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HIS2101 Notes

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HIS2101 (HIS2101)

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University Of Ottawa (U Of O )

Master the Foundations of Ancient Greece with HIS2101! Struggling to grasp the intricate beginnings of Greek civilization? Get ahead with my expertly curated lecture notes for HIS2101 – taught by Professor John Serrati at uOttawa! Engaging & Insightful: Clear explanations that break down th...

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Uploaded on March 25, 2025
Number of pages 71
Written in 2024/2025
Type Class notes
Professor(s) John serrati
Contains All classes

greece
mycenea
history
classics
ancient
archaic
athens
sparta
persia
persian war
war
gender
sexuality
thebes
corinth
athenian
greek

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evidence starts to pickup in 700s dosent become more plentiful in 400s mostly reconstructing
from archeolofgy and people recounting the distant past arche only supplies approximations
Homer wrote the illiad and the odyssey recorded around 535 lots of myths but not history really
sedentary agriculture (farming or fishing) 3000 bc beginnings of urbanisation greek bronze age
starts around 3000 first settlements specializing of labor fortifications - primitive warfare, armor
finds go up so we can reconstruct more making more things around then bronze - has to be
smelted - degree of technology minoans 3300 to 1400 myceneans 2000 to 1050 theorized to
have violently migrated into the greek peninsula systems collapse did not affect crete minoans
build the first proto urban structure trade econonomy - other greeks and the near east - later
italy myceneans - first greeks - proto indo european Heavily influenced by the minoans but their
settlements are pretty small not quite cities but are fortresses which is a point of difference from
the minoans significantly more warlike maybe this is not necessarily outsiders but each other
not surprising greek city states suffers from lack of arable land particularly in southern greece
likely the warfare is the result of a lack of environmental resources iconography, grave goods
seem to value warfare masculinity and with leadership, elites seen in the illiad story
concentrates on elites justifiy their position in the social hierarchy through warfare reason most
people know the myceneans is because of what happened during their decline sea peoples,
phylistines, trojan war Mycenaen Decline 1300-1050 by this time they have a decline probably
because of a greater amount of warfare destroying each other what can we take from the illiad
seems to match up to a certain extent with the archeology focus on the elites archeology seems
to reflect the society greeks dated the trojan war to 1275-1150 various greeks looking at pre
history illiad becomes the binding story for the greeks common narrative greek origin story prism
greek society influences the way characters are portrayed but also vice versa menelaos and
helen return to sparta attributed to homer whether he existed or not doubtful that it was one guy
language of the myths, vocabulary used gives us a date between 800 and 675 oral culture many
versions of the illiad and the odyssey one athenian guy takes a whole bunch of versions and
writes them down but even evidence in egypt thats written down has different versions troy is
called illion we know the titles of eleven other books one leading up to the war and ten others
are odysseys of the other characters zero proof that any of them existed outside literature trojan
war exists in various parts in the near east with the epic of gilgamesh siege of troy has similar
elements to the siege of jericho troy exists we found it existed between about 3000 and 1100
troy is a maze of superimposed ruins really badly excavated fortified from 2500 onward
expected to be attacked controls the entrance to the black sea alot of grain growing there even
in the ancient world trojans control that one of the reasons for fortification taxed ships going
through there war represents a Mycenean decline attacked on every side, attacking each other
crop failure, disease combination of natural and political factors entire eastern mediteranean
was going through a systems collapse very violent three centuries greeks are probably trying to
get out violently troy has nine layers seven could be relevant to the war troy 2 is destroyed,
could have been fire or couldve been war way too early for the trojan war troy 6 is the city at its
wealthiest most luxury goods, largest store rooms, tombs etc all from this period trojan war
comes with troy 7 systems collapse everywhere, no longer as wealthy 1100 meets its end and is
abandoned in the years just before that next to no luxury goods coming into the city seems to be
starvation could be a lengthy siege destruction layer of troy 7, no real evidence of war, no

