These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute. CLASSICS 100 1nd Edition 1nd EditionThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute. CLASSICS 100 1nd Edition 1nd Edition Lecture 15: Evolution of the Alphabet in Greece Outline of Last Lecture I. Monday's Exam (10/6) II. Destruction in Greece from 1200 B.C. to 1100 B.C. III. A Second Dark Age IV. 700 B.C.: The end of the Dark Ages V. The Exception VI. Athens: The Dream and Nightmare of Archeologists VII. Ceramicus VIII. Prosperity in Athens IX. Images Outline of Current Lecture I. Review: Dark Age II. 700 B.C. III. Art and Literature IV. Polis V. Temples VI. The “Greek Mentality” VII. Colonization VIII. Trade with the Near East IX. Who can read and write? X. The Formation and Transformation of the Greek alphabet XI. The Alphabet: A HistoryCurrent Lecture4 I. Review: Dark AgesA. At 1000 B.C., everything in Greek society disappears. There is no writing, art, or architecture and civilization is not making any advances. In fact, they seem so be going backwards. II. 700 B.C. A. At 700 B.C., archeologists have found everything that was once gone before, but in a more sudden way and everything that they find is better than how it once was. There is no “evolution” of sorts at all; everything just suddenly shows up out of the blue. New and improved. B. From 700 B.C. onward, we find many things in Greek society that had been lost during the dark ages. Archeologists discovered writing, Polis, Temples, Art and Literature, the “Greek Mentality,” renewed relations with the Near East, and colonization. III. Art and Literature A. During the Dark Ages, art had completely disappeared and literature did not even exist before 700 B.C. However, at 700 B.C., archeologists find both. With the new Greek Alphabet known by all, people are free to create and write down stories. 700 B.C. was the birth of literature. IV. Polis A. Polis are the name for Greek city states. Before 700 B.C., Greece had only been made up of small civilizations, but now people were involved in their own city states. Throughout Greece, there were about 700 (or more) Polis. B. Nobody is sure of how this happened, but it did cause the populations to unify and become a group. One theory is that the population grew and caused the need for organization. V. Temples A. There were magnificent and new temples discovered right after the dark ages. They were modernizations of some of the older, less impressive buildings. Architecture began anew when the Dark Ages came to an end. B. Delphi, a place of worship, was a very important place in ancient Greece. Here, people could present offerings and also check in with priestesses and oracles that could communicate with Apollo.6 VI. The “Greek Mentality” A. The “Greek Mentality” is a way of thinking that involves seeing something and making it in your own by improving it for everyone. B. Along with the Greek Mentality came the Greek philosophers we know of today. People were more educated during this time and so they had the ability to think leisurely and for pleasure. C. An example of Greek Mentality would be the Greek Alphabet, which will be discussed later in the lecture. VII. Colonization A. The colonization of other areas outside of Greece begins to happen after the Dark Ages end as well. Farther away, what today is Sicily and Italy had been colonized in earlier times by the Greeks. VIII. Trading with the Near East A. By 1000's, there were no more luxury items to be found in Greece. The graves of old had been plundered and there wasn't anything left to go around because all trade had halted. B. In 700 B.C., trade with the Near East resumes. Other civilizations bring their goods to trade with Greece, though today we aren't exactly sure what was sought out from Greece. It could have been wool, or other various items. Whatever it was, merchants from the Near East were bringing luxury items and gold to trade for it. C. A second thing the merchants from other lands brought with them were their writing systems. IX. Who can read at write? A. In Egypt, people are still using hieroglyphs to record their stories, however, the meaning of this word is “sacred script,” meaning that only priests knew how to write. There were a few others, such as nobility, but no one of a lesser status could read or write. B. The Phoenicians were also able to read and write. These peoples were using a syllabic alphabet (much like Linear A or B) and used it in the same fashion that the Mycenaeans used Linear B, to record business transactions and wealth. X. The formation and transformation of the Greek alphabetA. By 600 B.C., the Greeks have become aggressive with trade and need new items and strategies. The Phoenicians were using a syllabic alphabet to record their trade and items. The Greeks noticed this and adopted it as their own, changing it as they went (the “Greek Mentality”). B. The Greeks ended up taking a handful of symbols from the Phoenicians and changing them to fit their own. Also, when doing this, they only used a fourth of the symbols that the Phoenicians did because the Greeks broke up the syllables into consonants and vowels, meaning that an alphabet could be made (26 – 30 characters). C. This alphabet was much easier for everyone to learn and soon it was mandated that everyone in society knew these letters and could read and write the Greek language. D. Public schools taught children how to use this alphabet and the students would write on wooden tablets covered in wax. These tablets were considered a luxury item because wood is not in abundance in Greece. Yet, everyone could still read and write. E. There were “border stones” marking the beginnings and ends of territories, streets, shops, etc that people were expected to know how to read. There were also information boards. F. One thing about the Greek alphabet was that though it was easier to read, learn, and understand than a lot of languages from other areas, it was not without it's difficulties. There was no punctuation in use at the time and there was no distinction between letters (ex: capital and lowercase that we have today). Also, writing was often right to left and