Name:
Date:
The Early Greeks
Most of our study of ancient Greece is
focused on what we call the Classical Age. The
Classical Age of Greece is a two hundred year
period that began about 500 years before the
Common Era. During the Classical Age, the
Greek poli combined to defeat the powerful
Persian Empire. The Greeks of the Classical
Age created art, architecture and literature that
have influenced the way we live today. The
Classical Age came centuries after two earlier
civilizations, the Minoans and the
Mycenaeans, flourished and then
vanished, leaving the Greeks in a
period later called the Dark Age
of Ancient Greece.
The Minoan culture
developed on Crete, an island
southeast of the Greek mainland
as early as 2700BCE. The
Minoans were a sea-faring
culture that traded with other cultures that
bordered the Mediterranean Sea. They
developed a system of writing that modern
scholars call Linear A. Although we have more
than 100 examples of Linear A writing, scholars
have not deciphered its meaning, so we know
very little about the Minoans. We do know the
Minoan civilization mysteriously disappeared
about 1450BCE. There is some evidence that the
fall of the Minoans is related to a catastrophic
volcanic eruption.
The Minoans traded with the Mycenaeans,
another trading culture on the Greek mainland
that was known for making bronze weapons
and pottery. The Mycenaeans had a syllabic
script we now call Linear B because there is
evidence that it developed from Minoan writing.
About a millennium before the Common Era,
the Mycenaean culture grew weak and was
conquered by invaders from the north known as
Dorians.
For the next several hundred years, Greece
fell into a period called the Greek Dark Age.
There have been several dark ages in history. A
dark age occurs when a civilization regresses, or
forgets some of the things they know. During
the Greek Dark Age, few people could read and
write.
The Greeks who lived in the
Dark Age could not read the
mysterious writings of the Minoans
and the Mycenaeans, but they did
have many legends handed down by
word of mouth. These stories
became the basis of what the
Greeks later called their Heroic Era.
The Heroic Era was period of great
glory that the Dark Age Greeks believed
preceded their own time.
During the Greek Dark Age, poets called
bards traveled to different poli. The bards told
stories of the Heroic Era in the form of long
poems called epics. People would often pay to
hear the bards describe stories of the distant
past. The bards would sing many of the epic
poems while accompanied by a stringed
instrument called a lyre. The musical epics
were called lyric poetry.
These stories from the Greek Dark Age
formed the basis of many Greek myths. Two
epic poems—the Iliad and the Odyssey—have
had an enormous influence on the history of
Greece and on western literature.
Answer in complete sentences
*1. About when did the Classical Age of ancient Greece begin and end?
*This is a higher order learning question. You must answer the question to the best of your ability, but any reasonable
answer will be graded as correct.
Name:
Date:
Fill in the Blanks
The C__a__s__c__l Age of Ancient Greece lasted from about ______BCE to about ______BCE.
During this period the G__e__ks made great advances in p__i__o__o__hy, drama, and
l__t__r__t__re. But two earlier Greek c__v__l__z__t__o__s flourished and then mysteriously
d__s__p__e__r__d centuries before the Classical Age.
The M__n__a__s developed on the Greek-speaking i__l__nd of Crete. The Minoans developed a
system of w__i__i__g and traded with other cultures for more than a *m__l__e__n__um. The Minoans
*d__s__p__e__r__d from the historical record about 1450BCE, but *archa__o__o__i__ts are not sure
what happened to them. The M__c__n__e__n people lived on the Greek m__i__la__d. The
Mycenaeans eventually grew weak and were c__n__u__r__d by D__ri__n invaders from the n__r__h.
Hundreds of years later, Greek p__e__s were unable to *d__c__ph__r the mysterious
w__i__i__g of the M__n__a__s and the M__c__n__e__ns, but they did know of the many
l__g__n__s that had been handed down by word of m__u__h. These stories developed into the e______
poems of what the later Greeks described as the H__ro__c Era, a time of greatness for the Greek speaking
people of the distant past. Many of the legends were recited by t__a__e__i__g poets called bards. The
bards were often accompanied by a s__r__n__ed instrument called a l______, which is why their
compositions were called lyric poetry.
Answer in complete sentences
*2. How did the Minoans differ from the Mycenaeans?
*3. Why are we not certain what happened to the Minoan civilization?
4. What is a “dark age?”
*5. What might happen to cause a “dark age?”
*6. Why do you think people were willing to pay the bards for their talents?
*This is a higher order learning question. You must answer the question to the best of your ability, but any reasonable
answer will be graded as correct.