February 21, 2014

-Barbarians are people that has a distinctive way of life, based on farming and warfare

-"Within classical Greek civilization, there appeared ideas, art forms, and types of government whose influence on western civilization has lasted down to the present day."

-The earliest Greek civilization was very much an offshoot of the ways of life of their eastern neighbors

-Citadel and Shrine: the Athenian Acropolis was already ancient when its temples were rebuilt after Persian invaders destroyed them in the 5th century

-Barbarian A-team used to describe the distinctive way of life based on farming, warfare, and tribal organization that became widespread in Europe based around 2500 BC

-Megaliths: massive rough-cut stones used to construct monuments and tombs

-Tribe: a social and political unit consisting  of a group of communities held together by common interests, traditions, and real or mythical ties of kinship

-Over three thousand years up to the time of the Persian Empire, civilization had spread from its Sumerian and Egyptian homelands right across southwestern Asia and northeastern Africa

Mr. Schick's Notes

Why the Greeks rocked:

• New ideas
• Incredible art forms
• Democratic government w/ citizen participation
• Innovators in warfare

Lo1 - The European Barbarians

• 4000 BC - farming and village life spreads from Sumerian and Egyptian lands across SW Asia and NE Africa, and the European continent

• 3500 BC - some are organized enough to construct megaliths, massive rough-cut stones used to construct monuments and tombs, such as Stonehenge (finished in England in 2000 BC), consisting of 160 massive boulders weighing up to 50 tons (100,000 pounds) each, stacked and circled and aligned to the movements of sun and moon

• From 2500 BC on - Indo-European nomads migrated from the steppes in eastern Europe

• Their language would evolve into Greek and Latin
• Their lives centered around strength and courage, comradeship and loyalty, contests and battle
• Thinner populations than Egypt or Mesopotamia - they formed tribes, social and political unit consisting of communities held together by common interests, traditions, and real or mythical ties of kinship
• Tribes were headed by powerful hereditary chieftains, thought of as kings (or, rarely queens)

• This is how Europe came to be populated by speakers of Indo- European languages who were skilled in farming, metalworking, trade, and warfare
• No cities, no written records, no fixed structures of government
• They were barbarians (from Greek barbaros - "non-Greek"
• They adopted the way of life of those they encountered, and as they traveled (from 2000 BC to AD 1000), this is how civilization eventually spread throughout Europe
• The distinctive civilization the Greeks developed is the first that counts as definitely "Western"

 

 

Slideshow Notes

 

Geography of Greece

• Mountainous peninsula
• Mountains cover 3/4
• Approximately 1,400 islands in the Aegean and Ionian Seas
• Location shaped its culture
• Skilled sailors
• Poor natural resources
• Difficult to unite the ancient Greeks because of the terrain; developed small, independent communities

 

Geography (cont.)

 

• Approximately 20% suitable for farming
• Fertile valleys cover 1/4 of peninsula
• Because of geography the Greek diet consists of grains, grapes, olives
• Lack of resources most likely led to Greek colonization
• Temperatures range from 48 in the winter to 80 in the summer