Ancient World History
From a Global Perspective
  • Introduction
    • Foundations
    • Human Ecology
  • Late Pleistocene
    • Map Exercise
    • Global Migration
  • Early Holocene
    • Domestication
  • Middle Holocene
    • Complex Society
    • Bronze Age Collapse
  • Late Holocene
    • Greece-Persia >
      • Persia
      • Greece
      • Hellenistic
    • Han China-Imperial Rome >
      • Qin/Han China
      • Imperial Rome

Ancient Greece

Learning Objective: What aspects of Greek culture united and divided them? 

Subtopics 
  • Geography
  • Government
  • Cities
  • Religion
  • Views and Treatment of Foreigners 

Geography

Ancient Greece Map Exercise 

Use the following blank map of Greece [Original Source: http://d-maps.com/pays.php?num_pay=196&lang=en].  It needs to be enlarged to at least half poster size.  The final product needs to be colored as a physical map.

Physical Landscape

  • The Aegean Sea                                                          
  • The Mediterranean Sea
  • The Ionian Sea                                                            
  • Black Sea
  • The Peloponnese                                                       
  • Mount Olympus
  • Balkan Peninsula                                                        
  • Asia Minor

Human Landscape

  • Athens (polis)                                                            
  • Corinth (polis)
  • Sparta (polis)                                                              
  • Thebes (polis)
  • Delphi (religious)                                                       
  • Mount Olympus (religious)
  • Rhodes (trade partners)                                              
  • Crete (trade partners) 
  • Macedonia                                    
  • Marathon (battle)                                                       
  • Salamis (battle)
  • Thermopylae (battle)                                                 
  • Persian Empire 

Evaluation 

Map Rubric
Picture

Greek Poleis 

Picture

Greek Colonies 

Picture
Image Sources: Wikipedia / Wikipedia 

Geography Discussion Questions

  • What three ‘continents’ does the Mediterranean Sea unite? 
  • List the advantages and disadvantages of traveling by sea.  

Government

Each polis created its own form of government; however, strong states such as oligarchic Sparta and democratic Athens were able to influence their neighbors.   Eventually, these states came into conflict during the Peloponnesian War.  

Peloponnesian League led by Sparta

•More Oligarchic
•Agricultural economy
•Land-based
•Besieged Delian cities by land

Delian League led by Athens

•More Democratic
•Trade-based economy
•Sea-based 
•Blockaded Peloponnesian ports by sea
Picture
Image Source: Peloponnesian War

Cities: Greek Poleis 

  • Khan Academy: The Greek Polis
  • The Emergence of the Greek Polis

Discussion Questions
  • What is a Greek Polis?
  • What are its main features?
  • How and why did it develop?
  • What factors caused it to develop the way it did?
  • How and why did it spread?
To the Greeks, the Polis was the heart of social and cultural life.  Occasionally, Greeks were united by feelings of Panhellenism (being sons and daughters of Helen of Troy), but for the most part, their loyalties were to their individual cities.

Below are pictures of the many of the common elements of a polis.  After researching about each element, write a two sentence caption for each picture explaining how these elements united the citizens living in the city.

-OR-

Create a 1-page journal entry (Diary)–of your day in a polis.  Visit all of the main places, and tell what you would be doing in each section: acropolis, Agora, Theater, Gymnasium, Bath House, Harbor/Port, House (Underline these terms). 

Acropolis 

Acropolis of Athens.  Image source: Wikipeida
Picture

Agora 




Picture

Gymnasium

Technically, this images is Roman (from Pompeii), but this type of facility would have been common in a Greek polis.   

Image Source: Wikipedia
Picture

Theater 

Miletus Theater

Image Source: Wikipedia
Picture
Daily Life
  • BBC: Ancient Greeks Home Life
  • BBC Bitesize 
  • British Museum: Greek Daily Life
Daily Life
  • Daily Life in Ancient Greece
  • Mr. Donn: Daily Life in Ancient Greece
Greeks: The Crucible of Civilization, part I

Greek Religion

The Greeks believed in a Pantheon of war-like gods and goddesses that lived on Mount Olympus.

Like Frogs Around a Pond: The Role of Maritime Religion in Ancient Greek Culture and Identity

Greek Views and Treatment of Foreigners 

Greeks had a high level of distrust of anyone that did not come from their polis.  However, in times of stress, the Greeks would unite based on sense of shared Greek cultural identity (language, religion, literature, etc.).  The Greeks develop strong negative views of non-Greek speakers.  They made fun of the sounds they would make by repeating 'bar. . . bar. . . bar' and eventually this became the source of the work barbarian.  

Naturally, this hostility was extended towards the Persians, and an a clash between these neighbors became inevitable.  
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