INTRODUCTION TO
ANCIENT GREECE
Geography
• Greece is a small country located in Europe
• Shaped like a hand with fingers that reach into the
Mediterranean Sea
• Greece is a Peninsula (Land that is surrounded by water
on 3 sides)
• Surrounded by the Ionian Sea to the west (left),
Mediterranean Sea to the south and Aegean Sea to the
East
Ancient Greece Map
Ancient Greece Map
Surrounding Bodies of Water
Geography Influence on the Ancient
Greeks
• High Mountains kept ancient Greece communities
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isolated from one another
Very little communication between Greek settlements
(small communities or villages)
Hard to travel by land, but easier to travel by sea
Trade became essential to the development of Greek
City-States
Dangers (Storms, being attacked by pirates, and rocky
shorelines)
Farming
• Most people in ancient Greece farmed despite the
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difficulties (Mountains, no major rivers , and very little rain)
Needed to grow crops that used less land such as grapes
and olives
Produced a lot of Olive Oil for cooking, soap and fuel for
lamps.
Honey, Olive Oil, Wine, and Vegetable Gardens/Fruit
Orchards.
Raised sheep and goats (wool, milk and cheese)
Shortage of Farmland
• Because farmland was so scarce, warfare amongst Greek
settlements was common.
• Had to look elsewhere for food
• Developed colonies (settlements in distant places)
Greek Colonies
Trading
• Ancient Greek
Merchant Ships
• Sailed the
Mediterranean Sea to
help ancient Greece
trade
• Describe an Ancient
Greek Merchant Ship
Early Ancient Greece
Minoan Civilization
• 3000-1400 B.C.E.
• Located on the island of
Crete
• Developed a broad sea
trade network with Egypt,
Greece, Sicily, Turkey
• Wrote on clay tablets
• Civilization ended with the
possible invasion of the
Mycenaeans from mainland
Greece
Mycenaean Civilization
• 1600-1100 B.C.E.
• Mainland Greece
• Gained much of their power
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through trade and conquest.
The Trojan War (10 year siege
against the city of Troy)
Two Epics (Iliad and Odyssey)
by Homer
Poems taught the Greeks what
their gods were like and how the
best of their heroes behaved.
After the Trojan War, Greece
entered the Dark Ages (1100-750
B.C.E.)