,weapons, no arrowheads, no collapsed walls standard narrative is there isnt much evidence for
the war but if there was it was troy 7 recent years claim that it was troy 6 which was the troy of
the trojan war troy 6 was destroyed by greeks use and abuse of archeology for nationalistic
purposes last decade archeology has become nationalistic and turkey is one of them certain
turkish archeologists claim that they came from anatolia new idea of troy 6 is natives being
attacked by colonisers if they say we’re related to the native people of asia minor you can make
a land claim troy dosent appear to be Hittite* seems to be under the domination of the hittites
trojans seem more likely to be hittites despite whats said in the illiad sea peoples attack egypt
major migration symbol of mycenean decline in 1275 we know these people called the sea
peoples by the egyptians most people believe that if they werent entirely mycenean greeks than
were largely so for a good century before they were driven out by ramses 3 myceneans are
escaping the destruction in greece some when they retreat from egypt violently migrate again to
modern gaza phillistines of the bible, almost certain goliath was probably a mycenean greek
them escaping the systems collapse everything is collapsing, not as luxurious across the
mediteranean either as a cause, effect or both is that even a violent migration from northern
greece the dorians go from the balkan peninsula through greece and the big difference with
them is the iron the dorians have iron and weapons, armor made of it come in large numbers
and better technology migration not invasion speak a language close to greek proto
indoeuropean over 175 years violenelty migrate into the greek peninsula and destroy whats left
of the mycenean civilization some scholars claim that the dorians never existed invented post
facto to explain the destruction of the time some claim an earlier migration conflict between
athens and sparta much later spartans self identify as dorians is this a post facto thing or is it
true binary to the non dorian identifying athenians potential false pedigree athenians at this point
are self identifying as the ionians and spartans could be identifying as the dorians in response to
that alot of war no matter what alot of people on the move, destruction crop failures elements of
climate change potentially potentially a part very different greece after 1050 some settlements
are left athens, pylos, myenae, sparta then called menelaion very first traces of the poleis its a
dark age in the sense that society is reduced in size, far fewer people, not trading, clan
warlords, smaller, less advanced society very little trade either in nor out in the peninsula, the
minoans are not rhe ancestors to the later greeks but they are the first literate and advanced
people in greece heavily influence the people around them passed on alot of skill, agriculture,
pottery some of these skills will be rediscovered in the 8th century to help the greeks emerge
from the dark age minoans brought alot of technology from the older more advanced societies in
the near east overlapping but slightly later we get the myceneans would not have reached their
zenith that they did without the minoans destruction in the last 3 centuries of the 2nd millenium
population decline etc theyre the ancestors to the greeks first people speaking and writing
greek, with minoan script some of their settlements did survive people like the athenians
myceneans palace on the acropolis hill athenians knew this intentionally left parts of it exposed,
old walls to say we’re related to those people used the ancient people to make the claim on the
contemporary land and to rule it dorians myceneans etc are used later for land claims king
minos, thesseus greatest indirect influence that these people had were the settings of the greek
myths greek men tried to emulate the manhood these people had also what femininity should be
these places remain diminished in size and stature but remain the administrative and economic

,structures of their areas foundation for the later greeks in about the 700s expand into small
towns foundations of the cities of archaic and golden age greece, the poleis

homer and the dark age 1050-776 greece went backwards alot of technology was lost
population radically decreases little in the way of wealth or trade life expectancy is low dark not
only for the people very few remains for us to reconstruct from sub-myceneans 1050-1000
proto-geometric 1000-900 geometric period 900-776 these are based on pottery it is a fact that
the dark age saw a huge slide backward in technology, population, writing dark age is important
as the foundation of what was later archaic and classical greece society took a shift away from
the larger kingdoms to smaller hamlets which will become the city states these emerge in the
early 700s at the same time the illiad is starting to crystalize epic cycle of thirteen works detailed
the adventures of many of the great warriors and kings only the odyssey and illiad survive
composed by homer also wrote 33 hyms to the gods modern research into oral cultures have
revealed that storytellers have amazing memories also take universal themes, love hate war
revenge etc and weave them into a story most epics have these large themes in them epic is
set in the past greeks seem to have believed that homer existed and maybe he did at most he
probably took a series of old poems and put them into a greek context earliest examples of
greek and European literature wildly populat come to define greek concepts of man and
womanhood friendship birth of the gods relationships between individuals and groups and the
gods not just odysseus that wanders lots of wanderers hessiod is another early dark age poet
theogony is the birth of the gods what this does is they give the greeks their view of history for
the greeks everything they do they compare themselves to the characters in the trojan war to
what came before the past means everything to the greeks dorian migrations migrate violently
into the greek peninsula between 1175 and 1000 stronger iron weapons and destroyed what
was there before gradually intermarried with the survivors alot of destruction in the period
society regressed to levels of poverty and subsistence agriculture which hadnt been seen for
about a thousan years small number survived but greatly reduced athens is going to rise again
become much larger than it was sparta is going to become a bit larger than it was pylos and
mycenae will be places but tiny ones sparta is actually not sparta at the time its three km away
they called the older place menelaion travel and long distance trade were largely gone
communication between areas ceased settlements became isolated from one another small
dark age settlments, nichoria, south west of greece its grealty reduced in size architecturally
less advanced their figurines are not nearly as ornate finely carved as before decline in skill in
terms of making the little religious figurines difficult to speak of anything like a state or
government communities are dominated by private individuals at the heads of large familial
units or clans several families united warriors who led private armies about fifty guys this
confirms what we know about most societies at this stage around the world most societies at
their early stages are dominated by clans rely on this small army for protection, raiding, steal,
plunder, to be protected against people doing that to you there is fighting on a low level society
is controlled by clans with retainers early indigenous north, central americas, polynesia also
confirms what Thucydides says about the earlier times raiding was not shamed but instead
somewhat glorified walls dont exist really in the dark age earthen walls but nothing made of
stone earliest poetry is about stuff like this early poleis city state is not perfect translation
because its the urban center and the farm land formed by war ruled over by the heads of larger

