Made In History | Ancient Greece (The Minoans and Mycenaeans) BEGINNINGS Ep. 5 @MadeInHistory | Uploaded January 2022 | Updated October 2024, 4 hours ago.
Ancient Greece focuses on the time before Classical Greece, from the Minoans of Crete and the Minotaur myth, to the Mycenaeans and the Bronze Age Collapse.
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings were from c. 3500 BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000 BC, and then declining from c. 1450 BC until it ended around 1100 BC, during the early Greek Dark Ages. It represents the first advanced civilization in Europe, leaving behind a number of massive building complexes, sophisticated art, and writing systems. Its economy benefited from a network of trade around much of the Mediterranean.
The civilization was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans. The name "Minoan" derives from the mythical King Minos and was coined by Evans, who identified the site at Knossos with the labyrinth of the Minotaur.
The Minoans primarily wrote in the Linear A script and also in Cretan hieroglyphs, encoding a language hypothetically labelled Minoan. The reasons for the slow decline of the Minoan civilization, beginning around 1550 BC, are unclear; theories include Mycenaean invasions from mainland Greece and the major volcanic eruption of Santorini.
Mycenaean Greece was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1750 to 1050 BC. It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainland Greece with its palatial states, urban organization, works of art, and writing system. The Mycenaeans were autochthonous Greeks who were likely stimulated by their contact with Minoan Crete and other Mediterranean cultures to develop a more sophisticated sociopolitical culture of their own. The most prominent site was Mycenae, after which the culture of this era is named. Other centers of power that emerged included Pylos, Tiryns, Midea in the Peloponnese, Orchomenos, Thebes, Athens in Central Greece and Iolcos in Thessaly. Mycenaean and Mycenaean-influenced settlements also appeared in Epirus, Macedonia, on islands in the Aegean Sea, on the south-west coast of Asia Minor, the Levant, Cyprus, and Italy.
The Mycenaean Greeks introduced several innovations in the fields of engineering, architecture and military infrastructure, while trade over vast areas of the Mediterranean was essential for the Mycenaean economy. Their syllabic script, the Linear B, offers the first written records of the Indo-European Greek language, and their religion already included several deities that can also be found in the Olympic Pantheon. Mycenaean Greece was dominated by a warrior elite society and consisted of a network of palace-centered states that developed rigid hierarchical, political, social and economic systems. At the head of this society was the king, known as a wanax.
Mycenaean Greece perished with the collapse of Bronze Age culture in the eastern Mediterranean, to be followed by the so-called Greek Dark Ages, a recordless transitional period leading to Archaic Greece where significant shifts occurred from palace-centralized to de-centralized forms of socio-economic organization. Various theories have been proposed for the end of this civilization, among them the Dorian invasion or activities connected to the "Sea Peoples". Additional theories such as natural disasters and climatic changes have also been suggested. The Mycenaean period became the historical setting of much ancient Greek literature and mythology, including the Trojan Epic Cycle.
1. THIS VIDEO IS AN EPISODE FROM CHAPTER 1 OF OUR MADE IN ANCIENT HISTORY SERIES
Chapter 1 Playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaWQkkziGGfc7G_EHR49g-sDPjjANB7dX
Welcome to our new MADE IN ANCIENT HISTORY series! This new series is meant to be a deep dive into the Ancient and Classical periods all over the WORLD! This 1st Chapter is called Beginnings, and deals with the transition from the Prehistoric age into the Cradles of Civilization and other early civilizations.
2. CLICK HERE IF YOU'RE NEW TO HISTORY AND WANT A FEATURE LENGTH DOCUMENTARY OF THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF THE WORLD: youtu.be/T5PwyuzSYcs
3. Check out our WORLD DOCUMENTARY playlist (Long Form Documentaries):
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaWQkkziGGfcm0zawwpoKVti5DCTsoTBH
4. Check out our playlists by PERIOD (Short Form Documentaries):
youtube.com/channel/UCFn4wt14ytUbngBJp8SsWKQ/playlists?view=50&sort=dd&shelf_id=3
Please subscribe to Made In History for more videos! We are always trying to grow!
0:00 Minotaur Myth and Minoans
6:52 Mycenaeans
All images used with CC license.
