Battle of troy and the warrior Achilles
Odyssey: the struggle of Odysseus to return home after the battle.

8. Out of the Dark Age
Out of the Greek “Dark Ages” a collection of city-states rose In Greece.
polis – Greek City state
Polis’s ruled by the people  citizens
-citizenship open to all adult men
women and slaves were excluded