Houghton Mifflin Social Studies
Chapter 11, Lesson 1, The Early Greeks (pp. 328-333)
I. The Land Around the Sea
B. Greece was ideally located for sea trade, and the sea became the
Greeks' link to other peoples, products, and ideas.
C. Most people in ancient Greece were farmers, growing grapes, olives,
wheat and barley.
II. Early Civilizations
B. The Mycenaeans learned from the Minoans and became the dominant
civilization in the Aegean region.
C. From about 1100 B.C. to 800 B.C. Greece was in a decline called the
Dark Age, when trade stopped and written language disappeared.
III. The Rise of the City-States
B. City-states were independent, self-governing units that included the
territory around the city.
C. As the city-states grew, they began to fight over boundaries and other
things, and some Greeks left to found new city-states.
Lesson at a Glance Outline
A. The area in which the ancient Greeks lived centered on the Aegean Sea.
A. The Minoans developed a system of writing, carried on rich trade,
and were master builders.
A. During the Dark Age, Greece's population increased and isolated
villages grew into cities.
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