Music used:
River Flute by Kevin MacLeod
Link: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4713-river-flute
License: filmmusic.io/standard-license
Ancient Greece focuses on the time before Classical Greece, from the Minoans of Crete and the Minotaur myth, to the Mycenaeans and the Bronze Age Collapse.
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings were from c. 3500 BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000 BC, and then declining from c. 1450 BC until it ended around 1100 BC, during the early Greek Dark Ages. It represents the first advanced civilization in Europe, leaving behind a number of massive building complexes, sophisticated art, and writing systems. Its economy benefited from a network of trade around much of the Mediterranean.
The civilization was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans. The name "Minoan" derives from the mythical King Minos and was coined by Evans, who identified the site at Knossos with the labyrinth of the Minotaur.
The Minoans primarily wrote in the Linear A script and also in Cretan hieroglyphs, encoding a language hypothetically labelled Minoan. The reasons for the slow decline of the Minoan civilization, beginning around 1550 BC, are unclear; theories include Mycenaean invasions from mainland Greece and the major volcanic eruption of Santorini.
Mycenaean Greece was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1750 to 1050 BC. It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainland Greece with its palatial states, urban organization, works of art, and writing system. The Mycenaeans were autochthonous Greeks who were likely stimulated by their contact with Minoan Crete and other Mediterranean cultures to develop a more sophisticated sociopolitical culture of their own. The most prominent site was Mycenae, after which the culture of this era is named. Other centers of power that emerged included Pylos, Tiryns, Midea in the Peloponnese, Orchomenos, Thebes, Athens in Central Greece and Iolcos in Thessaly. Mycenaean and Mycenaean-influenced settlements also appeared in Epirus, Macedonia, on islands in the Aegean Sea, on the south-west coast of Asia Minor, the Levant, Cyprus, and Italy.
The Mycenaean Greeks introduced several innovations in the fields of engineering, architecture and military infrastructure, while trade over vast areas of the Mediterranean was essential for the Mycenaean economy. Their syllabic script, the Linear B, offers the first written records of the Indo-European Greek language, and their religion already included several deities that can also be found in the Olympic Pantheon. Mycenaean Greece was dominated by a warrior elite society and consisted of a network of palace-centered states that developed rigid hierarchical, political, social and economic systems. At the head of this society was the king, known as a wanax.
Mycenaean Greece perished with the collapse of Bronze Age culture in the eastern Mediterranean, to be followed by the so-called Greek Dark Ages, a recordless transitional period leading to Archaic Greece where significant shifts occurred from palace-centralized to de-centralized forms of socio-economic organization. Various theories have been proposed for the end of this civilization, among them the Dorian invasion or activities connected to the "Sea Peoples". Additional theories such as natural disasters and climatic changes have also been suggested. The Mycenaean period became the historical setting of much ancient Greek literature and mythology, including the Trojan Epic Cycle.
1. THIS VIDEO IS AN EPISODE FROM CHAPTER 1 OF OUR MADE IN ANCIENT HISTORY SERIES
Chapter 1 Playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaWQkkziGGfc7G_EHR49g-sDPjjANB7dX
Welcome to our new MADE IN ANCIENT HISTORY series! This new series is meant to be a deep dive into the Ancient and Classical periods all over the WORLD! This 1st Chapter is called Beginnings, and deals with the transition from the Prehistoric age into the Cradles of Civilization and other early civilizations.
2. CLICK HERE IF YOU'RE NEW TO HISTORY AND WANT A FEATURE LENGTH DOCUMENTARY OF THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF THE WORLD: youtu.be/T5PwyuzSYcs
3. Check out our WORLD DOCUMENTARY playlist (Long Form Documentaries):
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaWQkkziGGfcm0zawwpoKVti5DCTsoTBH
4. Check out our playlists by PERIOD (Short Form Documentaries):
youtube.com/channel/UCFn4wt14ytUbngBJp8SsWKQ/playlists?view=50&sort=dd&shelf_id=3
Please subscribe to Made In History for more videos! We are always trying to grow!
0:00 Minotaur Myth and Minoans
6:52 Mycenaeans
All images used with CC license.
Music used:
River Flute by Kevin MacLeod
Link: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4713-river-flute
License: filmmusic.io/standard-license
