Day 12

Today in class we had to start studying for our test Friday. Some of the thing I studied were, Greece is a mountainous peninsula, mountains cover three-quarters of Greece. Approximately 2000 islands in the Ionian and Aegean Seas. This combination shaped Greece’s culture. They had many skilled sailors and shipbuilders, also farmers, metalworkers, weavers, potters. They had poor / limited natural resources, so they needed to trade. It was difficult to unite the ancient Greeks because of the terrain. They developed small, independent communities (city-states), that’s who they were loyal to. Greek diet consists of grains, grapes, olives & fish. Mycenae is located on a rocky ridge on Peloponnesus,  protected by a 20-foot thick wall. Mycenaean kings dominated Greece from 1600-1100 BCE, controlled trade in the region. 1400 BCE-  Mycenaeans invaded Crete and absorbed Minoan culture (writing system, language, art, politics, literature, religion). round 1200 BCE the mysterious “sea people” began to invade Mycenae, and burnt palace after palace. The Dorians moved into this war-torn region, dominating from 1150 - 750 BCE, Dorians were far less advanced, the trade-based economy collapsed, writing disappeared for 400 years.