KW
HIS

Ancient Greece In 1880, Arthur Evans, a gentleman who knew Greek language, classics, and mythology scholarly, went to a flea market in ancient city of Athens. He saw an old lady was selling coins with strange markings; it was not normal Greek language on coin and coin wasn’t wedge shape. Evans asked where she got it, she repeats “Minos” a lot to him; actually, she meant “The Legend of King Minos”: the wife had bestiality with a bull, people sent people as sacrifices. Legendary King Mino was minotaur. In 1893, Evans began his journey to search of the legendary kingdom of Minos. He went to largest island, Crete, in Mediterranean Sea with couple 1,000 men. He went and paid with own money to search for kingdom of Minos because Evans was very rich. Once he dis, he was arrested with the men because Crete was owned by Turkish empire, Ottoman Turks; they were on foreign soil. He was on his own, not with his country since he paid for the trip himself); he bought his way out of prison by purchasing North East section of the island of Crete. In 1899, he continued the actual dig and spent about 40 years there. Finally, he discovered oldest Greek and European civilizations: “Minoans”. In1936, he wrote a book with 4 volumes. The achievements and characteristics of Minoan civilization were: there were over 250 rooms, littered with palaces. The society of palaces was a very urban society dotted the country side. There was legendary palace and maze where the bull from story roamed. Its capital city was Knossus which was the biggest city, palace of King Minos. It had 7-12 major palaces. There were no walls like Indus River Valley then no fear of war or foreign attack. It was urban area with palace structure. There was also no civil unrest. It just looked like an utopian society. It had 2 separate languages, Linear A and Linear B which was not Greek, but since found on Crete, they said it was Greek; however, it influenced the Greek language. Roads were paved by cobblestone. Minoans had extensive trading area; they were masters of trade and great at trading. They had the first military, Greek navy. They traded what they had for what they didn’t have, like lacked grain products so traded extensively oil and wine for other products. The reason was that, in Mediterranean climate, there were vineyards and warm growing vegetables in Crete, but lacking of grains. Every single home had flushable toilet ( The first flushable toilet, 2000 BCE in Indus River Valley; France in 18th century, 1700 AD, had flushable toilet. Indus River Valley, 3700 years before of any other European nation that had a toilet). For now, Linear A is still unknown; Linear B had been deciphered in 1952 by Michael Ventris, who died 28 years old in car accident. In 2000 BCE, it was the Golden Age of Minoans. In Minoan society, average Minoan home was 2 stories high; people pressed olive oil at the base of house; there was magnificent column; beautiful frescos and paintings were put on the wall. So it meant they were wealthy and have prosperous civilization. For the degree of social and economic equality, everyone had same thing: items and health. They also had colonies on islands at surrounding area; the proof was Minoan islands had pottery, plates, jugs, and gold. Class didn’t matter in Minoan. The role of women was big; even for Athens or Democratic Athens, women were the second class. In Minoan, women could inherit property, hold political office, and participated in male events which frescos showed it as well like participate in boxing and bull fighting; how we know they were free are wore dresses that stopped at their breasts, walked in public with a bare body (breasts shown), and walked next to men, such heightened sense of women’s rights. The Reasons for decline of Minoan world were: First, the volcanic explosion happened in 1628 BCE on island of Thera which was 7000 miles away from Pakistan; Indus River Valley, Chinese, and Egyptians all documented the explosion. Its waves were 30 miles over Crete, ½ way up the empire state building, it destroyed Minoan cities. In 1500 BCE, Minoans attempted to rebuild city; it’s like rebuilding New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina, but it doesn’t recover still in New Orleans. It was even felt in the US; Californian tree had traces of explosion, chemicals in tree from 1628. Second, Minoans would be invaded in 1400 BCE by Mycenaeans; Mycenaeans invaded and destroyed a world without protection and military. In 1878 AD, Modern day, Heinrich Schliemann discovered origins of Mycenaean because he went on journey to search for Troy in 1870 AD. He wasn’t out to discover them, but his goal was the city of Troy. For the history of Sparta, in 800 BCE, Sparta was a thriving city state. It had art and music like poetry writers statues, art, and writings; it was on par with Athens in terms of culture. Sparta located on Peloponnese, Laconia; it was not on Greek mainland. In 725 BCE, Spartan city states were on verge of collapse due to three reasons: First, land went sour; soil turned red because of lacking nutrients, and then Spartans began to starve. Second, Spartan population was on the rise as it began to sour, roughly 30,000 people. Third, the rise of the Helots who were slave population of Sparta outnumbered the Spartans 9:1 about 270,000 Helots. In 725 BCE, Spartans made a decision that invade their neighbor to the west, Messenia which was a rich land and peaceful area. The 75 year war was brutal; civil war broke out. It was hand to hand combat in the streets and homes; blood would be up to ankles by individual fighting. In 650 BCE, Spartans emerged Victorians (victorious). 