Snowy tuesdays

Geography of Greece

• Mountainous peninsula
• mountains cover 3/4
• Approximately 1,400 islands inn the Aegean and Ionian seas
• location shaped its culture
• skilled sailors
• poor natural resources
• Difficult to unite the ancient Greeks b/c of the terrain; developed small, independent communities
• Geography (continued)
• Approximately 20% suitable for farming
• Fertile valleys cover 1/4 of peninsula
• b/c of geography the Greek did consists of grains, grapes, olives, and big trees
• Lack resources most likely led to Greek colonization
• Temperatures range from 48 in the winter to 80 in the summer
• used big trees to get wood to build ships b/c they could
• Mycenaean's
• Began around 2000 BC
• Mycenae is located on a rocky ridge and protected by a 20ft wall around their city
• Mycenaean kings dominated Greece from 1600-1200 BC
• controlled trade in the region
• 1400 BC Mycenaean's invaded Crete and absorbed Minoan culture and language 
• Culture in decline
• around 1200 BC sea people began to invade Mycenae and burnt palace after palace
• The Dorian's moved into the war torn region
• Far less advanced -Economy collapsed -Writing disappeared for 400 years
• DARK AGES
• Homer and myths
• Stories were passes on by word of mouth
• homer lived at the end of the "Greeks Dark Ages"
• recorded stories of the Trojan war in The lliad and The Odyssey (written 750-700 BC)
• Trojan war was probably one of the lasts conquests of the Mycenaean's
• Odyssey was 12,110 lines of dactylic bexameter