Hittites o Anatolia asia minor modern Turkey o Hattushas o 1475 1200 BC Hittite Empire I Discovery of New Civilizations A Homer and Schliemann B Minoan Civilization C Mycenaean Civilization II Time of Turmoil Archaic Greece I Dark Ages 1000 750 BC II Archaic Age 750 550 BC A Characteristics B Poets and Pre Socrates Ancient Greek Civilization Homer o Greek poet who lived between 750 650 BC o Most famous for his long scale poems Iliad and The Odyssey Iliad The Odyssey Poem about the Trojan War that lasted ten years It starts in year nine of the war Heinrich Schliemann About Odysseus and his journey home o German man born in 1822 o His father had a drinking problem so he had to quit school and work o Around 1850 he goes to California to supply the gold miners Makes a fortune selling to these men o Goes to Greece because he wants to find the city of Troy Most people at this time thought Troy was a fantasy place o Hires workers to help him find Troy They find a small city ringed with massive walls Starts to find evidence that he believes shows the city was destroyed by a fire One day he can t sleep so he digs on his own He finds lots of gold and sends out a press release o After he finds Troy he wants to find the city of Mycenae Finds a small city with a big wall around it Starts digging and he locates nineteen graves They had grave goods o Swords decorated with scenes of fighting People were buried with death masks Important people buried with gold death masks Golden crown Finds gold Sword covered with gold that told a hunting story Gold bull o All of the evidence he finds shows that Homer was probably telling a story that had been passed down for years There were 500 years between Homer and these ancient civilizations Sir Arthur Evans o Professor from Oxford University o Decides to have an expedition to island of Crete Goes to Knossos in the center of the island and starts digging Discovers Minoan society o Finds a massive palace with underground chambers that held wine and olive oil o Evidence that the people in the palace were traders o The palace was colored elaborately Lots of scenes with images of bulls o Finds thousands of clay tablets with writing Not in cuneiform Writing falls into two distinct styles Linear A Linear B o Much older than B o Switch to B around 1450 BC Carl Blegen Alice Kober Michael Ventris o American digging in a city called Pylos on the Peloponnesus Finds tablets only written in Linear B o American who was also trying to decipher the writing styles o Teenager who used the same technique scholars used to break Nazi codes to decipher Linear B o Gets Kober s files when she dies and works out guesses for syllables o Discovered that the Mycenaeans spoke a form of ancient Greek Minoan civilization o Began in 2600 BC o Mostly confined in Crete o It was centered around large palace complex at Knossos Underneath the palace was storerooms Filled with wine and olive oil o Linear A appears in 200 BC o Production and trade in wine and olive oil Where their wealth came from o Linear B supplants Linear A in 1450 BC o Ended by 1370 BC Possibly because the Mycenaens came in and took over the trade routes Mycenaean civilization o Began in 1500 BC o High period was between 1400 1200 BC o A Greek speaking people o Evidence of their civilization throughout the Aegean o Their cities looked similar Small walled cities o Buried their dead with grave goods o Warfare was a big part of their militaristic society o Each city was independent with its own king o Trade in wine and olive oil Might have learned this from the Minoans and taken over o Use of Linear B Borrowed this writing style from Minoans but adapted it to their Greek language o Ended by 1100 BC Time of turmoil between 1200 1000 BC o Dorians Theories They were Northern Greek speakers who caused the collapse of the Mycenaeans They may have been living below the Mycenaeans and had an uprising Warfare o Greeks begin moving all over the place to escape war Evidence of them in Asia Minor o Sea people The Greek Dark Ages 1000 750 BC o End of long distance trade o Depopulation Instead of living in cities they live in small villages No more cities surrounded by huge walls o Farming changes No longer farming grapes and olives o Writing is lost o Depressed economy Archaic Age 750 550 BC o Colonies were right on the coast They were part of a trade network o Literacy comes back Phoenician alphabet Phoenicians were a Semitic people that lived in modern day Lebanon and parts of Syria Greeks were not Semitic they were Indo European o They borrowed the Phoenician alphabet o Increase in population o Rebirth of cities o More complex agriculture Grapes and olives come back This is a sign that trade was coming back o Athens is the only city from the Mycenaean era that survives into the Archaic Age It s located on a peninsula with water on three sides One of the most important cities in the form of trade o The Oracle at Delphi Located up in the mountains in a volcanic region Becomes the location of a pilgrimage site Greeks believed the gods interacted with humans One way the gods spoke to people was through an oracle It was an oracle of the god Apollo Considered very powerful and accurate You would ask the priestesses a question and they would go in a trance and answer with the words of Apollo People would go to the oracle with gifts and presents o Olympic games Celebration of Zeus celebrated every 4 years Competed in athletic and academics Began in 776 BC People kept track of the date using the Olympic games They were performed in the nude by males only Society was gender segregated o Slow economic revival o Beginning of coinage Wine and olive oil trade comes back Conducting trade not as barter but with standard coin Each city state developed its own coin Some were more respected than others o Greek colonization Increase in trade goes hand in hand with colonization The colonies were independent of the mother colony o They had their own leaders but kept connections in terms of trading religion and culture In many areas there were tensions between the native people and colonists o Sappho Female lyric poet Lyric poems were more like songs A lot of her writing had to do with love Her poetry weaves in the stories of the gods Greeks believed they inhabited a world where the divine was all around them and had interactions with them From the island of Lesbos Frequently referred to a group of sisters in her poems People believe she lived with a