99% of the population was dead; barely 100 Spartans were left. Lycurgus, who was the King of Sparta, said, “They lost the battle” because people were thinking of themselves, not state. He wrote the Spartan Constitution, cradle of the grave. Spartan society were going to get change from birth to death; Spartan constitution beings the moment people were born. It began to inspect the children. They threw children off the mountain if any were deformed, or cried (they were weak, they didn’t want weak people); they wanted to stop the breeding of weak people. At the age 7, constitution spoke that people’s personality was formed, took away from parents at age 7 including male and female, men and women were separated then they wouldn’t know how each gender would look. Military school aka The Agoge. Children took 13 years in Agoge from 7-20 years old. They all wore same clothing and ate same food like black tar soup because eating for pleasure was weak. They got physical beatings everyday and had to endure starve after beatings, at the same time they were encouraged to steal when starving. They couldn’t sleep because sleep made people weak. Pain and weather should be ignored. At age 14, Spartan had a special contest: “The Running of the Cheese” which meant the 14 years old young, looked like 30 years old, would kill each other for a piece of cheese. At age 20, they graduated and applied for military (petition), given one change of clothing and one meal. Spartans began to hunt those young men then. Those young men hid for one year; they could steal, kill, and have to survive. One more year of probation was survived. More verbally abuse. At age 22, they officially join military. At age 30, which was the best year, they got citizenship. At age 60, it was the time to retire. All men, women, and children were considered equal. For the education, Spartan stopped the minute people learn to read and write; on that way, people weren’t exposed to new ideas and had ability to question. There was only one occupation in Sparta: military. The outsiders actually made food, clothing, tools, and weapons. No foreigners were allowed in Sparta. At age 22, a Spartan got married. On wedding night, the female would shave their heads bald and put on extremely large clothing for avoiding of showing her body. Spartan currency was large; they discouraged trade because trade brought ideas. There were two kings of power in Spartan societies: one took control of government, one took control of military. In Spartan senate, Gerusia, people had to be 60 years of age and just men; there were 28 senators and 2 Kings. In Spartan house, Appella, people had to be a citizen older than 30 years of age, all adult males; women were only allowed to speak in the house. In a special branch of government, Ephors, there were 7-10 men actually followed around both kings and members of government to ensure there was no corruption. For the history of Athens, Athens was located on Greek mainland, Attica. Its largest city stage was about 1000 square miles. Athens wasn’t always democracy. In 1058 BCE, Athens had king. When king died, Athens would then be controlled (run) by the rich (nobles). In 621 BCE, Athens had their first written laws, The Draconian Laws, which were favored for the rich. Athens was controlled by rich nobles and aristocrats without democracy. Draco, who was an upper classman, wrote the laws. The Draconian Laws were harsh for the poor. There were high loans that the poor had to pay extremely high interest rates; the poor were forced to give up land because of this, they lost their land. Poor were then sold into slavery which was big source of income. Athens had five Class system, poor had no access to vote. Athens was going to be reformed by 3 men. In 594 BCE, the first man was Solon, one of upperclass noble, traveled to Egypt and wrote poetry. He saw slavery and lack of income in Athens; and then he bought all slaves back and eradicated their debt, using state funds of Athens. Some nobles hated what he did, some nobles liked. He also brought foreign workers into Athens using their talents and abilities to improve the economy and income. Navel outposts were established. He did such things to help encourage people. Through opening government up, there were voting rights. He also abolished 5 class system to 4 class system allowing more people had access to voting and government jobs. It paved the way for Democratic Athens. In 508 BCE, Cleisthenes was the father of Athenian Democracy. All adult males would be given right to vote, regardless of class (18+ years old). There were 10 groups of 50 Demos, total 500 people. They represented all of Athens. Power was rotated, for example, first group controlled 1 month, second group controlled another month. All people could attend assembly; military weapons used to force people to go. Ideas of Democratic Athens was a myth. India claimed to be world’s largest democracy, but it was false. Women still had no right to vote though women were a large portion of Athens. They didn’t have political position and couldn’t own land. They were second class. At that same time, foreigners and slaves couldn’t vote. The institution was not elected by people because 10 Generals were appointed by government as the institution.