The First European Civilization: The Greeks Chapter 3 & Why the Greeks Rocked

• Barbarians are people that had a distinctive way of life, based on farming and warfare
• Greeks invented Democracy
• Citadel and Shrine: the Athenian Acropolis was already ancient when its temples were rebuilt after Persian invaders destroyed
• Over 3 thousand yrs. up to the time of the Persian Empire, civilization had spread from its Sumerian and Egyptian homelands right across southwestern Asia and northeastern Africa
• Even before the historic encounter, the way of life of the peoples of Europe had undergone many changes and advances
• Tribe: people held together by there way of life, clothes they wore, what they liked to do, what they ate, religion, etc.
• Stonehenge: the most famous megalithic structures was built by a farming and trading people in the west of England

Why the Greeks rocked:

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

LO1- The Europeans Barbarians

• 4000BC- farming and village life spreads from Sumerian and Egyptian lands across SW Asia and NE Africa, and the European continent
• 3500BC- some are organized enough to construct megaliths, massive rough-cut stones used to construct monuments and tombs, such as Stonehenge (finished in England in 2000BC), consisting 160 massive boulders weighing up to 50 tons (100,000lbs) each, stacked in circled and aligned to the movements of sun and moon
• From 2500BC 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 interest, traditions, and real or mythical ties of kinship
• Tribes were headed by powerful hereditary chieftains, thought of as kinds (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"

Geography of Greece

• Mountainous peninsula
• Mountains cover 3/4
• Approximately 1,400 islands in the Aegean and lonian Seas
• Location shaped its culture
• Skilled sailors
• Poor natural resources
• Difficult to unite the ancient Greeks because of the terrain; developed small, independent communities
• Approximately 20% suitable for farming
• Fertile valleys cover 1/4 of peninsula
• Because of geography the Greek diet consists of grains, grapes, olives
• Lacks of resources most likely led to Greek colonization
• Temperatures range from 48 in the winter to 80 in the summer