, clans these are called a basileus meaning king, later alex is called a basileus so is the king of
persia now its not king its more like clan leader, athens had six basileoi men serving under him
are his therapontes therapon is singular but rarely appears as such almost always a group of
armed retainers essentially warlords many of the basileoi arent fixed in one place if things dont
go well they leave alot probably armed and equiped his therapontes plundering expedition,
sometimes capture and rule over them most conflicts arent really wars mostly small quick
conflicts with almost no lasting political change head of a clan would try and install himself as
leader in another community miltiades the elder uncle of the guy who wins the battle of
marathon active in the mid sixth century clearly a basileus who had a private navy and army
marauding and goes and conquers a part of northern greece basic definition of a state is when
you have an entity which controls internal and external violence this has not yet formed because
this guy is able to jsut leave private armies still exist states have very little means of coercing
armies to do anything sparta seems to operate with private armies between 800 and 657
gradually conquer the area around sparta called lakonia also the area to the west of sparta
called messenia in order to hold onto this area they develop the first state army only exception
is the growing hegemony able to do this because theyre protected by two mountain ranges
beside sparta making migrations very hard lots of natural ressources if any of these places can
be self sufficient it would be sparta important to secure as many natural ressources as you could
certainly a reason as to why early people fought fragments of early poetry speak about this
things are beginning to change because of the phoenicians modern day lebanon mercantile
people in order to make bronze you need tin which they export exploring further and further first
people from the mediteranean to circumnavigate africa, they see britain and probably
scandinavia on their way back they stop beyond subsistance farming and into labor specializiton
somewhat not on a large scale more people, more land, bigger urban centers more for the
warbands to protect more lands brought under cultivation more to raid at the same time people
banding together settlements are growing once they reach a certain size, they meet and join
synoecism communities come together for common defense alot of this in the 800s several
clans and warlords would come together into one settlement still fighters come to form early
socities and aristocracies war still happened but we start getting a few more walls marauding is
becoming more difficult, still happens becoming more like aristocrats than warlords power
comes from the farmland called the chora these settlements have earliest aristocracies no such
thing as a state or state army even in sparta several warlords who are now living in one place
together for the purpose of power sharing agreements early aristocratic councils oligarchical
nichoria had one large foritifed dwelling in the middle seat of a single clan warlord more
communication between the greeks based on religion start talking and trading with each other
largely seems to center around religion greeks are starting to build permanent temples first
temple around 800 temple of hera at samos different aspects across geographic locations hera
has the oldest temple where the greeks come together and build permanent temples 776 is the
first olympics according to the later greeks olympia was an important religious shrine for the
mycenaens so maybe not the first olympics shrines to hera and zeus were erected many of the
greeks come every four years and compete in events very small and the religion is more
important always very heavy religious function but the athletic events take on more prominence
dark age is often looked on as backwards, sandwiched between the mycenaens and the
classical greeks which is not fair dark age laid the foundation for the later city states of the polis

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