The Genius of the Ancient Greeks

The Genius of the Ancient Greeks — page 1
the Ancient Greeks Who The first great Greek civilizations were the Minoans who lived on the island of Crete from 3000 to 1450 b c e and the Mycenaeans who lived on mainland Greece from 1650 to 1100 b c e After the Mycenaeans Greece entered a 300-year period known as the Dark Ages No one is sure why but the Greeks of the Dark Ages stopped writing creating detailed artworks and building large settlements Bulls were very important in Minoan culture This stone carving was found in a palace in Knossos Crete Around 800 b c e small villages began to grow into cities Each city became a separate city state controlled by its own ruler This is partly because Greece’s geography of islands and mountains physically separated different areas so they developed independently During this time known as the Archaic period a more advanced civilization started to return to Greece This map shows some of the important places and city states in ancient Greece There were over 1,000 city states across the Greek world 4